We couldn’t counter that and had to reach for our wallets. Having taken the loot the little Gypsy instead of saying “thank you” declared the following: “In Ukraine everyone should speak three languages – Ukrainian, Russian and English.”
We were stupefied, for these words sounded too familiar. We already heard something similar to that, and not that while ago.
It seems in December the now acting President Yushchenko declared something similar to that from his podium in the Independence Square. The crowd applauded. However, now this reiteration of the election campaign lessons in internationalism didn’t appeal to us that much.
Ok - we said to ourselves, Mr. President claims that in Europe everyone speaks several languages. Well, he probably knows better. Surely England is not quite Europe yet because the English are quite comfortable with their own language, and in Germany the bilingualism didn’t strike roots either, and you know what it is like in France with this question.
Moreover, Spain and Portugal are starting to veto the EU laws because they are not translated in their own languages. However, the Ukrainian President is perched up high, sees far and probably notices something else.
So, without being argumentative, let’s just reflect on this question: “how many languages can an average person speak?” Not on the primitive level like “I am job” but speak decently.
Our personal experience tells us that there are certain difficulties even with two languages. Our command of the Russian language has deteriorated for the past few years. Ok, maybe it is us dumb folks but the rest of Ukrainians are smart and they all as one can master the three languages. The ones that Mr. President committed to immortality through the lips of the little Gypsy.
But let’s imagine that this average person is not ethnic Ukrainian but a Bulgarian. Upon my word, these things happen! We grew up in a village called Deleny, in Odessa Oblast, where 90% of people are ethnic Bulgarians. And they speak the real Bulgarian language in everyday life, and along with them the whole population of the Bolhradsky district in Odesa Oblast speaks that language too.
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So, does that mean that every ethnic Bulgarian in Ukraine has to speak four languages? And every Gagauz and Karaim four languages too? Isn’t that a bit too many languages?
It is scary even to imagine how many languages will, say, an ethnic Armenian have to learn who happens to live in the Bolhradsky District. Poor ethnic minorities! They will have it the hardest!
Either someone missed something when they wrote Mr. Yushchenko’s speech or it is time to abandon the election campaign rhetoric and start to develop the state policy in this matter. And this policy has to be subtler than the one expressed by our Gypsy friend.
And while different kinds of political rabble keep registering laws to give the Russian language a special status, and the Presidential Administration helps them in every way by preparing the last nail in the coffin of Ukrainian language in the form of the Decree on Protection of Citizens’ Right To Use The Russian Language And The Languages of Other Ethnic Groups in Ukraine – let’s reflect on something…
Where did this wording – “the Russian language and the languages of other ethnic groups”- come from? Why not simply “the languages of other ethnic groups” or “ethnic minorities”? Why ethnic Russians are “Russian”, and Crimean Tatars are “other”?
These two ethnic groups are indigenous population and a Crimean Tatar seems even more indigenous of the two. Why is a Russian better?
Apologists for the official status of the Russian language immediately counter with this: “It is so because of the numbers of active speakers of it”. So, then in a Hungarian village the Russian language has to be official too? What about active speakers of it there?
Dear MP’s from ethnic minorities, dear head of the Parliamentary Commission on Nationalities, Mr. Chubarov!
Don’t you understand that an attempt is being made to discriminate against your ethnic groups, your cultures and your languages? The discrimination is in application of a value scale to different ethnic groups.
Please, refresh our memories as to how the Ukrainian laws separate ethnic groups into primary and secondary! Are you really going to resurrect in Ukraine the Big Brother ghost?
Personally, not to overburden ourselves with unnecessary subjects in school we didn’t take Ukrainian – it was simple back then.
Now, thank God, the situation has changed. Now Ukrainian is a state language and is considered compulsory in schools.
Then, we ask ourselves quite a logical question: is it in the state’s interests that everyone should take Ukrainian at school? Nowadays in Ukraine you can get by quite comfortably without the state language. The state, however, still stubbornly tries to make every citizen speak Ukrainian.
What for? Frankly speaking, the state doesn’t know it either.
But we know what it is for – to make every citizen without exception understand state decrees, public appeals and information on all territories and without translation.
This is the key for the state apparatus to work smoothly – the same way as the common currency, common laws and other things work.
The state status of the Ukrainian language is neither recognition nor a compensation for the past infringements against it. It is the function of being the general equivalent.
Now the strategic goal of the language policy takes shape. Ukrainian has to be the state language not as a status but as a function. Then we won’t have to resort to doubtful election campaign maneuvers. It appears to be quite simple.
Every citizen of Ukraine has to understand Ukrainian. Then if this citizen wants to communicate with people beyond his or her ethnic community, he or she will have to speak the state language too. And don’t tell me that this in any way infringes upon or impedes the development of other languages!
What languages, pray tell me, a Hungarian-speaking ethnic Hungarian and a Romanian-speaking ethnic Romanian are planning to use to communicate between each other without feeling infringed upon? You won’t believe it, it is Ukrainian!
And even when a Russian-speaking ethnic Russian joins those two, they will still perfectly understand each other when they speak the state language, because everyone is guaranteed to know it.
Dear politicians, please pay attention! Ukrainian is not dogshit but a language of interethnic communication in this great, diverse and multicultural Motherland of ours.
Achieving this particular condition should be the goal of the Ukrainian government.
This approach in particular will safeguard against infringement on ethnic minorities and will guarantee the free development of all languages in Ukraine. In general, the demands on ethnic minorities will decrease: it is more realistic for people to learn two, not four languages.
Let’s imagine ourselves to be again the ethnic Bulgarians from our Deleny village in Odesa Oblast. At home and among friends we speak Bulgarian, our kids go to Bulgarian-language school, and we have local press in our language.
On TV we watch Ukrainian-language programs and read national women magazines too. All questions in Odesa can be settled in Ukrainian the same way they can be in Kyiv, and we can communicate with our Tatar friends in Crimea as well. English, Hungarian, Russian, Belarusian can be optional. Wouldn’t that be a perfect world?
But how does one achieve that harmony?
Let’s look around and prove to ourselves one more time that nowadays the Ukrainian language is economically discriminated against. Even open ukrainophobes don’t deny that.
A powerful, market-driven russification goes on. In its results it promises to be far more terrible than the political russification of the past. The Ukrainian-speaking part of the population is completely separated from the main information channels and is driven in an information ghetto – a kind of amateur club for those who agree to pay extra for the translation into Ukrainian.
One keenly becomes aware of this situation by looking at the printed mass media. In the front line of russificators there are not Russians but rather Germans. Their Burda publishing house owns almost half of the glossy magazines – from Lisa to Cool Girl and Vot Tak!
Next to them are Americans with their Korrespondent and Afisha. This is not the proverbial “hand of Moscow” but rather “hand of Berlin and Washington”. So, reveal this mystery to us – how do they profit from russification? Well, they don’t. Economy and our own laws motivate them to use Russian.
It means those are bad laws.
Have you ever wondered why TV stations are required to produce half of their programs in the state language? This is not in the spirit of democracy! This is typical kuchmism!
It appears that the new administration must stop this outrage and allow people to use any language during their work. That means allowing people to use Russian. (To tell the truth, the TV people already do so, but that is an off topic.)
The new administration, however, will never do so because deep inside they understand what state language is. They do understand it - they just cannot say it.
But we can say it, and so we ask the following: why don’t we extend this requirement to other subjects of the information market? It makes sense that if you publish a newspaper with circulation in Bolhradsky District – let it be published in Bulgarian.
However, the “Fakty” newspaper is circulated not only in Luhansk, why then, cannot I read it in Ukrainian? Somebody probably wants it in Russian but I want it to be in the state language. And I want not only Ukrainian-language TV but glossy magazines too.
Why at the time of registration are the state language editions of nation-wide publications not required? It makes sense economically: we have examples of successful bilingual publications - and you won’t believe it – even monolingual ones!
The same story is in the book market. 10% of an edition in Ukrainian won’t collect dust in the warehouse and some publishers may become keen on it too.
Once upon a time we arrived at a literary soiree in Mykolayiv and were stunned by a question posed to us by a local newswoman: “So, you publish books in Ukrainian, where does this hatred of Russian come from?” This is not a joke but a standard of public perception.
If one speaks Ukrainian it means one infringes upon Russian? Back then we answered her question with another question: “Irene Deryugina likes track-and-field athletics, does that mean that she discriminates against heavy athletics?” The newswoman got the part about athletics but not about the language.
That’s why we offer a meditation exercise for everyone who is perturbed by the language question in Ukraine: whenever you speak of the Russian language, after comma add – Romanian, Bulgarian and all the other languages in the list.
That’s the way to do it.
Not “Russian language and other”, but by name. For example, The Law On The Official Status of Russian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Gagauz …
Or, if I want to be better understood in Donetsk I will switch into Russian. In Crimea I will switch in addition into the Crimean Tatar language and into Armenian …
When we are talking exclusively about Russian let’s make it clear too: “the state is interested in the free development of the Russian language in Ukraine and is not interested in the free development of the Polish and Romanian languages.”
Having had enough of these exercises let’s remember that in Ukraine also live Ukrainian-speaking people and there is still no law that can make them learn all of the aforementioned languages.
And thus the following conclusion arises: all nation-wide information in this country has to have a viable Ukrainian-language equivalent.
Do you hear me, state?! We, Ukrainian-speaking citizens, have the right to know in detail about what is going on in this country. And your role, state, is to guarantee us this right.
And you, state, also have a role to guarantee equally free development of all the ethnic languages in Ukraine without exception. This is reflected in the laws of the land. Do you hear us? Equally free development. Today Ukrainian children of different ethnic groups de facto have to learn a language of one ethnic minority, which is somehow considered better than the languages of other minorities.
State, you have to finally understand that the state language is an information space frontier. Yes, a state frontier. And exactly like a geographical frontier, it has to be clearly demarcated and protected.
And if you, state, won’t understand this – you will be left without citizens from any ethnic group. At the moment we have been herded into an information space of a neighboring country.
We, the people of Ukraine, communicate with each other using its language and its communication channels.
Hello! Who is in charge of national security here?!
