Thursday, March 1, 2007

Shushan is a boy's name? January 3, 2007

Okay, I admit, Shushan is not a normal name, but I really like it. I like that it is a Bible name, even though it is only Shushan in the King James and other versions have Susa instead. I’m okay with that. It means “lily,” which I have always liked. I think Shushan is a pretty name and I have always thought it sounded feminine.
So, the other day during my Russian lessons I started learning about verb cases. If you are wondering, it is difficult; don’t try it at home. Not only do adjectives and verbs have to agree with nouns, but sometimes, nouns have to change because everything in the sentence has to have the same gender and tense. Well, let’s just say I am still learning and it is a little complicated. The good news is that because all the words “agree,” basically I can write or say the words of a sentence in any order and it is correct and has the same meaning. That is a positive thing.
Anyway, during my lesson Tanya was explaining the rules for how the pronunciation of people’s names change if you are expressing the possessive. Basically, in English we say Tanya’s house, but in Russian it becomes Tanyee house. And, the ending is different based on the letter at the end of the name. Of course I was interested in how you would say something is Shushan’s. Tanya explained my name won’t work because it is not a Russian name. But, both Sarah and Anna’s names work because all girl names in Russian end with a vowel sound. Tanya very nicely broke the news that really, Shushan sounds more like a boy’s name. Bummer.
The good news is that the kids at the orphanage all call me Shushanna. I have heard some others call me just Shusha, which is like Ksusha, the nickname for Oksana. So, I am thankful people are “fixing” my name for me to help me fit in a little better.

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