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Posted by Yuliya on June 26, 2001 at 10:53:47:
As a teacher of EFL from Ukraine I would like to tell you that according to grammar rules, we have been using "Ukraine" since our country became independent. People who had immigrated before that usually do not know these details.
Many Americans use "the Ukraine" because they are used to do this:))) It was right before 1991.
People from Russia say "na Ukraine" instead of "v Ukraine". American Professors of Russian as a foreign language say "na Ukraine". It is wrong, but people used to:)))
This is a sort of political question:))) I have Ph.D. in General Linguistics and my major in Odesa State University was "Russian" and minor "English". I have been teaching EFL for 8 years and the first class I always give to my freshmen students is "transliteraciya".
Earlier we wrote "Odessa", now "Odesa". We write also "Kyiv" instead of "Kiev", "Kremenchuk" instead of "Kremenchug", etc.
The ambassador's in Washington, DC last name is Hryshchenko. But he is against:))) In his passport it is written as "Grishchenko", I mean, in Russian way:)))
If he were a usual citizen nobody would ask his opinion and he would become "Hryshchenko":)))
All that discussion is ridiculous, really.
And about some offensive messages. This is neither a place for such things, nor a place to discuss the reasons of immigration of certain personalities. Everybody chooses his or her own way. If he hates his country, you do not know, perhaps, they have certain reasons. If anybody wanted to become American and is happy it is fine, because there will be less people in Ukraine who do not want to make it better. If people standing in lines near ambassies spent half of their energy for improving our country we would live in paradise!
Take care.