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so
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privy
welcome back to my channel as you guys
can see we have a very special guest
today
taya from ukraine is a fabulous youtube
channel
that i'm sure many of you already know
about but uh taya can you give the
people who don't know your channel yet
uh kind of a synopsis of what your
content is about yeah sure so my name is
taya my youtube channel is called taya
ukraine and i make also videos about
east european specifically ukrainian
culture and
i also do some kind of assistance and
some tours people ask me for
some help if you need something like
language
courses or assistance or tours you can
visit my site so it really helps to have
like a local who can show you around and
stuff so not only am i gonna link uh
taya's youtube channel in description
but i'll also link all your contact
information
so for today's video guys i thought it
was very important to do this list of
the top 10 things that you should not do
in ukraine because even though some of
these things may seem like common sense
to some people
i shockingly see a lot of uh foreigners
making some of these mistakes so i
thought it would be a good idea to just
go over some tips that if you are coming
to ukraine for the first time you
shouldn't do this so for our first point
uh taiyo what should people not do
so number one is don't be offended by
blunt or cold conversations i think uh
not just in ukraine but eastern europe
in general there is a bit of a different
mentality and it's not supposed to come
off as
a rude you know sort of way it's just
the way people are all the stuff like we
grew up with not smiling because you
will look like a fool or something like
that yeah just not supposed to be like
you shouldn't be over happy with the
person you first time you meet like it's
it's weird
usually like you say it's a good word
blood if a person likes you
he or she will show you
if not
they will be like
older even colder yeah even colder
you'll definitely definitely know if
they don't like you your people north
american
we like that you can give a very quality
service like
what we don't like about our own people
that service is not good they will not
be like
over trying extra to do all the little
things yeah it's uh
not going to be like that they will be
kind without a smile that's what i
noticed so just just don't have those
kinds of expectations that it's going to
be exactly the same as it would be in
canada or america it's like people are
still very nice very generous very warm
but more so once you get to know them
and tip number two on our list is to not
forget to bring a gift if you were
invited to someone's home it's very rude
when you come to someone's home
empty-handed doesn't matter what are
your relationships with the host owner
of the house your mother-in-law your
friend best friend and you've seen
thousands of times it's not about
present but it's all about you think
about the thought that counts yes yeah
yeah of uh bringing something especially
like if you are invited to have a meal
it's a suppose that you comes you bring
something as well like for example if
somebody casually invited you to their
house in north america i don't think
there would be the expectation to like
bring something whereas in ukraine i
think there is much more of an
expectation if you bring some flowers
you bring some chocolates a bottle of
wine or something like it's just a
thoughtful thing to do if you bring
something it means you are
well uh brought up or um that you have
good man manners yes so you have good
manners you weren't raised in a barn yes
exactly and number three is do not
whistle indoors this is definitely a
superstitious one i actually don't know
if any other cultures
have this no idea we have also our own
culture of superstition yeah as everyone
has and that's interesting and i don't
know their origins but i think younger
generation
don't really follow it anymore as much
as our grandparents but you know what's
weird though it's like i've lived in
canada 25 years but it like bothers me
if somebody whistles indoors like it
still bothers me because like from a
young age i remember my grandma saying
like never whistle indoors it's like bad
luck you're like sending money away from
you and so now when somebody does it i'm
like stop it stop it stop it like i
don't like it i don't like the sound of
people whistling indoors so like if you
come here if you're hanging around young
people is probably fine yeah but you
know maybe if you go to like somebody's
grandma's house
yeah it's not a good thing to do village
especially yeah you do this yes and
number four if you are at a meal with a
group of people don't forget to say a
toast even not of a group of people even
if it's a date or two people with a
friend just two girls or two guys i
think most people know it would be super
rude to like start eating or drinking
before everybody is like sat at the
table but especially like if it's some
kind of special occasion or just friends
getting together like always before you
start your meal you give a toast yes
yes it's even like if it's a birthday
like every guest would give a total
exactly like a speech like oh i wish you
health
and happiness and the money you love
yeah top top things
there's even ceremony like you know
first we drink for health second toast
we drink for love yes sir for something
else it's very different here than just
even going like cheers usually you have
to give like a speech of like really
pouring your heart out like telling you
know the person why they mean so much to
you or you know to some kind of other
cause so it really is a big deal here
true true true and number five taya yeah
don't show off your money and valuables
you know i would think that that is
overall common sense in most places but
i find that here in kiev especially some
people do dress super flashy like even
just the locals you know people dress
really well people like designer things
you know
they they like to show off their wealth
to a certain extent but with foreigners
it's a bit of a different situation
where if they know that you're rich and
a foreigner and maybe you know you're
quite ignorant of some of the scams that
can happen here you're basically making
yourself a target yeah that's usually
number one thing i i say to my clients
like do not just uh
open your wallet
like this because i've heard stories
yeah when people just were i don't know
riding motorbike to play
something like that i was actually
dating a guy who i brought here about
five years ago
and uh he was staying at the hotel
mithra
just down the street from here a really
nice like four or five star hotel
and he said that he had just gone to the
atm like in the hotel and so he had this
you know huge wad of cash and the girl
that was working at the front desk as
soon as she saw him like put this like
stack of cash into his wallet she came
up to him and it was just like you know
i'm i'm so glad you're staying at our
hotel like do you have a tour guide like
can i show you around you know that kind
of stuff and i mean maybe some guys like
genuinely want that but as we know there
are quite a bit of scams that can happen
especially with women you know you do
have to be careful of that and make sure
somebody has
good intentions yeah instead of just
going for your you shouldn't be paranoid
of course yeah because like it should be
in balance like you should
be like okay yeah that can happen or
that can maybe not happen yeah so it's
like alina said you should be cautious
like in your own exactly the same common
sense so number six uh is definitely a
little bit different than what you will
find in north america and that is to not
expect women to pay 50 50 on a date the
most interesting topic guys we came up
yeah dating here is repeat all this old
school style traditional traditional yes
you know here it's again it's about your
manners and being gentlemen that you
offer to pay for a date like you'll even
find in restaurants it's like the waiter
will always drop off the bill like at
the guy's side so it's like it's just a
cultural expectation that the man will
be paying on the date if you don't pay
at the date uh
99.9 that she will not message you first
it's true
and number
seven
don't give even number of flowers
unless it's funeral yes this is actually
very strange for north americans because
the most common flowers that we have is
a dozen roses like that's what you give
on valentine's day is like 12 roses
which is an even number
and that would be a very bad thing to do
here in ukraine if you give
50 flowers like i don't know something
like a lot of flowers with even numbers
of course no one nobody's gonna count
yeah it's a huge number it's fine yeah
but if it's like a four
flowers
people will be like
what what but also i just find that in
ukraine it is so much more of a culture
of giving flowers oh yeah you know it's
like usually you know for dates like
guys will give much more flowers on a
whole than um i think they do in north
america which i think is great
you like this absolutely absolutely
absolutely such a big culture here
so many deliveries here
this service are you know flowers yeah
there's so many flower shops like it's
nothing like north america you will
literally find one like the same as we
have like starbucks or tim hortons like
on every corner they have like flower
shops like even 24-hour flower shops
because some guy probably made a
terrible mistake and is coming to knock
on his girlfriend's door at 2am with
flowers don't worry they got you covered
here so number eight is to not forget to
have cash on you especially if you are
going to smaller towns or 100 have to
have cash like now it's getting of
course very modern 21st century at
museums you can pay by card and stuff
like that but all them i have so many
situations where uh
a foreigners bank didn't allow to
make a transaction you know not to make
very uncomfortable situations
it's better to have cash
before you come to ukraine you can
withdraw from your card here from atm or
have dollars and
exchange them
all right and number nine taya um you
need to mind about your clothes so don't
get
don't dress and appropriately go into
some sightseeings specifically we're
talking about churches we are orthodox
country this is official religion we are
we may have second religion as a quick
catholicism just because ukraine has so
many beautiful cathedrals a lot of tours
that you might do usually will include
like going to a church so it's just a
good idea to dress a little bit more on
the conservative side like just have
your knees covered have your shoulders
covered and a lot of times they will
have head scarves like for women in the
cathedrals but like if you wanted to
bring your own scarf that would also
work well so just keep that in mind if
you are going sightseeing um in any of
the major uh places here in ukraine all
right guys we have come to the end of
our list number 10 which i think so many
people are guilty of is don't just go to
kiev i think
people decide to go just to keep because
of safety and convenience yes capital
you know big city there are many big
cities other big cities
in ukraine that worth visiting
you need to remember that ukraine has a
very old uh culture and very old history
so we have lots of old sightings
and you need to maybe learn a little bit
history uh just to know the period so
you understand the uh worth of those
sightseeings and where they come from i
think most people forget that like
ukraine is actually the largest country
solely in europe like i know a lot of
people say well russia's part of europe
it's the biggest country but as far as
countries that are completely in europe
uh ukraine is the biggest and like there
are so many different places you can see
it takes a long time you know to get in
between um you know different cities and
stuff obviously there's lev there's
odessa harke which i went to this year
and it was incredible like i can't
believe more people aren't talking about
it it was capital in previous century
yeah exactly it's like you just don't
hear as much about these places and even
places outside of the big cities like to
go out in nature like let's say to the
carpathian mountains bucavel has like an
amazing like skiing snowboarding resort
like those are super um i think english
friendly kind of places because there
they speak a lot more ukrainian than
russian so i actually found myself
speaking more english you know hoping
that somebody would understand me and
stuff or i mean another option is to
hire a local guide like taya who could
you know take you to like smaller places
and show you something outside of you
know what would be easily accessible to
you as an english speaker so that is it
guys that brings us to the end of our
list i hope you found it helpful and uh
taiya thank you so much for sharing your
questions yes as i said before i'm going
to link uh taya's youtube channel in the
description as well as her contact info
she would be a fantastic local guide for
any of you who are coming to ukraine
thank you guys for watching uh we really
did our best giving you this video i
hope you can uh enjoy it and of course
like this video support alina's channel
subscribe and give a comment because it
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friends help it out help it out but
thank you guys so much i would love to
know your comments down below and as
always keep being your own kind of
beautiful bye guys bye
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you