Today I had quite an interesting experience translating for two Danish guys who came to Kiev to attend an International Exhibition on Agriculture. Guess what they’re going to sell to Ukrainian farmers? PIGS!!! Isn’t it ironic? I always thought we had enough pigs of our own:-)
Anyway, now I’m an expert in pig-breeding technologies and can even tell the difference between a piglet and a weaner :-) But the most interesting thing is that the Danes got a bit bewildered by our national approach to running a business – e.g., they could not understand why some Ukrainian businessmen tend to wear a SHAPKA and DOOBLENKA while holding business negotiations (hey, it’s winter in the country, the guys just wanted to retain the naturally gained warmth!) and why they cannot schedule a meeting for some definite time the next day (isn’t it obvious that the situation in the country is unstable and nobody can tell for sure what is going to happen tomorrow?!)
Well, I guess that after such an extensive cultural experience the Danes will just go back to their cozy Scandinavian home country and we’ll just have to stick to our own...PIGS!