Spootnik

I've really come to look forward to my community English club every Sunday afternoon. Since September we have been meeting at the local youth library and I've gotten to know a few of the regulars pretty well. We are not a big group, but there is enough of us to have a good group discussion each week. The weekly regulars are Max, Valentina, Julia, Veronica. Alex, and lately a new regular, Lera. Sprinkled in with us are sometimes 10-15 others, but the regulars are always there, week after week.

Sometimes we learn things about each other's culture that is really amazing. For one thing, our histories are completely different, especially for those of us who grew up during the Cold War. We each have learned real history through the eyes of our countries, and it is so vastly different as to sometimes astound me. And them. It's true that history belongs to the victor.

Yesterday's revelation was no different in that history is different for each of us, but this time our discussion was hilarious. The topic was museums and Valentina was telling the group about a Moscow museum that featured space flight. I asked her what they had on display for the first Satellite in space...Sputnik. The group looked at me with blank faces. I declared "Don't even tell me you have never heard of Sputnik"! It was first thing in space...and it was Russian! It took a few moments for the fog to clear, then all at once the group erupted in laughter. Now I was confused. "What's so funny"? I asked. After a time, everyone stopped roaring and I heard the tiny voice of Veronica saying "Spootnik? Do you mean Spootnik?" Then  it was MY turn to laugh. After all those years of hearing about Sputnik, we Americans had gotten it wrong, and no one bothered to correct our mis-pronounciation. Ha! It was the Russians who had the last laugh, afer all.