STUDY YOUR WAY TO THE TOP
Ukrainian language for national communities
challenge
There is a lack of awareness among the national minority communities of Bukovyna and Zakarpattya regarding the potential advantages of speaking Ukrainian.
The Chernivtsi and Zakarpattya Oblasts are multinational regions where people from the local national minority communities typically communicate in Romanian or Hungarian, respectively. This also extends to education where schools offer teaching in Ukrainian, Romanian, and Hungarian.
In the 2019‒2020 school year, 13,518 students were educated in Romanian in Chernivtsi Oblast in, in 56 schools, while 18 schools had bilingual Romanian-Ukrainian instruction. In Zakarpattya, 17,192 students studied in the Hungarian language, and another 2,591 in Romanian. There were 72 schools which used Hungarian as their instructional language, while 27 had bilingual Hungarian-Ukrainian instruction, along 12 Romanian-language schools and 2 Romanian-Ukrainian bilingual schools.
At the same time, in many schools in these regions, the Ukrainian language is studied only as a separate subject, and classes are mostly conducted in the national minority language. Some schoolchildren do not know Ukrainian well enough to enter national universities and develop their careers in Ukraine. In particular, in 2020, 15% of graduates from Zakarpattya and 8.6% from the Chernivtsi region did not pass their Ukrainian language and literature entrance exams, which are necessary for admission to Ukrainian universities.
The national communities of these regions need more knowledge about how mastering the Ukrainian language will help them in their personal and professional lives.
decision
"Ukrainian is the language of opportunities"
To popularize the state language among national communities, the Internews Ukraine team developed a communication campaign titled Ukrainian language for national communities: learn to reach the top. We took a positive, pragmatic approach, telling stories of members of the Romanian and Hungarian-speaking communities for whom knowledge of the state language helped them to realize themselves in Ukraine.
The campaign was centered around the idea that "Ukrainian is the language of opportunities." By knowing Ukrainian, members of national minorities will have greater chances to get a high-quality higher education, build their careers, and provide a good living for themselves and their families in Ukraine.
The modern visual design helped attract the attention of young people and reinforce the main message that learning Ukrainian is appealing. Our team created a special movva logo: a combination of the popular emoji "ovva" (wow) and the word "language" (mova). This is how we conveyed our admiration for the Ukrainian language and desire to share it with others. The two dots that formed the emoticon's eyes are also part of the letter "ї," which is unique to the Ukrainian language.
Our campaign was aimed at young members of national minority communities, as well as the media and educators, in Chernivtsi and Zakarpattya Oblasts. Among other things, we:
- created and distributed 21 videos from Romanian- and Hungarian-speaking students and famous residents of Chernivtsi and Zakarpattya Oblasts on social networks. Adviser to the head of the Chernivtsi Regional Council Iulia Hrytsku-Andriesh, writer Andriy Sholtes, chef Edgar Petit, artist and poet Yosyp Bartosh, and other notable figures shared their own stories of success achieved thanks to the Ukrainian language;
- organized the two-day UKRAINIAN MOVVWA: new learning opportunities online workshop. Our expert presenters shared tips with media professionals and bloggers on creating viral stories and multimedia projects in Ukrainian;
- implemented a program of media grants for local publications to create stories which drew attention to the importance of the Ukrainian language in the life of national communities;
- held the Learn and Study during the War online educational marathon, in the spring of 2022. Over the course of 11 meetings, educators, students, and parents received useful advice from psychologists on preserving inner strength during wartime and effective tools to help make speaking Ukrainian appealing.
result
Created unity around the state language during modern Ukraine's most difficult period
Our communications campaign started during the COVID-19 pandemic and ended at the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. Despite these challenges, the campaign achieved a total reach of a record 8,000,000 views.
Our 21 video stories about the importance of the Ukrainian language for members of the country's national minority communities garnered almost 300,000 views.
Regional media in Zakarpattya and Chernivtsi Oblasts — including Varosh, TV21Ungvar, infopost, Libertatea, TVA and Gazeta de Herța — created 32 materials about the possibilities and advantages from learning Ukrainian. Articles and videos published in Hungarian and Romanian were viewed more than 7.5 million times.
3,500 users took part in our Learn and Study During the War online educational marathon Among other things, participants talked about learning, coping with stress, and fighting fakes. Children also enjoyed online readings by famous Ukrainian writers Kateryna Mikhalitsyna and Sashko Dermanskyi.
The high interest in the event at the beginning of the full-scale war proved that no obstacles can prevent Ukrainians, including members of national minority communities, from learning and improving their knowledge of the state language. After all, Ukrainian is the language of opportunities!
The Ukrainian language for national communities: Study your way to the top communication campaign was implemented by Internews Ukraine in cooperation with the Learning Together Project, with the financial support of the European Union and the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, and with the support of the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science. Its content is the sole responsibility of Internews Ukraine and does not necessarily reflect the positions of the European Union or the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.