Since February 24th Poles have been searching for different ways to help Ukraine and its people. As the basic needs are satisfied, new challenges are arising: communicating. Since not many Poles know Ukrainian or Russian and not everyone knows English at a communicative level, many courses of Ukrainian language are starting for Poles.
Ksenia Melnyk decided to create a sped-up course focusing on ‘practical’ Ukrainian. She teaches expressions used in everyday language and phrases especially helpful in stores, streets and on train stations when directing the refugees to proper trains or offices. Melnyk’s course started today and there will be three more meetings: on March 17th, 21st and 24th. Each class costs 10 PLN and they take place in Chmura Cafe.
Many universities including Warsaw, Wroclaw and Jagiellonian University will start or have already started online courses of Ukrainian for their students. Besides that, students of Applied Linguistics offer help in translating from and to Ukrainian, Polish, Russian and English.
There is also a Ukrainian course dedicated to teachers. The Teachers’ Training Center offers a series of free online classes for elementary, middle and high school teachers. The meetings are every Friday at 7 P.M., and the links are put up on their Facebook.