The drawings scroll under your finger. A glass, cherries, a saucepan, Larysa relearns how to pronounce these everyday objects that she knows so well. Enrolled in a school in Kyiv, this Russian-speaking Ukrainian practiced speaking Ukrainian.
Like her, a dozen students follow the lessons given by a volunteer teacher. All of them have only wanted one thing since the beginning of the conflict; abandon the Russian language or delete a too pronounced accent.
“In this time of war, I really don’t want to speak Russian,” Larysa explains to BFMTV. And yet it is my mother tongue.
The choice of resistance.
More than a symbolic gesture, this choice is one of resistance. Resist the Russian invader.
Halyna, also a resident of Kyiv, is taming her new linguistic environment. “I studied Ukrainian at school when I was younger, she says. But I forgot everything.” Sitting in a circle in a classroom, Halyna and her tablemates listen to Lubov Kovalenko, a volunteer teacher.
In class, the nuance of pronunciation is barely noticeable and yet it makes a difference. In just one month, this teacher has seen the number of students double.
“Finally we identify ourselves as Ukrainians through a single language”
“Many people have fled from the combat zones, recalls the professor. And for them, the Ukrainian language has become important. We finally identify ourselves as Ukrainians through a single language.”
According to a Ukrainian sociological study, 16% of Ukrainians declare that their language is Russian. They were 40% in 2012. A sentiment shared and reinforced since the Russian invasion, especially on the side of the political forces.
To limit the spread of the Russian language on the territory, the Ukrainian parliament passed a bill. Establishes a ban on January 1, 2023 on the sale of works written in Russian or by contemporary Russian writers. A project that still needs to be ratified by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Source: BFM TV
