the Russian gaze

Sat Jul 1 22:31:20 UTC 2006

John Dunn <J.Dunn at SLAVONIC.ARTS.GLA.AC.UK> wrote: The ironic/pejorative use of Ukrainisms is a characteristic feature of a certain type of Russian writing on Ukrainian topics (as is, some might say, the affected cynicism and the mixture of Schadenfreude and paranoia).

.............................Yes, true, but it has always been like this. That's why no one actually cares. Let them write.

 But I wonder if the Ukrainians do all that they could to promote 
their language.  

..................................You didn't specify who exactly and what exactly you mean. Ukrainians who don't speak Ukrainian, will probably continue speaking Russian because it is natural. This means, they are out of question. As to Ukrainian teachers, they do what they can no matter how hard it is for them considering that education in Eastern Ukraine used to be in Russian (and that was not the choice of Ukrainians), which means that many teachers _themselves_ had and still have to learn Ukrainian. 

The author of that article is ironizing about Ukrainian of Kuchma and Timoshenko, but how on earth can they speak good Ukrainian if they didnât hear it maybe starting from their childhood. Ukrainian was condemned to death, and it is no secret. Due to the cleverly organized campaign, speaking Ukrainian in Ukraine was like advertising that you belonged to the lower class. That was really horrible. Reversing all this will take many and many years. 

Besides, those Russian speaking teachers (ethnic Russians including) who had nothing against switching to Ukrainian, when it became legitimate, often had to say: "Okay, but give us _books_ in Ukrainian, and we'll try to switch to Ukrainian". But there were no books in Ukrainian. Writing those books (meaning "uchebniki") brought new problems...

The whole situation in Eastern Ukraine is extremely complicated and there are too many factors one should take into consideration when making any prognostications as to the future of the Ukrainian language.
Those who live in big cities and are no less than 25 or 30 will continue speaking Russian at home. It is natural. They got their education in most cases in Russian. Russian is the means of communication for them. And this means that their children hear Russian at home and speak Ukrainian only at school. So who knows, maybe bilingualism will become that bridge which will help to revive Ukrainian in Eastern Ukraine later, in 10 or 20 years. But it may become the reality only if Ukrainian stays the only state language in Ukraine. 

But teachers do all they can to make children accustomed to Ukrainian. It is not easy under the circumstances: TV and computer games due to which they don't feel like reading smth in any language even if they have some extra time afterwards, Russian speaking parents, etc. A friend of mine teaches at a boarding school. The fellow teacher who stays with her pupils till the morning once heard that the children began "na golovakh khodit" in their shared bedroom. She came in, discovered that everything was really upside down and said: "Shcho trapylos'?" which means "What's up?" or " What's going on?" (literally: "What happened?")  The children stopped dead, fear in their eyes. She said it once again: "Shcho trapylos'?" Then the most courageous one replied: "Net-net, Natalia Petrovna, my ne trakhalis'..." which means: "No-no, we didn't fuck..." And those were 7 year olds... Sure, the teacher burst out laughing only after she closed the bedroom door behind her back... Get the
 picture? This is how it goes with Ukrainian in Eastern Ukraine at the time being. Kids pick up God knows what instead of what they are supposed to.

It is really hard, and the whole situation in Ukraine is very complicated and really not the best one at the moment. It is not about promotion of Ukrainian now, but about not losing what was gained.

Regards,
Maryna Vinarska

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