The Revolution of Dignity - also known as the EuroMaidan Revolution - has stimulated interest among Russian-speaking Ukrainians to learn and speak Ukrainian in everyday life, accelerating a decade-long trend.
According to Anastasiya Rozlutska, project coordinator of free Ukrainian language courses in Kyiv, a social initiative, this autumn the number of her students has doubled compared to last year.
“In the spring, just after the Revolution of Dignity, we received hundreds of calls from people who want to attend our courses. By May we already formed 20 groups for our Ukrainian language courses that begin in September with a total of 300 students,” Rozlutska said.
Organizers plan to launch several additional groups, since they still are being contacted by those wanting to improve their conversational Ukrainian skills.
Mykhailo Mishchenko, a sociologist at the Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, says that the number of people who use both Ukrainian and Russian for everyday use has been increasing over the past 10 years. More people who before would speak only Russian are now using Ukrainian too, according to Mishchenko.
A Democratic Initiatives Foundation survey from 2004 revealed that 18 percent of Ukrainians described themselves as bilingual, 40 percent identified as Russian speakers and 42 percent said they spoke only Ukrainian. A study conducted this past October showed that just 27 percent of Ukrainians now speak Russian only, 42 percent speak Ukrainian as a rule while 29 percent use both languages. The survey did not include the annexed Crimea peninsula.
“Changes in the social and political situation in the country are motivating Ukrainians to change their linguistic behavior and use Ukrainian more,” Mishchenko said.
Kateryna Melnyk, a teacher of free Ukrainian courses in Kyiv, says citizens are more inclined to study Ukrainian because the EuroMaidan Revolution and Russia-sponsored war in the southeast have boosted national consciousness.
“The (Ukrainian) language has become a marker of national identity. Speaking Ukrainian helps non-ethnic Ukrainians to identify themselves with Ukraine,” she explains.
Last April, Viktor Yatsuk, 31, originally a Russian-speaking Kyiv entrepreneur, switched exclusively to speaking Ukrainian.
“I wanted to switch to Ukrainian long ago. Social and political events in the country just prompted the final decision. I think that we, Ukrainians, have to speak Ukrainian,” he says.
His first attempt in 2011 to speak Ukrainian in everyday life failed.
“Many people didn’t understand my position. They just laughed at my (poor) pronunciation and vocabulary. This frequent mockery broke me then, so I switched back to Russian,” he recalls.
Now Yatsuk feels more support in his striving to speak Ukrainian.
“Friends share my position. Some of them have followed my lead and also started speaking Ukrainian,” Yatsuk adds.
Ukrainian language teacher Melnyk says that society has become more tolerant of people who speak imperfect Ukrainian. “The fear to speak Ukrainian incorrectly is the main psychological barrier for many Russian-speaking Ukrainians. But it is easily overcome in a couple of months,” she says.
According to Melnyk, middle-aged and senior Ukrainians often want to improve their Ukrainian from a desire to speak the language well to their children and grandchildren. Young people take her courses usually because they are ashamed of their lack fluency.
Ihor Kryvych, a young Kyiv businessman, decided to start speaking Ukrainian this autumn after he realized that his conversational English and Ukrainian are at the same intermediate level.
“As a Ukrainian, I felt ashamed that I lacked some active Ukrainian vocabulary and it would take me some time to find proper Ukrainian words to express my opinion,” he says. Now, Kryvych’s Ukrainian is flawless. He confesses that after a year of actively using the language, he has some difficulties speaking Russian spontaneously.
Sociologist Mishchenko says that bilingualism is a transitional stage for Ukraine.
“During the Soviet era, the process of Russification of Ukrainians occurred gradually, and the transitional stage was a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian languages commonly known as surzhyk. Nowadays, we are witnessing the same gradual and slow process of returning back to the Ukrainian language,” he said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected]
