Mother Language Day at ONMedU

The native language is the knowledge and value of every nation, which is passed down from generation to generation. International Mother Language Day was celebrated on February 21, a holiday designed to remind people of the cultural diversity and multilingualism of the world, as well as the fact that people have the right to speak their native language in their country. Ukrainians have been fighting for the right to speak their native language for centuries, and now this struggle continues.

Last week, the winners of our university took part in a quiz developed by Antonina Khanetska, a teacher of the Department of Social Sciences, with questions about the history of this holiday and the peculiarities of the Ukrainian language. Congratulations to the participants who gave all the correct answers – Maryna Kovash, Julia Suprun, Yaryna Mykhailova, Kateryna Kryshtofor, Victoria Dotsenko, Anna Novytska, Eduard Malkov, Denis Hrytsai. Thanks to everyone who participated and showed high results!

In addition, teachers of the department of social sciences under the leadership of the head, associate professor Olha Sikorska, held a series of events to inform about this holiday. Winners prepared reports and presentations, thought about the importance of communicating in their native language.

Foreign winners took an active part in the events. Teacher Lyubov Netrebchuk discussed with them how many languages there are in the world (almost 7,000!), why it is so important to preserve linguistic diversity, what a native language is, why it is important to speak one’s native language. The interviewees were from Morocco. They said that at home with their parents they speak the Moroccan dialect of Arabic – Derija, at school they study literary Arabic, and they know French well. In their linguistic world, many languages are interwoven in strange patterns: Arabic, Berber, Spanish, French, English, and now, thanks to studying in Ukraine, Ukrainian has been added. The winners noted that learning the Ukrainian language is very important for them today, because they support  Ukrainian people in the struggle for their freedom and existence.

 The information was presented by
Associate Professor of the Department of Social Sciences
Olena Uvarova