Let's study Ukrainian (and Russian), have you really decided to learn the ukrainian language? I'll give you some lessons to learn in a relaxing manner.

Hi! I'm not sure you are all really decided to learn ukrainian language, but anyway i'll give you some lessons (may be) to relax (and education, of course! ;) )
so...

Lesson 1.

A.special pronouncation
1.there are two sounds "e" in ukrainian:
е - sounds as well as in the english word "man"
є - sounds as well as in the "yeah" word
2.also there are two "i" sounds:
і and и - i can not bring you an example, but they are differ as well as є and е. i will mark "і" as "i" and "и" as "y".
3.there is a shortened form of "i" in ukrainian: "й" - it sounds as well as last sound in english word "my" (eg. in cyrillic transcription: "my"="май") - i will sign this letter as "j" (it is not "h" and not "dzh" now!)
4.there is a "soft sign" in ukrainian: "ь". it does not produce any sound, but if it is placed after letter, it became sounds softly.
the best example is from spanish: "н" - "n", "нь" - "�". i will mark it with ~ sign.

B.lexical minimum.
Кум (sounds "kum" - not "kam"!) - or God father of your child, either real father of the child, whose God father you are - nearly relative ;) Куме - ("kume" exactly - not "kium"!) - calling form of "Кум".
Борщ (sounds "borshch") - ukrainian national soup

C.text for reading
-Куме! Учорашній борщ їстимеш?
-А як же!!!
-Ну... тоді приходь завтра!

pron.:
-Ku'me! Uchora'shnij borshch ji'stymesh?
-A jak zhe!
-Nu... todi' pryho'd~ za'vtra!

trans.:
-Kume! Will you eat yesterday borshch?
-Of course!!!
-Well... then come tomorrow!

D.home excersize.
learn this sentence:
Їсти дай... як я прошу тебе їсти дай!...

pron.:
Ji'sty daj... Jak ja pro'shu te'be ji'sty daj!...

trans.:
Give me eat something... I'm asking you too much - give me eat something!...

it is easy in real - guess a melody ;)

(some jokes, used here, i heard around folk, tv etc.)

Hi, my dear students! A lot of time you were waiting for the second lesson! Sorry, i'm too busy.Thus this lesson will be short. Well, let's work - exams will be soon!

So, now you know what about is the song "Yesterday" in real. You can see, that many other popular songs are also in Ukrainian in real. Let's see:
an Ukrainian song about great imagination:
"А я - риба, я - риба!"...
sounds:
"A ja - ryba, ja - ryba!"...
means:
"Ah, I'm fish, I'm fish!"...
Also, Ukrainians was one of the first in computer technology. Do you heard about "shareware"? Yes, you are right - "шаровари" ("sharowary") is a national wide trousers of Ukrainian men already during some centures. Also, Ukrainians blamed by somebody in illegal usage of copyrighted things. But what we can do, if even such a bad word as "eB00K" was copyrighted by one foreigh firm, so, now our men need to buy a license to damn each other. :D

well, will be continued ;)

LOL
about 'shareware', 'шаровары' term also widely used in russian like 'шароварная программа' (sharovarnaya programma) etc
many english words used like this ;)

Yes, you are right! Most of things I've told about Ukrainian are valid for other slaviansky languages. You are recieving "5" today!

Hi!
Well, although russian language is also spreaded wide around the world (just remember toothpaste "Pale cop" - in russian "Bledny ment"), we will continue study ukrainian.
This lesson is dedicated to the very important thing: САЛО (salo). Generally, it is a name for the fat under skin, often with skin and layers of meat, mostly from pig, but for the fat there is more common name: "жир" (zhir), thus i will use exactly word "salo" here. Why it is so important? Because salo is one of the main unofficial symbols of Ukraine. To show this i will not stop on "salo in chocolate", just bring you as example first lines of usual letter of ukrainian soldier to home: "Send me some salo. Hi, mama!..." Also, salo is very spreaded around the world! Once upon a time an ansient goddess Nika tested the salo and was so happy, so found a city "Salo of Nika", or, in ukrainian, "Salo Niki". This can be continued: saloon (or, when there is no more salo - salooff), salomander, etc. Even there is a lirical song about salo, well-known around the world - you have to know it also! Here the first words from it:
"Без сала... Без сала мучусь!..."
sounds:
"Bez sala... Bez sala muchus!..."
means:
"Without salo... Without salo I suffer!..."

well, bye to the next lesson ;)