Башка-bashka (from Turkish/Tatar origin)
I decided to dedicate this week to fun words for various body parts.

“Stone head” a movie about a boxer. A sport where having a resilient noggin is undoubtedly very useful.
One of my friends taught me that is was funny to say “башка болит” when I had a headache. So I went around saying this getting laughs from Russians. Then one day I was in class and my teacher asked me, “Джейни, вы в порядке?” “Janey are you okay?” and I replied, “Башка немного болит” “my noggin hurts a little”. My teacher flipped out. She was so mad at me. She said, “Не надо говорить такие слова мне” “Don’t say such words to me”. I didn’t get it. I had been saying that phrase for months and no one ever even flinched. My teacher went on to explain that sometimes words of Turkish/Tatar origin had a bad or even crude connotation in Russia. And that those words should not be spoken in formal settings. I had no idea. Ahhh, making a fool of yourself and offending people it’s all an inevitable part of language learning, I suppose.
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