Languages, countries, politics: Is it possible to build bridges?
Nowadays, there is so much hostility in the world that it is sometimes hard to breathe. Wars fill it with anger and desperation. Thousands of people have to run away from their homelands and become refugees in countries like Canada, where they have to find new ways of living, and the first thing to overcome is a language barrier.
Sofia (the name is changed) ran from Ukraine with her two daughters. She had to come to Scotland and struggled with communication in a language she did not know. She contacted me (I am an English Language teacher) and asked for online lessons, but we couldn’t find time for meetings, so I refused. Then she told me something that shocked me and got me interested in her case: “I really need lessons. I’ve been living here for 8 months, I have a host family, I attend English courses, I work, but I cannot speak, and I don’t understand anything people say here”. And we started working. First, I identified what the problem was – she turned out to lack vocabulary and ability to distinguish words in a flow of speech – and we focused on new words, listening, and speaking. As we couldn’t have lessons even online, every day I sent her a task on the social network, and she diligently did everything. Eventually, we found time for the lessons and began to study twice a week. It’s been about two years now, and recently she has started an accounting course there in Scotland – a pretty crazy improvement considering that she used to work as a hotel housekeeper and couldn’t make a phrase in English. There is no need to say that I am very proud of her. This case shows just how far we can go if we are persistent and don’t give up. It’s almost always possible to find a way to overcome obstacles and reach your goals.
This story is my favorite for job interviews when they ask me to share my achievements as a teacher. However, aiming to surprise potential employers with my skills, I actually surprised them in another way. They were amazed by the fact that my student is Ukrainian – and I am Russian. As I see, people are quite sure that the Russians and the Ukrainians must hate each other. And this is understandable. When I meet someone from Ukraine here, I always have a feeling of guilt and uncertainty about how this person will think of me. I know it depends on their personal story because it is hard not to hate someone from the country that destroyed your home and killed your loved ones. Still, I know that examples of personal hate between Ukrainians and Russians are rare. All people treat each other as people in the first place. When the war started and thousands of refugees ran to foreign countries, some charity organizations started to work closely with Russians who wanted to help. One of the directions of their work was connecting language teachers from Russia and Ukrainian refugees for free online lessons to assist in overcoming the language barrier. Official Russia was fighting Ukraine, but people inside it reached out to help in a way they could. We all were people suffering from the war. None of my Ukrainian students from this project expressed any aggression. When I had troubles paying some administrative fees to come to Canada because it was impossible to pay from Russian bank accounts, I mentioned my problem to my other Ukrainian student who had moved to the USA. And he asked for the link and just paid for me. I wouldn’t come to Canada without his help, or at least it would take much more time and trouble.
I think my stories may show that, as long as people don’t play politics and remember that they are humans in the first place, there is some hope for a better future.