When asked about his nationality, Yuri said "Lettish" which is Russian for "Latvian." I never caught on until someone translated. Maybe it was some sort of in-joke since Latvia was occupied by Russia at the time.
shareIt's actually not a joke - at least I don't think so. Lettish is simply another word in English for Latvian. It's probably also the russian word for it, it's almost the same pronounciation in other languages (e.g. in Danish it's "lettisk")
shareWell people in those days use to call "russian" to the people from the USSR. For me it's a mistake like calling "american" to the people from USA. Those big countries sometimes have no real names.
shareWell people in those days use to call "russian" to the people from the USSR.
For me it's a mistake like calling "american" to the people from USA. Those big countries sometimes have no real names.
Well, is like calling german people europeans, wich in fact they are in the way that they belong to that continent. But they are germans from Germany. Get it? Now the official name is United States of North America. But there is no name like Canada or Mexico (United States of Mexico, by the way, or Brazil, United States of Brazil, by the way too).Or is it like America is in North America? Seems like the part is bigger then the whole. Well maybe is very nationalist or patriotic but it's just not true.By the way I don't hate that big country by the contrary i like it a lot(people,culture,geography).I wish I could have a better explanation just for learning purposes.I am not trying to fight,offend or insult anybody here. Comes to my mind when the colombian writer Garcia Marquez (Nobel, 1982) called U.S.A. "The country with no name".
shareBut here is the thing, the people of the United States were called Americans even before the United States existed. They have been called Americans almost since the name America was given to the New World. Its not a term the people in the United States came up with to originally describe themselves it was a European term that was used to describe the New World including people of the British colonies which eventually became the United States. The people of the US cannot help it that the European name America was used to refer to people of the New World then almost specifically people of the US. Some people want to kind of blame people of the US as somehow taking over the term "Americans" to describe themselves when in fact it wasnt the people of the US that came up with the term in the first place.
Its almost like trying to blame Australians for being called Australians when the continent Australia comprises other nations such Papua New Guinea.
I was reading your replay. Kind of a logical one(even if one use to call people from other races with other names too "even before the United States existed" and those are corrected...ok never mind)very well explained, when i read AJA! a mistake: Australia is not a continent (In spanish, my mother tongue, is named Oceania) so just to confirm went to wikipedia and Oh, my goat!IT IS AUSTRALIA in english. And i don't think you edited the wiki to support your point :) Where is the world leading to!!
And just now i realice sometimes and with and extra grain of ignorance one call England to the whole Great Britain. So, i guess it must be a W.A.S.P. thing or just reaaaally catchy names.
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You are right, is United States of America.My mistake.
shareYuri is a Russian name. He may be a Russian who was born in Latvia. Latvian names are usually different. For instance, they add an "s" to their first and last name. Sergei Kirov would be Sergeis Kirovs.
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