Cinderella from Kherson, who Became the Ambassador of the Ukrainian Language at Oxford

The Ukrainian language has become a trend – this is the conclusion made by representatives of one of the most popular language learning platforms, Duolingo, based on the results of 2022. Interest in Ukrainian began to grow after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, when millions of people were forced to seek refuge in other countries.

The greatest interest in studying Ukrainian was recorded in Ireland, Germany, and Poland. However, interest in the language has increased even in such distant countries as Argentina, Japan, and Vietnam.

Foreigners actively study our language, since they help us in various ways: they volunteer, welcome Ukrainian refugees, join Ukrainian communities abroad, help with humanitarian work, communication, and adaptation. Foreigners who are now coming to Ukraine to work, teach medicine and combat activities are also learning the language.

Interest in Ukrainian is shown mostly by students from the USA, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and EU countries. A little less students are from Asia and South America.

Inna Sopronchuk from Kherson knows more about why foreigners actively took up Ukrainian. She has been teaching Ukrainian to foreigners for almost seven years. Three years ago, she started her own online school, Speak Ukrainian. Today she teaches at Oxford University and helps raise funds to support the residents of de-occupied Kherson. See her direct speech below.

I started teaching Ukrainian to foreigners in 2016. Then she studied for a master’s degree at the Kherson National Technical University, majoring in English philology. And with a master’s degree, I am a translator with the right to teach.

In 2015, I started working as an English teacher in a private school and as a tutor. However, I really wanted to work online. I found an international platform of tutors, which, by the way, was created by Ukrainians, and registered there.

My goal was to teach English to Ukrainians. But I saw the Ukrainian option. I was surprised, interested and... clicked there. I started receiving requests from foreigners. My first student was a girl from Italy. She texted me that she wanted to learn the Ukrainian language because she had a friend in Ukraine and wanted to communicate with him.

For two years I taught Ukrainian to students from different countries. The vast majority of them studied the language because they had Ukrainian roots. And it was amazing: their grandparents, whom they had never even seen, emigrated from Ukraine even before the Second World War, and their descendants managed to keep them in their memory! It was inspiring. I felt that I needed to gain momentum and personify my work. That’s why I created a page on Instagram, started writing posts, then shooting short educational videos.

There were more people willing to learn the language. And in 2019, I hired the first two teachers. One of them is my fellow student, whom I met by chance on the minibus.

I understood that I needed a website. This should be the site of a full-fledged school, for which I also came up with the name, Speak Ukrainian.

In 2020, I created a textbook for foreign students Master Ukrainian Cases. Then, together with the team, we developed three sets of cards for learning 500 Ukrainian words, a set of cards with idioms and a guide with dialogues; launched online courses and an app. I recorded podcasts and more than 800 video lessons on YouTube and Instagram.

Difficulties with studying Ukrainian for foreign students arise at the beginning because we have the Cyrillic alphabet. Therefore, it is difficult for students to understand what a letter is and how it is read. But we begin to practice pronouncing vowels, consonants, reading syllables and simple words. Then people understand that it is not so scary, and that Ukrainian phonetics is actually easy and melodious.

My student Colin decided to study Ukrainian to show support for the refugees in Bali. It was possible to speak without an accent from the first day, and this motivated the guy to continue his studies.

Once Colin shared with me that for him, learning Ukrainian is “believing in the idea of freedom, hope for a bright future, and it is very inspiring.”

Currently, the guy continues his studies and practices the language with Ukrainians in Bali every day. He says choosing the correct case is the most difficult in the process of studying the grammar of the language. But he doesn’t give up, as in the future he plans to launch his own design studio and is already discussing the possibility of cooperation with the Ukrainians.

German photographer Selina decided to study Ukrainian in 2020. She came to Ukraine while working on a photo project and was enchanted. He says that in terms of tourism, our country is very underrated, and foreigners have the wrong idea about Ukraine. Actually, the language barrier during the trip motivated Selina to start learning the language. Currently, she writes articles for the German-Ukrainian magazine Gelblau, participates in the Ukrainian film club, and helps organize pro-Ukrainian protests in Berlin.

Belgian Steve was shocked by the full-scale invasion of Russia. He started volunteering and helping Ukrainians who sought refuge abroad. In particular, for several months, the man hosted a Ukrainian family at his home. At first, he just wanted to be able to communicate with them. But later he fell in love with the Ukrainian language and culture. Ukrainian poetry — modern and classical — became a real discovery for Steve. It inspired him to study Ukrainian in the future.

For seven years of work, I personally taught 120 students from 26 countries. Most of them were people with Ukrainian roots, as well as those who have relatives or acquaintances or like traveling in Ukraine.

There were those who came to Ukraine for various programs of the Peace Corps, volunteered, and therefore studied Ukrainian. Someone just likes our language.

There was a student from Japan, he is a teacher of English. Once he heard Kuzma Skryabin’s song Marshrutka – he liked it very much, he sang it to me – and fell in love with the Ukrainian language!

Well, there are also polyglots who wanted to master Ukrainian as well.

Ukraine is a big country. Its culture is multifaceted, and people of the world, learning the Ukrainian language, can somehow touch it.

After the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, all people who had Ukrainian roots remembered this and became proud of it. And if earlier they talked about the “Russian” and the “Soviet”, now they stopped putting the sign of equality between the Russian and Ukrainian languages. Those who welcome Ukrainian refugees came to me to learn the language. The ones who volunteer, collect humanitarian aid, go to rallies, etc. And my course for beginners, consisting of basic phrases, was aimed at just such an audience.

It is also interesting that after February 24, students who studied Russian as a foreign language switched to studying Ukrainian.

Yes, unfortunately, the boom in the Ukrainian language was caused by the war... And it hurts.

However, I am glad that for four years before the war I had been working hard to make my project successful and so I was ready for such an agiotage.

Since January 2023, I have been teaching Ukrainian at Oxford University. I had long been dreaming of gaining experience teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language abroad, so in the fall of 2022 I sent letters to some foreign universities. Oxford was interested in my proposal. It was a miracle. I made a bold request, and they answered positively. The new term started in mid-January, so I am now teaching at one of the most prestigious universities of the UK.

My goal is to spread the Ukrainian language and culture throughout the world. To my great surprise, there are no Ukrainian textbooks in the Oxford libraries. That is why currently the main educational mission is to fill local libraries with materials for studying the Ukrainian language and books by modern Ukrainian writers. The same problem exists in bookstores, where there are 30 textbooks for learning Russian and none for mastering Ukrainian.

I work at the Faculty of Russian and East European Studies. This name hurts me, so I want to influence it: at least remove the word “Russian” from it, and better – add “Ukrainian”. In Oxford, Slavic languages have been studied for a long time, but there was no Ukrainian. I adapt my own Ukrainian course to local students. There are six people in my group, four of them are British, two are EU citizens, from Denmark and France. They used to study Russian, now they decided to learn Ukrainian. All the six help Ukraine, want to learn the language, support us, and communicate with Ukrainians. Two of them visited Ukraine during the war, and they were ashamed to communicate in Russian, so they decided to learn to communicate in Ukrainian.

Most students know about Taras Shevchenko because the media is full of quotes from his work. The lines in verse “Oh dark-browed maidens, fall in love, But not with Muscovites” from the famous poem cause a storm of interest.

For Taras Shevchenko’s birthday, I suggested that the students record a video in which they recite works from Kobzar. The idea was picked up with pleasure.

The whole world now knows that Ukraine exists and that it is a country of strong and courageous people. We are supported in all corners of the planet. We live in a time when it is necessary to declare ourselves as much as possible, to knock on all doors in order to popularize our native language and rich culture in the world.