Telling Time in Georgian

Welcome back to Georgian Language Time! Last time, we talked about how the Georgian number system works, and so now we will continue with how to tell time in Georgian (which is surprisingly difficult!).

In America, to tell time, we simply say the time as it appears on the clock. 10:45 is ten forty five, 8:15 is eight fifteen, and 2:26 is two twenty six. No matter what half of the clock the time is, we say it the same. However, in Georgian, the right and left sides of the clock are said differently. This is slightly analogous to the British system of telling time - this system uses the "ten past 2", "quarter past 2" and "half past 2" system for the right half of the clock, and the "quarter till 3", "ten till 3" system for the left half of the clock. Essentially once the clock hand passes the 30 minute mark, the time turns to the next hour. Instead of 2:45 they say "quarter till 3". [Side note: In Georgia, all the textbooks are British books, and thus the students learn how to tell time in the British way (much to the frustration of the Peace Corps Volunteers! The amount of conversations I have had with other volunteers about how much easier the American way is....well let's just say British vs. American Engllish it is a frequent topic of conversation).]

However, in Georgian, the system is actually closer to the British way than to the American way. Just like the British system, in Georgian, the right and left halves of the clock are noted differently.

The right half of the clock is the part that takes place in the first half of the hour (i.e. 2:01-2:29). Let's use 2:10 as an example. So, in America, we would say 2:10. Easy, right? Well, in Georgia, the first half of the clock take the name of the next hour, and it is possessive. In Georgian, the possessive is ის (is). So 2:10 in Georgian is "3's 10 minutes" (სამის ათი წუთი - samis ati tsuti). Essentially, after the time turns past the exact hour, it takes the name of the next hour. 2:01-2:59 belong to the 3 o'clock hour, not the 2 o'clock hour. Some other examples: 2:15 = "3's 15 minutes", 2:27 = "3's 27 minutes". Confusing, right?

At half past the hour, in Georgian, we say "half of _____", so 2:30 is "3's half", and 11:30 is "12's half".

Well, the left half of the clock (2:31-2:59) is different. Like the British system, in Georgian, once the clock passes 30, the system changes. Now, instead of saying "of" the next hour, we use the phrase " that lacks" (რომ აკლია - rom aklia) in between the hour and the minutes. So, for example, 2:35 would be "3 that lacks 25 minutes", or "სამს რომ აკლია ოცდახუთი წუთი - sams rom aklia otsdakhuti tsuti. More examples: 10:40 would be "11 that lacks 20 minutes", 11:55 would be "12 that lacks 5 minutes", and 6:59 would be "7 that lacks 1 minute". As you can see, this half of the clock requires subtraction, which if you know me, you know is not my strong suit. Hopefully by the end of these 2 years, my math skills will have shown some improvement.

Another weird aspect to Georgian time: 1 o'clock is not called one (erti ერთი), it is called "first" (pirveli პირველი).

As you can imagine, this system caused me a LOT of confusion in the beginning. People would say 2:15 as "three's fifteen", which I would lear as 3:15, but would actually mean 2:15! To be honest, it still causes me a bit of a headache and I always have to double check in my head to make sure that I am understanding the right time. I am always paranoid that I will miss my last marshutka back to my site, or be late to a meeting. I am sure Georgians just think I am weird though! For them, this time thing is second nature.

Making wine and "Georgian Snickers"

Fall in Georgia means preparing for the winter, which means canning, preserving, and making wine. In October, my host family's grape harvest came in, and that meant wine making time. We had barrels and barrels of grapes, all of which were made into wine to last until next Fall.

My host dad has a special hand-operated machine that crushes the grapes, where they are let to sit in a large barrel until they begin to ferment into wine. Here are some pictures of me "helping" with the wine production:

some were saved for eating...yum!

Giorgi working away at the grape crusher

crushing those grapes

cheers! trying the wine

me looking embarassed that I decided to change into my pajamas before this photoshoot

At the end we got to sample the finished product. Also, over the next few days, we sampled a bit to see how it was progressing. Overall a fun and delicious process!


Another product that Georgians make in Fall is churchkhela (ჩურჩხელა), often called the "Georgian snickers". Churchkhela is essentially a natural candy bar. It is made by stringing hazelnuts or walnuts onto a string, then dipping it into a mixture of boiled grape juice, corn flour, and wheat flour. It ends up looking kind of like a sausage on a string.


It is normally an autumn/winter activity for families, after the grape and nut harvest has come in and families have made wine and grape juice.


My host family is well aware of my love for churchkhela, and my host mom has been promising to help me make it for ages. The time finally came today! Here are some pictures of the process:

step one: put hazelnuts in and cover with mixture

step 2: carefully pull them out

step 3: take out and hang to dry

trying my hand at making churchkhela

the finished product!

hanging the churchkhela to dry

Gio and I doing the Georgian squat in front of the churchkhela

hanging to dry!

I look forward to learning more Georgian traditional recipes. Food is so central to Georgian culture so it is great to learn how to make some of their delicious products!

Halloween Georgian Style

This past weekend I had one of the most fun experiences so far of my service...I held a Halloween festival at my school! It was definitely a challenge with no budget and limited resources, but it turned out great!!

I have to say a huge thank you to Mariam, Mariam, and Salome (my awesome 10th graders), as well as to Eddie my sitemate for helping me plan, organize, and put on a successful event! I also have to thank my school and director for supporting me and this project (a lot of other volunteers were not able to hold Halloween because the Orthodox church was opposed). I could not have done Halloween without their help!

The event was organized festival-style with game stations scattered around the room.
We had:

• Pin the face on the pumpkin (pin the eyes and mouth of a jack o lantern on a pumpkin blindfolded)
• Zombie relay (race to wrap your friend in toilet paper before the other pair)
• Make your own mask station
• "Guess how many" candies are in a jar
• Bucket toss (try and toss a ball into 3 buckets of varying distances)
• Costume contest (with kids voting on their favorites - best, prettiest, funniest, and most accurate)
• Costume fashion show
• Bowling 

We had candy at every station to mimic "trick or treating" that kids got for participating.

My station was "pin the face on the pumpkin" so I didn't get much time to get pictures of everything else, but here are the ones I have!

The setup

Pin the face on the pumpkin

Zombie relay

Guess how many candies are in the jar

Bucket ball toss

Halloween photo booth

Costume contest voting

Make your own mask and make your own monster

Awesome decorations!

The festival

Pin the face on the pumpkin

Awesome costumes!

Photo booth!

Bowling (with water bottle monster pins!)

 Costume fashion show:

my two English teacher counterparts at school :)

Reflections on the first month of school

So....it's been a while. I have been crazy busy for the past few months! The end of summer brought with it 3 camps and the start of the school year! I will write a post more in depth about the 3 summer camps I held, but for now, let me share my reflections on the first month of school!

The first 2 weeks of school were observation - I attended all the English classes to get a feel for each classes' skills, levels, learning styles etc. I really enjoyed this time because it allowed me to make a more informed decision about my schedule. I wanted to choose classes that were a mix of low level English, mid-level English, and high level English. There are different things I can contribute at all of these levels and I felt it was important to have a mix and not just focus on one!

After a lot of consideration, I ended up choosing the following grades:

4th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
12th

I am really happy with my choices! Each class is very very different and has its own sets of challenges. Since my school has only 132 students, my classes are pretty small, which is something that I like because I can get to know all of the students. My biggest class is 6th grade which has about 16 kids, and my smallest class is 10th grade which has only 6 students. It has been interesting adapting to this and finding activities that work with different class sizes and English levels!

For future volunteers, I definitely recommend taking a variety of classes. In my high level classes, we can work a lot on speaking and discussion skills, whereas in my low level classes, I can help reinforce and build basic skills.

Here are some snapshots of my first few months at school:

Birthday Stars (practicing months an ordinal numbers) and Family Trees!

Making paper dolls to learn about clothing

Making paper dolls to learn about clothing

Making paper dolls to learn about clothing

Fall / Halloween decorations!

Grammar practice

8th and 9th graders after participating in the Local Round of the National English Spelling Competition

4th graders learning their numbers - in number and written form