UvA Ukrainian lecturer: ‘People give their lives for Ukrainian identity’
Starting in September, the UvA will offer two undergraduate courses in the field of Ukrainian language and culture. Lecturer is linguist Oksana Kononchuk, who fled from Kiev to Amsterdam last year. ‘The Russian war is primarily directed against Ukrainian language, culture and identity.’
Why is it so important that these courses are taught at the UvA?
‘There are roughly 40 million Ukrainian speaking people in the world which means that Ukrainian is a language with a rather big number of speakers. On the other hand, Ukrainian has very original, reach and interesting culture and literature that mostly are yet to be discovered by the world. In light of these, it becomes clear that for such a big and authoritative university as the University of Amsterdam is, and for it’s Department of Linguistics, where many different Slavic languages are being taught, it is quite necessary to have Ukrainian courses as well. And now, with Russia's war in Ukraine, importance of learning Ukrainian has increased tremendously. As organisers of the courses rightfully admit, 'humanitarian help, media reporting, international diplomacy, and rebuilding of the country, require a knowledge of the language.’
What shows the demand for these courses?
‘I have been staying in the Netherlands since March 2022 and during this period I’ve met many men and women among people helping Ukrainian refugees who were eager to learn Ukrainian but they couldn't find courses for it... On the other hand, Ukrainian courses at the UvA were to start since February 2023 first. There was an announcement, and a lot of students applied – another fact that clearly shows the interest for the Ukrainian courses, I think.’
You are now working at the UvA yourself. How did you end up there?
‘During academic year 2022-2023 I have been on an internship at the UvA as a visiting fellow or a guest researcher (not working as a regular employee in fact). Position of a guest researcher opens large opportunities as it gives access to the university platforms and libraries and as it allows to visit lectures and seminars that the guest researcher is interested in. Due to these, I got acquainted with many interesting people at the UvA – true professionals in different fields. All of them have been so kind, supportive and attentive, and visiting lectures and seminars at the UvA was such an interesting and useful experience for me.’
What do you think of the coverage of the Ukraine war in the Dutch media? Several argue that Dutch media were initially very concerned with the Ukraine war, but that people have since ‘forgotten’ it a bit.
‘Well, it looks that Dutch media write a little bit less about Russia's war in Ukraine than it was in it's very beginning, but really just a bit less. I suppose it is mostly due to the Dutch media that Dutch society knows so much about the war in Ukraine and that the Netherlands, Dutch government and Dutch people are helping Ukraine and Ukrainians so much. As a Ukrainian, I am deeply grateful to your country for it's really huge support of Ukraine and Ukrainians. Surely, under such sircumstances that unfortunately are now in Ukraine, there probably can be no 'enough' of information on media and support in different fields, as Ukraine is in an extreme need of support of the world. So, if the Dutch media, the Dutch government and the Dutch society can do more they are more than welcome.’
Can you describe the impact the Ukraine war has had on your life?
‘Well, my life has changed completely. Me and my daughter, my sister with her three children we all appeared among the people who were forced to flee their homeland. And for me and my sister, as well as for many many other Ukrainians, to leave our homeland was a very hard decision, but eventually we came to a conclusion that we had to do that for the sake of our children. But even being far from Ukraine physically, mentally we are in Ukraine all the time. The thought there is war in my country stays on my mind and on minds of millions of Ukrainians all over the world permanently, and to say that it is very frustrating is to say nothing. That constant flow of news about victims and destructions in Ukraine... To realise that all these are happening in our beautiful and dear country... Even been safe, alive and not injured physically, Ukrainians like me are all being deeply traumatised psychologically by this war.’
What does it mean to you that you can now teach Ukrainian at the UvA?
‘First of all, it means to me to get a unique opportunity to do something especially useful, I believe, for my country and my people at these extremely difficult times. To do it even staying far from Ukraine. I think and hope that teaching Ukrainian now, and especially teaching it at the University of Amsterdam, will give me the feeling that I am doing something special and useful for my country. Probably, the best thing I ever could do... And I hope that it won't be only my personal feeling about it but that it will be a really useful action.
Ukrainian has a very dramatic history. It has survived almost four centuries of linguicide that was especially severe in the twentieth century. Millions of people were murdered, killed, imprisoned, discriminated just because they were Ukrainians and were speaking Ukrainian. And nowadays Russia’s war in Ukraine is, first of all, against Ukrainian identity. And language, as we well know, is the very first marker of a national identity. People in Ukraine are giving their lives and health for the natural right of Ukrainians to be themselves, to speak their native language, to decide how to live in their homeland... And through Ukrainian history there have been so much heroism shown for the sake of the Ukrainian language and culture.
I was born in the late Soviet period and remember times of severe discrimination of Ukrainian in the last years of the USSR. I remember how I felt about it personally being a child yet. And later on even when Ukraine became independent, language situation was not changing that fast and still there was a lot of discrimination, and now there is this awful war against Ukrainian identity. But in September, hopefully, I am going to face a whole group of students of different nationalities willing to learn Ukrainian. To me their wish and readiness to learn Ukrainian is such a gesture of support itself that even have not seen them yet I love them all already.’
What do you hope to accomplish by teaching these courses?
‘I hope to help students willing to learn Ukrainian to start falling in love with the Ukrainian language and Ukraine culture forever.’
