Posted by Bohdan A. Oryshkevich on April 22, 2002 at 01:35:41:
In Reply to: exchange students within Ukraine posted by siania on April 19, 2002 at 15:15:30:
The Coordinating Committee to Aid Ukraine has been doing such East-West exchanges for the Christmas holidays for years. There have been attempts to bring students from Eastern and Southern Ukraine to Central and Western Ukraine.
But do not hold your breath as to where more Ukrainian is taught. Ukraine is more a patchwork than you realize. There do not seem to be university wide policies. There may be faculty wide policies.
Leading Russian universities are recruiting topflight students from many parts of Ukraine also. So there is a brain drain to the East as in the past.
The UKMA is the only university in Ukraine which appears to treat Russian as a foreign language. I say appears to treat since Russian is spoken in the corridors.
On the other hand knowledge of Ukrainian seems to have to have greatly increased every where. I know since I phone such remote areas as Kerch and Sevastopol, and Kharkiv. There are some pockets of Crimea and Sevastopol that do not have Ukrainian but even there are is vast improvement.
I have enclosed the exchange thread with reference from outside.
Bohdan Oryshkevich
usa.usa@attglobal.net
Posted by Bohdan A. Oryshkevich on April 19, 2002 at 19:07:51:
In Reply to: finally, a good proposal posted by siania on April 19, 2002 at 08:11:24:
All of Ukraine has very good schools that could host students from the Diaspora. There is a network of schools that teach many subjects such as math in English along with core subjects in Ukrainian. So the Ukrainian American student would not be totally lost. Virtually every school in Ukraine teaches Ukrainian although it may teach core subjects in Russian. One does not have to go to western Ukraine to learn Ukrainian.
I have a database of about 400 schools in Ukraine that teach English. Some excellent schools in Ukraine that teach Ukrainian and English well are School 6 in Kharkiv, School 1 in Cherkassy, the University Lycee in Donetsk and many others. The secret would be to match the student to his interests and strengths.
It should not be too expensive.
In addition many high schools have students who have won full four year scholarships to leading American colleges. SAT exams are available in Ukraine on a very regular basis. So an American student could enhance his college acceptance potential by spending a year in Ukraine.
I would add that the Diaspora is obsessed with preserving its traditional organizations. Just think how much space the Ukrainian Weekly has spent on Soyuzivka and on its poor finances. If they created a forum for new ideas, I would have written about this proposal. But I feel that I have to elbow my way to the top.
Recently there was a summit of summits on how to preserve the dying Diaspora organizations. There was no time spent on how to create new organizations that would meet the challenges, opportunities, or needs of the 21st century.
Our website will contain information on opportunities to study in Ukraine. The page is up but not this particular aspect of it: www.ukrainianscholarships.org
It is very difficult to talk with people who are only interested in the past or who are obsessed with preserving a failing organization.
Bohdan Oryshkevich
usa.usa@attglobal.net