What I am more interested in, though, is how you –Russian- speaking expats ,cope now that everything is in Ukrainian- official papers, movies on TV and in movie theaters dubbed in Ukrainian, most books being published here are in Ukrainian now. Ukrainian is used more and more in every day life ,so what do you do if you do not understand what is written in a document or if someone addresses you in Ukrainian in the street???
Is it a problem for you? Just wondering........
When in the street, I answer in Russian if they speak Ukrainian (which in Odessa has never occured yet) and tell them I am English, my Russian is ok and my Ukrainian non-existant - 90% of the time they will continue to talk then in Russian, 10% of the time in English..........after they get over the shock that I am English not American
.
As for the cinemas and books - again in Odessa there seems to be much more Russian literature on the shelves than Ukrainian (at the moment at least) and most films are still in Russian - the last time I went to the cinema and it was in Ukrainian almost 80% of the people got up and left as they did not understand it (although it was a sh*t film anyway- Transformers.....I went with the boy before you all start
so that also may have been a reason
)
Anechka's sister, Masha, (who is 18 and obviously studied Ukrainian due to the recent political climate) dislikes the language and only speaks Russian now she has finished school. Now she in at Odessa University of Economics, Business and Tourism,
all the lessons are in Russian....why because the University has foreign students from Moldova and Russia also and Russian is the commonly understood langauge. I would also add that in "our family" Masha and our son Vlad (13 years old, who also dislikes the Ukrainian language) are the only people who know Ukrainian other than Babooshka (72 years old) which would mean neither could talk to their immediate parents if they spoke Ukrainian
Ukraine is split along the East/West divide as we all know - those in the East will only speak Russian, those in the West only Ukrainian - Odessa in the South is also Russian speaking.
Both my parents were teachers and my father was once offered a job in Wales but turned it down as both my brother and I would have had to learn Welsh as part of the set curriculum which he stated would be a waste of our time, as nobody but the Welsh would ever use the language and it would never be used outside Wales (so fortunately we stayed in Hampshire).
Are the Welsh any less Welsh because they speak English or the Scottish or Irish any less Scottish or Irish because they speak English - of course not but they speak English because it is necessary for their future employment, business and recreation outside of their countries.....going on holiday to Egypt and speaking only Welsh will not get them far as the Egyptions (outside their own language) use German, Russian and English as secondary languages. It is no different for the Ukrainian language.
In British schools, many offer French, German or Russian as a second language study at Secondary (High School) level. The chances of them ever offering Ukrainian as a secondary language is practically zero.
The Russian school (in Moscow) where our boy studied before moving to Ukraine offered English and Spanish as second language studies......not Ukrainian, a country which happens to have a massive boarder with them, where many still regularly holiday and is still part of the CIS. All of the existing CIS countries (of which Ukraine is still one) speak Russian as the first or second language to my knowledge (although I maybe wrong). As visa free travel exists between these countries (for those who do not know the countries in the CIS are Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarussia) the knowledge of Russian is therefore a must.
I have a feeling that the experiment in Wales back in the late 1970's, 1980's will have the same outcome in Ukraine and that as soon as students leave school (where instruction is compulsary) many will revert to using a language which is understood by the majority not the minority.
National history is national history, national culture is national culture and language is only a method of communication.
