Symbolically, on the Day of Embroidery, May 19, certificates were presented and the interim results of the speaking club «Let’s speak Ukrainian!» were summed up. The project was implemented by the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations, Lviv Polytechnic National University, in partnership with the Department of Education and Science of LRSA. Classes at the club allowed internally displaced persons, as well as anyone who wanted to improve their level of the Ukrainian language or to completely switch to Ukrainian. Meetings of the speaking club «Let’s speak Ukrainian!» took place twice a week on the Zoom platform. A total of 15 online lessons lasting 90 minutes each were conducted for forty study groups.
The moderator of the event was Nazar Danchyshyn, the IECDR employee, Candidate of Philological Sciences, who also taught one of the groups. First of all, Iryna Kliuchkovska, Director of the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations, made a welcome speech, emphasizing the importance of the Ukrainian language. Especially today, when so many people have left our country, it is the Ukrainian language that distinguishes us from the occupier and is a marker of our identity.
- The embroidered shirt is a marker of our identity, belonging to Ukraine, and the language identifies us with our people, it is our protection, especially now. Not only Ukrainians in Ukraine, but also abroad are aware of all this. Until recently, there were 20 million of them in the world, and now there are much more, because, according to the UN, more than 6 million people have left Ukraine. They all understand well that it is worth speaking Ukrainian, because it distinguishes us from the occupier everywhere. After all, language is our weapon, our resistance and our protection. When we started the speaking club, I thought it was a mini-model of our state. First the idea was born, we created a concept, developed a program. But in fact that is not all, because behind the speaking club there is the great work of the team: technical support, practical implementation, the work of a large number of people who invested in it their strength and love, - said Iryna Kliuchkovska.
She also expressed gratitude to everyone who helped with the classes and joined the speaking club.