my Buryat girlfriends here explained to me that in the past, speaking Buryat was linked to the connotation of being countryside people from small villages, while speaking Russian was linked to the idea of being sophisticated city people. fast forward to 2021 and we have a whole generation of young city Buryat people who only speak, when they speak at all, broken mother language and are fluent in Russian.
when i was a kid, my grandma tried to force me to embrace my koreanhood and as a child growing up in Brazil, the last thing i wanted was to be bullied by other kids who called me ‘chinese’ with the aim of humiliating me, so as reaction against my grandma’s pushy style that backfired and my desire to blend in, i deleted all korean from my brain which i now regret so much.
Check out this Buryat juxtaposition art by @radzhana_artist!
Photo courtesy of iara lee.
Photo courtesy of iara lee.
Photo courtesy of @radzhana_artist.
Photo courtesy of @radzhana_artist.
Photo courtesy of @radzhana_artist.
Photo courtesy of @radzhana_artist.
Photo courtesy of @radzhana_artist.
Photo courtesy of @radzhana_artist.
Photo courtesy of @radzhana_artist.