Ukrainians must speak English. Period.
There’s no way for Ukraine to develop as a global country if its citizens don’t speak the lingua franca of today’s world. While almost everything — from movies to scientific journals — comes out in English, Ukrainians are still surrounded by secondhand Russian ideas.
Oleksiy Danilov, the National Security and Defense Council secretary, has recently said that English can reinforce Ukraine’s national security at a time when Russian propaganda spins just about any news about Ukraine, waging a war of ideas along with actual war.
Surfing the web today, a Ukrainian who doesn’t know English — most of the population — faces a simple choice: to get news in Ukrainian or in Russian, the two languages spoken here. And while there’s nothing bad about knowing two languages, there are reasons to doubt the veracity of the information in Russian.
Russian is a beautiful language. But this century, it has turned into the language of anti-Ukrainian propaganda. Googling news about Ukraine in Russian means you’ll probably read the nonsense that discredits Ukraine. And Russian sources outnumber Ukrainian ones, generating loads of biased and distorted anti-Ukrainian ideas that locals are exposed to. The Ukrainian language, spoken by at least six times fewer people, can hardly win this battle without a strong ally.
English opens doors to impartial information, education and career.
Where can a person find a job if she knows Ukrainian and Russian? She can work in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and a number of Central Asian countries. Where can one work knowing English? Anywhere.
As a side effect, it can also improve diplomatic relations with Western countries. The Baltic and Scandinavian countries seem to prove that there is a correlation between speaking good English and running a developed country. But there are also more hedonistic reasons to know English. It is simply much more enjoyable to live when you can read books, watch films and play video games in their original language. It also helps you make new friends.
Today it’s hard even to watch a movie in Ukrainian. Google Play sells and rents movies only in English, while Netflix has only one feature film with Ukrainian dubbing. Most of Netflix’s content in Ukraine is dubbed in Russian; only a handful have Ukrainian subtitles.
Having limited themselves to their two native languages, most Ukrainians pirate movies through torrent trackers — from Russian enthusiasts who translate them to Russian.
Russian, Russian, Russian. Ukrainians are inundated with this language. While there’s not enough Ukrainian content to offer an alternative, learning English offers a way out.
Ukraine should acknowledge this fact on the government level and start building its policy around it, bringing more English to schools and universities. Once the youth speak it, Ukraine’s future is safe.
And the Kyiv Post, now in its 26th year, will be with Ukraine every step of the way as it moves to English fluency — a surefire way to improve education and the economy. We already have a program to send gift subscriptions to schools, supported by readers, to encourage the young generation. We would love to be a newspaper that all Ukrainians can read.
