Why should you learn Ukrainian?
In this blogpost, you will find out 5 reasons why, plus a bonus reason at the end.
1. Traveling
If you’d like to travel to Ukraine after the war, it would be really cool to speak some Ukrainian! I receive so many messages from people who want to come here after the war either to rebuild our country, or who have just learned about how beautiful Ukraine actually is, and who would love to explore our charming Ukrainian lands. Ukrainians are very welcoming towards foreigners, but if you speak to them in Ukrainian, you will make an incredible impact on them, believe me!
And Ukraine is definitely an amazing country for tourism. Here you will find charming diverse nature (from noble mountains and dense forests to golden seashores and even a desert!), amazing natural reserves, beautiful architecture, famous historical sights, and delicious cuisine. The prices are really affordable, and the people are friendly. So make sure to visit us!
2. Understanding of Slavic languages
Also learning Ukrainian will be incredibly helpful if you plan to learn or at least understand some other Slavic languages. Only when all the world started speaking about Ukraine many people realized how similar Ukrainian and Polish, Slovak, or Serbian are to each other! You will soon realize that Ukrainian has tons of words that are completely different from russian and that Ukrainian is, again, much more similar to other Slavic languages. And if we speak about pronunciation, then Ukrainian is much closer to Polish, Slovak, Czech, and Belorussian (22-29 common features) than to russian (11 common features).
3. Huge community
Did you know that Up to 45 million people around the world speak Ukrainian? You can find Ukrainian speakers not only in Ukraine but in Ukrainian communities in Canada (1,2 mln), the USA (1.5 mln), Brazil (500K), Moldova (477K), Argentina (300K), Germany (123K) and in many other countries.
More than 1,3 million people have started learning Ukrainian on Duolingo. The interest in learning Ukrainian increased enormously in the language schools. Many people choose and love learning Ukrainian. And of course, the people whose ancestors were from Ukraine are especially interested in returning to their roots now.
So you will definitely find “your people” to speak Ukrainian with them among this huge number of people in the world.
4. Education
Ukraine is a very popular country for studying.
Every year (before the war obviously) more and more students from different countries chose Ukrainian universities. In 2020 around 76 500 foreign students from 155 countries were studying at Ukrainian universities. The most popular majors are Medicine (including Dentistry and Pharmacy), Management, Finance, Economy and Law, and Language learning. And of course, the language of study here is Ukrainian. To start your university, you need to know Ukrainian at B1 level at least, in order to understand everything that you are studying. So if you plan to study in Ukraine, it might be a better idea to begin learning it right now.
Infographics from https://osvita.ua/vnz/82347/
5. Helping Ukrainians
Because of the war of russia against Ukraine, there are many refugees from Ukraine in different countries. And there is a common problem finding social workers or other people who want to help Ukrainians who speak Ukrainian to avoid the language barrier. In that case, knowing Ukrainian could be a good benefit to getting a job.
Also, there are hundreds of people from all over the world who have come to Uкraine during the war as volunteers. Some of them bring humanitarian help, some help to transport refugees from the most dangerous areas, some save lives in the hospitals, and some even protect our freedom together with Ukrainian warriors. If you are providing any volunteer help to Ukraine, learning this language is very important.
Bonus fact.
Ukrainian is a language of brave people
Ukrainian is a language of brave and freedom-loving people. The world gave us three days to stand against “the second army of the world”... Now it is 13 months, and we are not going to give up. Of course with the help of many other countries, but let’s speak honestly, no one would support us that much if not for our courage. Even we didn’t know it about ourselves, how strong we are, that we could live, work, develop our businesses, donate to our army, volunteer, develop our culture, and all of it during the biggest war since the Second World War.
Ukrainian is the language of a great culture, which is rich and diverse. You can spend hours and hours finding out cool facts about our cuisine, music, literature, theater, and painting.
russians tried to destroy our language and appropriate our culture for several centuries. Their methods were and still are absolutely horrifying, but our language and culture just bloom with new strength! And you can be the person who could be a part of this!
Illustrations from https://war.ukraine.ua/articles/how-art-became-a-mirror-of-ukrainian-resistance/, find out more amazing artworks here!
So I invite you to learn the beautiful Ukrainian language, and our school VERBA will be happy to help you on this path! Subscribe to our Youtube channel and Instagram account, join our online lessons and courses, buy our Ukrainian readers, and ask us if you have any questions! We are always happy to help you with learning Ukrainian!
I also invite you to watch my video about 5 reasons to learn Ukrainian:
And what is your reason to learn Ukrainian? Please share in the comments!