On September 20, 2022, a meeting was held at the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations, Lviv Polytechnic National University, with Taras Kremin, Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, and Uliana Pak, a public activist and member of the Lviv City Council.
Taras Kremin is a frequent guest at the IECDR. The Institute has its own history of cooperation with the Commissioner. Let’s recall numerous online meetings in the form of conferences, panel discussions, and presentations organized by IECDR. This time the communication took place offline. The participants touched upon the issues of strengthening the Ukrainian language in a Russian-language speaking environment and on the territories where there are currently many internally displaced persons. After all, IECDR has considerable experience in teaching the Ukrainian language for IDPs.
According to Taras Kremin, «currently, in the Lviv region there are about 300,000 IDPs from different regions of Ukraine, with their level of the state language, with their own problems and needs. There are about 80 free locations for learning the Ukrainian language, where volunteers do everything at their own expense, with their own resources, rent premises, and find textbooks. This is the reason for making these courses on an ongoing basis due to simple management decisions. This is a matter of state language policy, regional language policy, and the affirmation of our values. If educated and intelligent people, mostly Ukrainian-speaking, were not standing on the front lines, then there would be discord and complete misunderstanding among those who hold weapons in their hands. Our people from the front lines read lectures, write poems, sing songs, and defend Ukraine».
Iryna Kliuchkovska, director of IECDR, told the guests about the Institute’s main areas of activity and said: «At the beginning of the war, we organized a speaking club «Let’s speak Ukrainian!» About 800 people registered. The model of our speaking club has spread throughout Ukraine. Later, we cooperated with Lviv Radio, which sheltered people from the South and East of Ukraine. Although it is not our direct duty to help Russian-speakers to switch to the Ukrainian language and to adapt in the Ukrainian-speaking environment, but during the war we all volunteer and often do things that do not belong to our professional responsibilities».
The IECDR familiarized the Commissioner with their projects: the Ukrainian Educational Universe portal – a platform for communication between educators and an interactive map of Ukrainian educational institutions in the world, and the educational portal «Step to Ukraine» for those who want to learn Ukrainian as a foreign language. The staff of the Institute presented their achievements in the field of teaching the Ukrainian language as a foreign language: «Key to Ukraine: Cities and People», «Stories from Lesia’s life», «Step 1», and «Step 2», which will also be useful for Russian-speaking Ukrainians who are switching to the Ukrainian language.
During the meeting, the participants discussed the possibilities of further cooperation in the field of development and popularization of the Ukrainian language not only in Ukraine, but also abroad.
It should be noted that on the very day of the meeting, September 20, Lviv Regional Council at its XIV regular session adopted a decision «On the approval of the Comprehensive Program for Promoting the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language in the Lviv Region for 2023–2026».
During his speech at the session, Taras Kremin, Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, noted: «Lviv Region was, is, and will remain an outpost of the Ukrainian language, culture, and spirituality». The meeting participants expressed their belief that IECDR will participate in the implementation of the Program, which will contribute to the creation of conditions for the comprehensive development, functioning and popularization of the Ukrainian language as the state language in all spheres of social life in the Lviv region, as well as will strengthen its role in Ukrainian society as a means of strengthening state unity, and protecting national language-cultural and language-informational space.
According to Taras Kremen, the full-scale invasion of Russia confirmed that the struggle continues on the language front as well. Therefore, the adoption of a comprehensive program will provide real and effective mechanisms for the protection of the state language.
