Every Day I'm Chame-ing

Yesterday at school I had an interesting interaction with my teachers. It went something like this:
(Yeah, I'm sorry that I'm THAT person who writes stuff in a language system that you can't read, but I just really like the look of Georgian, and I'm not trying to be douchey about it, so apologies!)

One of the Teachers: ჯოანა, გინდათ ხაჭაპური?
Me: არა! გმადლობთ!
A Different Teacher: არა? მართლა?
Me: ხო! მადლობა!

Translated, this interaction went something like this:

One of the Teachers: Johanna, you want khachapuri?
Me: Oh, no! Thank you!
A Different Teacher: No? Really?
Me: Yeah! Thank you!


Five minutes later, they came back with khachapuri, and handed one to me with a declarative "ჭამე"(eat). We all laughed, and my English coteacher jokingly said, "We knew you wanted."

I'm not really going to complain, because khachapuri is, hands down, my most favorite thing in this country. I could, and usually try to, eat it at least once a day. Not the crazy boat and butter one from my previous post, but the more simple cheese filled bread that's common in my part of the country. I think my fellow teachers knew I was bullshitting them, and they absolutely called my bluff.

Well played, Georgian mothers! Well played, indeed!

Georgians sound incredibly bossy. This is largely due to how their language is set up. Being heavily context based, the things you say have vastly different meanings depending on how you say them, or where they're being used in a sentence. My host mom is pretty polite, by English standards, and will add a "თუ" to things, which is "if." So when I get home and she asks if I want food, instead of phrasing it like my teachers (გინდათ სარგომელი, აქა) she will say "თუ გინდათ სარგომელი, აქა" ("If you want food, it is here").

This applies to pretty much any kind of offering. Georgians seem to use the imperative a lot, but they don't mean to be the bossy that form implies. If they offer you a seat, it's not "have a seat," it's "sit!" If they ask you if you want wine, it won't be "do you want wine?" It will be "drink!" I caught onto this pretty quickly, and think it's hilarious that the second I'm around any kind of maternal figure she'll immediately start shoving food in my face and saying "ჭამე! ჭამე." Coming out of a very large and in charge Greek family that was constantly making me eat a lot, this seems totally normal, and if I take just a little bit of food they're happy and get off my back.

Talking to a lot of other people in this program, it sounds like they're having real issues with this facet of Georgian culture. I usually forget that not everybody had an in-your-face-and-lives type of family like mine, and therefor this might all seem very unusual. It's also strange to me that many other volunteers mistake the tone with which these things are said for being an actual command. I've yet to encounter a Georgian who offers you something with anything less than genuine hope that you're comfortable, be it a seat, a meal, a drink, or even a book.

Also, I'm finding more and more that even by Georgian standards I'm absurdly polite. I say "thank you" and "please" and even "hello" all the time, which is just not done here. If you know someone, you say hello. If you're at a store, you just ask for what you want, and don't need to throw a "please" onto your request. Certainly it's ludicrous to use "thank you" when someone hands you something you asked for, and then again when they give you back change from the transaction, and especially crazy when you leave! I'm slowly dropping some of these out of their daily use, but it's hard since this is something that's been engrained since I was little. Nothing is ever said, and I'm never openly laughed at for overusing these phrases, but there are little snickers and grins that tell me I'm being a way too happy spaz about buying some tea.