language revival and stabilization (Hebrew, Ukrainian)

[Michael Burianyk]

On Fri, 4 Oct 1996, Zev bar-Lev wrote:

> Sorry for not mentioning that the example was (indeed) Hebrew.

No need to! Your example was clear enough.

> Among suggestions I would have (as also expressed in a thesis just written
> on Ukrainian by one of my students) is to beef up courses in the US

Canada too? :-)

> -- not the traditional course, leading to grammatical expertise, but rather a
> shorter and more popular course, leading to communicative confidence (NB:
> confidence) in speaking, for as wide a population as possible -- ethnic
> Ukrainians and their spouses and children, and others, amateurs, who just
> happen to get interested.

This, from experience (not my own, but my wife's) is a hard sell, even
here in Edmonton (commonly known as 'Edmonchuck'). It *is* a good idea in
any event. The question then becomes how does one fund and market it?
These days, no one is interested in learning for the sake of learning.
And business opportunities in Ukraine are not yet that rewarding. :-(

BTW, I would really appreciate it if you could give the title and author
of the thesis.

--
Michael Burianyk               Office: P534B Avahd-Bhatia Physics Lab
Seismology Laboratory          Phone : (403) 492 4128
Department of Physics          Fax   : (403) 492 0714
University of Alberta
Edmonton, CANADA T6G 2J1       e-mail: buri at phys.ualberta.ca