Skaters Ethnicity
- Thread starter gio
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2007
Johnny Weir is Scottish, Irish, German & Norwegian.
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2004
I am pretty sure that Slovaks are Catholic and Czech are either Catholic or Protestant or both.
Some of former Yugoslavian states (like Serbia) and Bulgaria also belong to the Orthodox branch of the Christianity. Armenia and Georgia have their own churches but are closely related to the mainstream Orthodox.
Pssst.
http://johnnyweir.ru/foto/main.php?g2_itemId=4556
What's that red thing on his arm again?
That's a pretty recent picture.
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2005
Sasha always said that she spoke broken Russian.
Johnny must have some Russian blood. He loves everything Russian.
Johnny must have some Russian blood. He loves everything Russian.
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2004
Yeah, the only parts of Ukraine where Ukrainian is really spoken widely are those that were not historically under Russian control (essentially the northwest). And in some areas the daily spoken language is a mix of Russian and Ukrainian (roughly Russian vocabulary Ukrainian everything else) called Surzhyk.
Odessa has basically always been Russian speaking. IIRC Petrenko can speak Ukrainian but mostly doesn't. Similarly Baiul was from a Russian language stronghold in Ukraine (but far east).
Mirai did not speak fluent Japanese. I think just conversational.
I watched her in Japan vs US open this year and Japanese reporters asked her how does she feel since this it was her "shozen"( first competition), and she answered shyly "shozen nan desuka?"(sorry, what does "shozen" means?)
Very cute ^^, so i guessed she is not that fluent in Japanese
I watched her in Japan vs US open this year and Japanese reporters asked her how does she feel since this it was her "shozen"( first competition), and she answered shyly "shozen nan desuka?"(sorry, what does "shozen" means?)
Very cute ^^, so i guessed she is not that fluent in Japanese
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
I remember reading an article on Leung which said she spoke two different forms of Chinese. (I think one was a distinct dialect.) Plus she had French schooling, although I don't know if she attended immersion.
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2003
Actually Mirai doesn't really have an accent. She just doesn't know some words that are only taught in school. I guess you don't use that kind of words at home.
It's Shosen by the way. The japanese reporters are not used to someone like Mirai, who grew up in the US and speaks japanese so they were talking to Mirai as if she grew up in Japan. Shosen isn't a big word but you hardly use it in everyday conversation. It's mostly used in the newspapers and such.
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2003
I wonder if there is a trailer trash version of Chinese?? Like in the US, some people sound like a trailer trash, putting F-word in every sentence.
We have so many different dialets in Japan and sometimes I have hard time understanding someone from the northern Japan. I have an Osaka accent, kind of like a southern accent in the US, and people in the northern part of Japan have a really thick accent, like people from New Castle in England.
Well, these skaters are not American but European.
Alisa Drei was born in Russia but has lived in Finland several years. I suppose her native language is Russian but she also speaks fluent Finnish. I have no idea where her father is from but Drei is not a Finnish name and it doesn't sound like Russian one either.
Stephane Lambiel's mother is Portuguese and his father is Swiss.
Jamal Othman's father is Malaysian and his mother is Swiss.
Beier/Beier are of Indonesian descent I think.
A Swedish junior skater Alexander Majorov might be of Russian descent.
A German skater Kristin Wieczorek might be of Polish descent.
Oh, and when it comes to Sasha Cohen, I think she can also speak Russian, at least some level. During the Worlds 2005 Finnish commentator, Anuliisa Uotila, told that she had seen Cohen somewhere in the ice hall and heard her to speak Russian.
Alisa Drei was born in Russia but has lived in Finland several years. I suppose her native language is Russian but she also speaks fluent Finnish. I have no idea where her father is from but Drei is not a Finnish name and it doesn't sound like Russian one either.
Stephane Lambiel's mother is Portuguese and his father is Swiss.
Jamal Othman's father is Malaysian and his mother is Swiss.
Beier/Beier are of Indonesian descent I think.
A Swedish junior skater Alexander Majorov might be of Russian descent.
A German skater Kristin Wieczorek might be of Polish descent.
Oh, and when it comes to Sasha Cohen, I think she can also speak Russian, at least some level. During the Worlds 2005 Finnish commentator, Anuliisa Uotila, told that she had seen Cohen somewhere in the ice hall and heard her to speak Russian.
you can always convert, right? (we know that from the My big Fat Greek Wedding)
i actually know one family that is 3/4 Italian and 1/4 Greek, yet they belong to the GO church.
I recall an interview when Evan stated that it was important for him to be in Russia (that was WC a couple years back) for the Orthodox Easter - so he could be Russian Orthodox for all we know. The crucifix he wears is certainly an orthodox one.
Besides, wikipedia is not always 100% accurate.
The Greek Orthodox faith and the Russian Orthodox faith is the same faith, with the same beliefs. They are one whole Church... It's just Orthodoxy is more decentralized than Catholicism and so your particular national Church has more local control than in the Catholic Church.
Still probably the differences between the Russian Orthodox/Greek Orthodox is very little. Maybe some cultural difference, and the language of the Divine liturgy is different... But well as said earlier it's the same faith.
So yeah of course Evan would enjoy being in Orthodox Russia for Orthodox Easter/Christimas. Just as I would probably enjoy being in Catholic Spain for Christmas, even if I'm not Spanish.
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you can always convert, right? (we know that from the My big Fat Greek Wedding
i actually know one family that is 3/4 Italian and 1/4 Greek, yet they belong to the GO church.
I recall an interview when Evan stated that it was important for him to be in Russia (that was WC a couple years back) for the Orthodox Easter - so he could be Russian Orthodox for all we know. The crucifix he wears is certainly an orthodox one.
Besides, wikipedia is not always 100% accurate.
Well the Greek Orthodox and the Russian Orthodox are in communion with each other, and they are the same Church.... Probably the only difference is the langauge that is used in the Divine Liturgy, and other cultural differences. In Orthodoxy, national churches are autonomous and are less centralized than the Catholic Church under the Pope...
If Evan is Greek Orthodox either:
Evan's mother is Greek. I think Evan looks like he could be Greek.
Or, perhaps his family converted and the closest church around in the States or the one they liked was a Greek Orthodox Church. (The Orthodox in America have still been unable to unite all of their Churches under one leadership, which from one I understand really grates many of them, at least it should)
But yes, Evan would enjoy being in Orthodox Russia for an Orthodox holiday. Why not? I would really enjoy being in Italy and Spain for Christmas or Easter.. And I'm not Spanish or Italian, but well I am Catholic, so yeah being in Catholic country for a big holiday like that would be nice.. It's kind of the same thing.
Besides I think being in Russia or another Orthodox country for Orthodox holidays is nice for Ethan because well he lives in America where the Christian holidays are mainly celebrated on Western Christian days. So it must be nice to be someplace where they are celebrating the holidays the same day he is.
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- Joined
- Oct 24, 2007
Beier/Beier's mother is Philippina and their father German.
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2004
What about holidays? IIRC (according to an orthodox acquaintance some years ago) the different branches of the orthodox church have tended to historically celebrate Easter on different days (there was one year where they naturally coincided and there was talk of sychronizing from then on but I don't know if that actually happened or not)
or just because it is a pretty name?- Joined
- May 2, 2007
It's Filipino/Filipina.
I'm not being mean, but it's just a bit disappointing.
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2006
She's following in the footsteps of another great American skater who happened to be Pinay/African American--Tai Babilonia.
If we go to the lower levels (beyond the next to last flight of nationals) we will find more skaters that have just as interesting a background as those in the final flights:
Rohene Ward (Puerto Rican)
Laura/Luke Munana (Mexican--they joked that they were not, in fact, named after the famous General Hospital characters)
Joan Cristobal (Filipina)
Melissa Bulanhagui (Filipinia)
Strangely enough, ice dance, where a majority of the cross-national pairings occurred, have become less "international" than it was ten years ago. I remember in 1998, there were five Russian men in the top ten, and there was one British male (Mathew Gates), whereas nowadays, we have Denis Petukhov, and Tanith Belbin.
