Teaching English, and somewhat more, in Ukraine (01/28/96)

Teaching English, and somewhat more, in Ukraine

by Roman Karpishka

CONCLUSION

One morning my course program was to have the students talk about 20th century inventions that have influenced our lives worldwide. After a few sentences in English about airplanes, automobiles, television, x-rays, the Internet, etc., our talk turned to space communications, computers, faxes and current U.S. telephone services - in particular our system of 1-800 numbers.

On that subject I told my students I had a lawyer friend in New York, Peter Piddoubny, who had reserved an 800 number, namely 1-800-PYSANKY, to promote his interest in Ukrainian Easter eggs. I then said, "You all, of course, know what pysanky are..." To my amazement, a puzzled silence followed, until one young lad said, "Oh, you mean "krashanky'?"

I then realized just how naive it had been for me to assume that all Ukrainians were familiar with the cultural phenomenon of pysanky, which typically identifies us with painted Easter eggs. I then put aside the planned lesson and spent the rest of the morning explaining the batik process of this traditional Ukrainian art form. Again, the irony of teaching, in English, about "pysanky" in Ukraine was not lost upon me. By the end of the day various egg decoration techniques were referred to in our discourse, including shkrabanky, machanky and motanky (the latter being unknown to us before visiting Ukraine).

One of the formalistic anachronisms we encountered while in Zalishchyky was the requirement to register with the local militia. Doing so only six days after our arrival, upon the belated initiative of our Prosvita contact, I had to attest that "l was not earlier aware of this requirement." Having abided by that formality, the militia officer then, rather incongruously, requested that I write out and sign the same blurb for my wife, who had stayed home with our hosts. The serious aura of formalism appeared to me to be somewhat compromised by such proxy justification, but I humored the officer, who by this time had become more friendly and expansive - especially upon learning that my mother came from his own hometown of Terebovlia in the Ternopil Oblast.

Discipline plus learning

Discipline with our students usually was no problem (other than a few recess disappearances - probably to go swimming in July, a "Tom Sawyer" scenario). Stephanie had the biggest crisis when boys in her class crushed chalk on the chairs of unsuspecting girls. Her "punishment" was both unique and effective in discouraging such future antics: the boys had to write love letters of apology (in English) to their intended victims, who then had to correct their grammar.

Deviating somewhat from our prepared texts, we both found that our students liked to read proverbs in English and to express the Ukrainian equivalents. It was fascinating to realize how much folk wisdom transcends the world's languages and has been repeated in many cultures since time immemorial.

Another approach I tried with my students was to have them interview each other, thereby getting to ask who, what, when, where and why (like journalists), to get conversations going in English. They were also asked to role-play, first by ordering from menus in restaurants (two customers and one waiter), and in the next lesson by describing - having just "won" $1 million (U.S.) - an ethnic restaurant they would open in New York City.

Still in the spirit of investigative journalism, three teams of my students had to "cover" a sensational local event. One group had an interview with a successful Zalishchyky engineering student joining IBM and giving Bill Gates some computer competition. Another reportage was about U.S. "cosmonauts" landing in near by Bukovyna and their impressions of Ukraine. Undoubtedly the funniest interview was the "confirmation of a rumor" that Queen Elizabeth had recently come to the town of Zalishchyky, as she was about to remarry. After asking about her dress, tiara, etc., the young ladies conducting the interview - in a style worthy of a Connie Chung or Barbara Walters - revealed the identity of the prospective groom as a certain local "Prince Ivan Holota."

One more technique we tried to encourage our students to converse in English was to ask about their favorite books and TV shows. The most popular seemed to be classics such as "Gone With the Wind" and "Sherlock Holmes"; on TV it seems that "Santa Barbara" had taken over the soap opera season (too bad it is available there only in Russian, as the original American version would go a long way in conveying the actual use of current American English).

One can see the great potential for video teaching if the resources could be allocated and if the issues of copyrights and tapes transcriptions to the European style (PAL) video systems were expeditiously resolved. The global village has reached Ukraine, and its youth want in. They crave today's messages, and don't want to rely on Russian-dubbed second-hand technology. This is certainly an area the Ukrainian National Association should consider utilizing to enrich its ESL efforts as Ukrainian youth head towards the 21st century, a century in which knowledge of English will surely liberate their spirits, and open their eyes and ears to the world. This can happen without compromising their Ukrainian heritage. In fact, it can enhance their national pride and identity be Americans, before the world, and I especially before themselves. A multilingual Ukrainian person (and even more so English language skills and interests) is less likely to be assimilated in a monolithic polity and will undoubtedly build a nation less beholden to a single powerful or ruthlessly imperial neighbor.

Trip to the Carpathians

A highlight of our four weeks of teaching in Zalishchyky was a Saturday school bus trip to the Carpathian Mountains. For us it was particularly sentimental to visit that area of the whence the family name came.

We enjoyed ourselves immensely the bus trip singing Ukrainian "narodni pisni" (folk songs) with our students the Prosvita organizer. I also believe own familiarity with Ukrainian songs enhanced our credibility as "bona-fide Ukrainians," but I must say their musical skills and knowledge were far better ours - as it should be, since it is Ukrainians are all great singers.

Our route passed through Kitsman birthplace of Volodymyr Ivasi, Sniatyn (where we first saw cranes' nests) and on to various villages of Hutsul countryside. We stopped at picturesque Kosiv bazaar to shop inlaid woodcarvings and intricate folk embroideries, and then on to various Carpathian places whose names we'd only read about or heard in songs.

The experience was all the more pleasurable since more than half of the students also were entering the "Karpaty" for the first time. Our itinerary could be described as follows. Verkhovyna: stop at bazaar, wash in Cheremosh River, Kryvorivne: visit Ivan Franko house and museum. Vorokhta: see forestry, early mushrooms at picnic stop. Stop at Dovbush's Rock, just washed by a passing thunderstorm in the mountains. Stop at Yablunytsia bazaar, the "pereval," mountain stream waterfall; admire Hutsul architecture at restaurant near Yaremche. On to Deliaten and then to Kolomyh private museum and take photos of Taras Shevchenko monument in center of town.

The only problem of the day was our bus running out of gas halfway between Kolomyia and Sniatyn, on the return trip. This was soon solved by holding an empty gas can by the bus with an American 45 bill in the other hand. All in all it was a truly fairy-tale-like day trip in the mountains of western Ukraine.

In addition to daily teaching of English, Stephanie and I found our regular school hours were being modified to accommodate both of our student groups. As long as the concept of English conversation was adhered to, we were prepared to experience more field trips (or baseball) than the original academic program had envisaged. This was not to the detriment of our classes, since we insisted our students repeat things (often first expressed almost automatically in Ukrainian) in English.

Other activities

From the purely pedagogical view-point we realized our two groups were less inclined to apply themselves to purely grammatical studies and did need some summer-type activities (in passing, their most common difficulty was the correct usage and pronunciation of the word "the"). Therefore, since it was, after all, a hot July in Ukraine also, we assumed that the motivations of our scholars would be enhanced by a few well-chosen field trips. Thus we came to explore more of the environs of Zalishchyky. By the last week of our school duties, our courses and virtually turned into a day camp.

We took the students to a grotto and natural spring near Pechorno by the Dnister River; there we played word Bingo in English until gusts of wind literally blew our words away. Another day we crossed the bridge to the Chernivtsi Oblast and visited a monastery high up on the bluff overlooking a wide curve in the Dnister River. Again some of the local children had never been there, though they had often seen the site just across the river.

The town of Zalishchyky got its name from the trees on those slopes (lishcyny) and was a stopover point for historic traders along the Dnister. We got to view those trees, as well as learn from our students about other botanical wonders (e.g., the tasty "alecha," like mini-plums; "moravy" - like tree raspberries; local chestnuts) - they laughed at our naivete as city folk unfamiliar with these local delicacies. (Our knowledge seemed limited to the cherries, "vyshni", and local apricots).

Our daily diet was well attended to by our hosts, the family of Dr. Topornytsky, with no dearth of tasty tomatoes and squash ("kabachky"). The best fluid was a daily jug of home-made fruit punch I'm sure such could be bottled and exported.

One of my lessons in English was intended to give the students a practical understanding of routine business and banking transactions - more specifically, how to write out a check. Even though the exercise was largely theoretical, since I believe none of the students had any significant financial resources, or their own bank accounts, it did provide a small insight into what is mundane and routine in our own lives. Perhaps someday these young people also will have occasion to save and spend in pursuit of their happiness in a financially stable Ukraine.

What was also significant in this teaching was that Stephanie, dropping in on my classroom, saw my check model on the blackboard and then tried out the same with her students. I copied some of her teaching tricks, too - having the students write out, in English, each others' fortunes and horoscopes. Such parlor games made the English courses more entertaining, and at one point I found myself teaching my charges how to play chess, as well as poker, always explaining the rules in English. What was significant also was the cooperation and support Stephanie and I were giving each other, as we tried to meet the daily requirements of teaching English in Ukraine. We both agreed that perhaps more husband-wife teams could share in the experience, and that the UNA should encourage such teaching teams, since efficiencies and economies of scale result in better project administration, and provide a family experience comparable to raising one's own children.

Cherished memories

One of our cherished memories of the summer of 1995 in Ukraine will be the day we took school and class photos, when most of our students proudly wore their Ukrainian embroidered shirts to classes.

Stephanie and I felt right at home, as if we'd taught all our lives in Ukraine, and we ended our courses sharing the sweet regrets that most teachers surely experience at the end of a successful school year.

On the last day of classes all the students wrote letters to the UNA Home Office in the U.S. expressing their gratitude that the UNA and Prosvita in Ukraine had organized these ESL courses. Finally, in the heartfelt hope of encouraging my students to study further, I again wrote out Shevchenko' s words on the blackboard, and - as a tribute to teachers all over (whose efforts we now better appreciated) - added the words "To encourage youth - the future of a nation."

It was in that spirit that my wife and I resolved, upon returning to North America, to relate our personal experiences to our Ukrainian friends in the diaspora. Having seen how eager the young people of Ukraine are for contact from abroad, we both strongly recommend that our youth organizations (Plast, SUM, ODUM, etc.) form cadres of student volunteers or summer exchange programs to visit Ukraine. Just like dedicated missionaries of old, they can go forth to revive the beauty of the Ukrainian language, culture and traditions, which we have managed over the years to preserve and promote among Ukrainians across the world. And they can do this even in English!

And so we peacefully "did our thing" in the summer of 1995 in a corner of Ukraine whose sad history was a constant crossroads of conquerors and empires. At this scenic bend of the Dnister River there had been Turks and Tatars, Austro-Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, Germans and Russians who had come to "educate" and pacify the Ukrainians. We too are now a small part of the history of Zalishchyky.

Roman Karpishka, a lawyer by profession, resides in Lachine, Quebec. He and his wife, Stephanie, were among the 50 volunteer instructors who taught 53 English language courses in Ukraine during the summer of 1995 as part of the Ukrainian National Association's Teaching English in Ukraine Program.

PART I

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