On 28 October 2024, Lviv Polytechnic National University hosted the first stage of the 25th Petro Yatsyk International Competition and the 15th Taras Shevchenko International Student Competition. As the organizer of the competitions, the Department of Ukrainian Language actively involves students from all the different Institutes of Lviv Polytechnic. This year, a record number of students – 298 - took part in the event.
At the first stage, the contestants performed test tasks in the Ukrainian language. Later, after completing the test part of the tasks, those who wished could take part in the Taras Shevchenko International Ukrainian Language and Literature Competition for Students. Young people had the opportunity to reveal their creative potential in writing essays. Several topics for reflection were chosen for this competition, which became the core themes:
- “The Cossacks fly from place to place,
Not a soul who can escape them,
The fire-hard ones, no flame can scathe them”.
(Hamaliya poem of Taras Shevchenko, translation by Vera Rich) - «Language is a border and a weapon, a home and a fortress, a way from the past to the future and to immortality»"
(Iryna Farion) - «History in books is long, in real life it passes quickly,
My generation writes the page with tears and fire.
To hell with the list of manoeuvres, look how stubborn we are,
look how we laugh right in the face of death».
(Pavlo Vyshebaba, DeepL translation) - «Only those live who do not live for themselves, but who fight for the lives of others»
(Vasyl Symonenko) - «People think that they change events, but sometimes events change people»
(Svitlana Talan)
The students demonstrated not only their knowledge of the Ukrainian language, but also their active involvement in its development in Ukraine and around the world. The Ukrainian language competition was organized to once again declare the prestige and timelessness of the language and to emphasize the key idea that the language is our weapon and amulet.
When Petro Yatsyk came up with the idea of a large-scale Ukrainian language competition, he wanted to show that the Ukrainian language is very important. He is firmly convinced that «wasting time complaining about the language situation is unproductive. It is better to focus entirely on the language education of children, fostering patriotic spirit, starting with the state language».
Holding this competition is important because of the patriotic rhetoric used by Petro Yatsyk. Therefore, the organizers of the language competition at Lviv Polytechnic continue to foster and develop the idea of the Great Ukrainian.
The results will be announced at 15:00 on October 31 in room 307 in the first academic building of the University.
