How we spent our summer: teaching English and "Ukrainoznavstvo" in Ukraine (06/07/98)

A Ukrainian Summer: where to go, what to do...

How we spent our summer: teaching English
and "Ukrainoznavstvo" in Ukraine

by Roman and Stephanie Karpishka

Teaching of English as a second language (ESL,) in Ukraine in the summer of 1997 was just as much a "learning" experience for us, and maybe even more so, since it enhanced our appreciation of contemporary life in Ukraine and also gave us a daily opportunity to interact with our eager pupils.

This was our second such visit in the context of the Ukrainian National Association - Prosvita program. Having taught in Zalischyky, Ternopil oblast, in July 1995, we considered ourselves veterans," and accordingly took with us some North American props and gadgets for our "school."

Although we expected to have about 15-20 students each, our classes expanded in the first few days to 26 and 32. Even more parents were interested in enrolling their children, but we had to impose limits when we realized three students would be sharing one workbook for studies and exercises.

Our school paraphernalia included a baseball bat, glove, softballs, felt pen markers of various colors and colored chalks - the kind sidewalk artists use.

A frisbee came in handy one morning the first week when we were accidentally locked out for about an hour beside the Prosvita building in the town of Mykolaiv, Lviv oblast, where we were teaching. Our students gathered round in a large circle in the courtyard and had to throw the disc to each other, speaking in English to introduce themselves, and then asking the intended catchers to state their age, address, and phone numbers. This playfulness gave us teachers an informal way to evaluate the students' proficiency levels, and to rate their class and home assignments accordingly.

What we did teach officially was extracted from the various pedagogical materials sent to Mykolaiv from Kyiv's Prosvita coordinators. However, the teaching format we used allowed for much improvisation and reference to other materials.

We often attempted to draw students into conversations, and to enhance their verbal proficiency. At first any attempt to philosophize or debate was met with quiet puzzlement, but, as time went on, we noted some students becoming more ready to be outspoken or "individualistic" - breaking away from the more usual method of their regular schooling by rote and memorization. It was certainly academically stimulating to us as ESL teachers to see our young charges act out various situations on their own - learning to think in English, and not just repeating words parroted from a printed page.

Insofar as we had benefited from briefings with ESL teachers at the UNA's Soyuzivka estate over the past two years, we incorporated a few of their teaching tricks into our own curriculum. This included short poems by the students, as well as map-making of the town of Mykolayiv and a lesson in topography, reflecting the four hills surrounding it. A visit to the local museum of archaeology and history (with relics of mammoth tusks found when wells had been dug) also provided an occasion to later question the students in English as to their town's origins and early development.

Such next-day questionings were applied also to a series of videos shown in the evenings (parents welcome) at the Prosvita premises. The films included various classics: "The Sound of Music," "Indiana Jones," and the "Lion King." "Ben Hur" was a pleasure to watch again, especially when we saw the students at the edge of their seats during the 18-minute chariot race. The last show was "My Fair Lady," which was especially appreciated by us, as teachers, hoping to turn our Eliza Dolittles into princesses, thanks to the English language.

Several field trips around town were organized, with students going into stores to pretend to buy merchandise while conversing and role playing (buyer-vendor) in English.

Adding to the five hours a day of regular teaching we introduced our classes to the sport of baseball, organizing six softball games during the second and third weeks of the courses. These were held in a small stadium, after lunch, and would last from about 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. with the teams choosing names in English from the world of nature (Lions vs Panthers, Sharks vs Piranhas, Hawks vs Eagles, etc.). The basic rules were explained in English, and all arguments (safe out, fair foul, etc.) had to be pleaded before the umpire (teacher) in English for judicious resolution. Some confusing situations did arise (five runners on three bases) or how to rate a "fowl" ball, when a wandering goose frustrated a pop fly out at third base. Somehow we worked out the problematic situations and the students soon began to appreciate the dramatic beauty of this great American game, realizing that the scores could change up to the last pitch and play of the game.

Since the rains were quite heavy in Halychyna this past summer, our outdoor games were sometimes on slippery fields, with many green elbows and kneecaps. One rainy afternoon a compromise game was conducted inside the Prosvita premises. After checking the unreachable heights of the hall's windows, the students were instructed in the fine art of bunting. Chalk bases and a home plate being drawn on the wooden floor, the cries of "batter up" and "play ball" echoed through the building for a pre-agreed six-inning session. After four innings the losing team was so depressed a coaching pep talk (in English) had to be arranged to assuage the then humiliating 21 to 9 score. But the next two innings proved sufficiently dramatic, and worthy of a world series cliffhanger, as the underdogs bunted their way to a grand slam and victory of 31 to 29. It was amusing to hear the students say later that day: "We'd like to play against one of your baseball teams someday". Who knows?

In a more serious vein, however, one does get to think about U.S.A.-Ukraine student exchanges and international scholarship programs. Perhaps this is a new frontier that our diaspora leaders should promote, for surely there are numerous deserving young people in Ukraine worthy of a chance to further their education and knowledge of English in North America. Even in our short term as teachers this past summer we recognized several students with ambition and leadership potential, which hopefully will not be lost or frustrated by the economic hardships in today's Ukraine. It would indeed be a worthy challenge to extend their English education by immersion for serious students in a Ukrainian-American ambiance. Surely every ESL teacher could recommend a couple of the brightest pupils, and scholarships, or a Ukrainian festival lottery, could fund their travel for a couple of summer months. These are serious thoughts for the future, perhaps beginning still in this century.

Our 1997 experience of teaching English in Mykolaiv was pleasantly enriched by various day trips with our young students. A small bus was hired by Prosvita in Mykolaiv for the 40-kilometer trip to the Lviv Opera House and to the Taras Shevchenko monument in the center of the city, as well as to the Lychakiv Cemetery gravesites of Ivan Franko, Markian Shashkevych, Solomiya Krushelnytska, and revered songwriter Volodymyr Ivasiuk. On another occasion we visited the Zankovetska Academic Theater as well as Lviv's Shevchenkivskyi Hai, with its seven wooden churches from various regions of Ukraine.

The most memorable day tour was when, leaving the Prosvita building at 5 a.m., we traveled with our best older students to the Carpathian Mountains. The younger ones were made to understand that, in fairness, their turn would come later since our "bus" was only a 10-seater van. Our route took us about 250 kilometers in one day (an odyssey by today's Ukrainian road standards) and included the King Danylo's fortress ruins in Halych (founded 1100 years ago). Then we traveled to Ivano-Frankivsk with a brief visit to the celebrated Roxolana Hotel and the Franko statue and water fountain.

After that we drove on to Kolomyia, stopping at the old hutsul church and town center, as well as the famous Kobrynsky Museum of Hutsul Art and Folk Treasures. Afterwards we drove further to Yaremche, stopping at picturesque roadside churches and at scenic bridges across the Prut River's churning waters rushing towards Bukovyna, and later at kiosks with souvenirs and inlaid wood carvings made by Hutsul artisans. On the return trip we had a twilight stopover at the Marian shrines in Hoshiv, thankful that we traveled on a sunny day, leaving behind us the puddled streets of Mykolaiv, where we returned exhausted at 11 p.m.

One vignette stands out as a symbolic example of the "power" of the English language deep in the Carpathian mountains of Ukraine. Three ESL students conspired to outwit (fairly) a souvenir vendor who was selling miniature landscapes. Two of the young ladies approached the vendor speaking between themselves in English, giving the impression that they were tourists, and they were quoted a three-hryvni price per unit. Minutes later their friend came up to that vendor and asked in Ukrainian about the same landscape. She was told two hryvni ("dlia nashykh"), with the added comment that this was a good price because just moments earlier "dvi amerykanky" had been asking about it - in English - and their price was 50 percent more. The sale was made, and right away the three conspirators got together for a good laugh because they had used their wits and English skills to get a better price. The real lesson was not the hryvni saved, but the utility of knowing English for bargaining strategies.

An ironic moment during our teaching experiences - highlighting the contrasts between two cultures, two languages and, in fact, "two worlds" - came about one morning while talking about current technology. The older class of students was requested to comment on the word "Internet." Hands shot up, with students claiming that they knew all about it. However, it was soon apparent that the object of their knowledge was "internat" - as a full board academic institution. We tried to explain, as best we could, but then also realized the shortcomings of "show and tell" when you don't have hands-on possibilities with the hardware and software before you. We have promised ourselves on any subsequent trip to bring along a computer or two to Ukraine - hopefully even a laptop - to demonstrate what the "internet" is really all about.

These should be modern pedagogic tools. With such contemporary teaching aids we are certain that any future ESL courses would be challenging to teachers, as well as highly interesting and enriching to seriously motivated students. Ukrainian youth organizations, please note: this is an untapped field with great potential to train future community leaders - theirs and ours - familiarizing all with the cyber technology that undoubtedly will be a primary "educator" in Ukraine in the 21st century.

Our own appreciation of Ukrainian history and nationalism was enhanced by this summer's experiences, but we also realized that we could bring back a bit of our traditional culture to "nasha batkivshchyna" (our homeland). Being born in the diaspora did not prevent us from focusing on Ukrainian history and geography in the context of our daily lessons. Students were asked to draw their own multi-colored oblast maps of Ukraine; 25 oblasts were selected from a hat, and each student had to speak for five minutes in English about their chosen region.

One lesson was a combination of civics and Ukrainian history over the generations. A student was chosen as a future postmaster general with the task of issuing 10 new stamps bearing famous Ukrainian historical personages. (To be excluded were the existing hryvnia icons: Volodymyr the Great, Yaroslav the Wise, Khmelnytsky, Mazepa, Franko, Hrushevsky and Shevchenko.) A list of 33 personalities was compiled, and after several run-off ballots the final list emerged, spotlighting the following persons from Ukrainian history: Lesia Ukrainka, Danylo Halytsky, Maria Zankovetska, Princess Olha, Stepan Bandera, Mykola Lysenko, Nazar Yaremchuk, Ivan Pidkova, Nestor Litopysets and Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. Each candidate in the selection process had to be rated and the students explained why each person was important to their homeland's history. This turned out to be a fascinating exercise reinforcing the students' knowledge and recognition of famous personages.

Perhaps the apex of our experience of "bringing home" Ukrainian culture from the diaspora manifested itself in the fourth week of courses, when a daily pysanka-making workshop was set up for the young ladies who had never before tried this traditional art form. Thanks to those wonderful handbooks - in English - from "pysancharky" Kmit, Luciw, and Perchyshyn of Minneapolis, our students were able to read and follow their detailed instructions and to recreate the pysanky their grandmothers or great-grandmothers had blessed in their Easter baskets. The moments of joy - when the candle flames melting the beeswax revealed our students' artistic talents - were happily expressed on the beaming faces before us, and we felt proud as teachers that we could be part of their own rediscovery of Ukraine's most ancient symbols and sacred Easter traditions.

These were some of the highlights and happy moments in our summer of 1997 in the town of Mykolaiv in the Lviv oblast of Ukraine, where two Canadians from Montreal wandered, wondered, and wished, as we taught Ukrainoznavstvo - in English!

A Ukrainian Summer

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