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Borys Kosarev: Modernist Kharkiv, 1915-1931 at The Ukrainian Museum thru May 2, 2012
Posted by hanya on March 29, 2000 at 10:49:38:
In Reply to: Language posted by Charles Josef Brown on March 28, 2000 at 14:15:56:
: I really enjoyed reading the messages concerning the beautiful Ukrainian language.
: However, some of the people involved with the discussions seem narrow minded and shallow. How do the Unkrainian people feel about making concessions for other languages? For example, the langauge of the Carpathian peoples and the other minorities in the country.
: Do UKrainians really wish the "Ukrainize" the country just to overcome the problem with Russian? Furthermore, it would be nice to see a revival of Yiddish in the Unkraine. Ukrainians will speak Ukrainian if they desire to do so. A extreme policy concerning official status will not help the Ukrainian language flourish. In fact, I think it will destroy the dignity of what Ukrainians really want for their country.
: Charles Josef
Establishing Ukrainian as an official language for the country can hardly be considered an "extreme policy." In the United States, English is the one and only official language, despite the fact that there is a wealth of material available to other major language groups, Hispanics in particular. The Census, for example, this year has explanatory forms available in almost every possible language, but the form must nevertheless be completed in English.
In contrast, a country such as Belgium where there are 2 officially recognized languages, the competition and distrust between those who consider themselves Flemish and those who claim to be French after all these years has not dissipated. Road signs that have French wording on them are torn down in Flemish areas, and vice-versa in the French-speaking regions.
One former Canadian who posted one of the earlier messages in response to this question actually fled Canada because of the mounting tensions between French speakers and the English speaking communities.
While I would agree that the goals should not be to stamp out Russian or any other language used in Ukraine, it's clear that only one language can be official. A policy to encourage the use of other languages of choice can be adopted without undermining the state's official language - Ukrainian.