For this presentation, I will be talking about Ukrainian political music and the various ways it is used.
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I feel like I accomplished my goals of being able to improve my listening comprehension skills. By watching children's shows, game shows, movies and the news, I was able to slowly start understanding speech patterns better. I am also a lot better at being able to tell when something is being spoken in Russian, and when it is being spoken in Ukrainian. Through all of the Ukrainian language I have listened to this semester, I started to be able to tell the differences in sounds a lot faster than last semester.
I still have a little more trouble pronouncing things in Ukrainian than I do in Russian. I'm not sure if Russian just feels more natural to me because I have more experience with it, or if Ukrainian is just harder to pronounce. In any case, I have grown to like the sound of Ukrainian better than Russian, which I think can be attributed to the massive increase in the amount of Ukrainian I have heard this semester.
Overall, I am excited to increase my grammar knowledge this summer at Ukrainian language school. I think that because I have taken this semester to improve upon my listening comprehension, I will have an easier time absorbing the instruction at the Ukrainian language school.
Over these last two weeks, my language partner and I watched a Frozen in Ukrainian without English or Ukrainian subtitles. We thought that it would be a good idea to try that because I already know that film pretty well (younger siblings), and I actually was surprised with how much I was able to get out of it. It helped that I pretty much know the dialogue by heart, but seeing it in Ukrainian was interesting because I was able to hear different ways that things would be said in Ukrainian. We also continued to watch/read the news in both English and Ukrainian, and that has been helpful too. As of now, I am feeling more prepared to move to Ukraine in September.
By examining Ukrainian patriotic music, I feel that I have a deeper understanding of how Ukrainians think about their difficult history, and how they make sense of the current state of corruption. Based on the music they produce, there is a significant amount of anger about past oppression and current corruption within their own government. The music also demonstrates an impressive amount of fortitude, as these people have faced trial after trial, but still try to rally together to make changes. The influence of oppression is deep in Ukraine, but somehow Ukrainians have managed to grab onto usable elements of their past (Cossack myths, traditions with vyshyvanka, and the preservation of the Ukrainian language) and use these elements to remind people that, as the national anthem states, Ukraine is not yet dead.
In this artifact, I answer the question of who my favorite contestant on Ukraine's version of "The Voice" is. I tell that my favorite is Elena, because she has a great voice and she is young, but extremely mature. I also talk about my favorite song that she performed. The song was called 1944, and it is about the Crimean Tatars being deported under Stalin.
The more I explore Ukrainian music, the more aware I become of the complexities of political relations in Ukraine. The 2016 Eurovision winning song was called 1944, and performed by Ukrainian-Crimean Tatar Jamala. The song talks about the mass deportations under Stalin of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, which was a brutal time. The choice to send a song about mass human rights violations and deportations in Crimea was no accident, and it was clearly a political message referring to Putin's illegal annexation of Crimea. The song is sung partially in English and partially Crimean Tatar, which is certainly a minority language in the world, but it is listed as the second language of Russia, and the fourth in Ukraine. The political nature of the song, combined with its strong emotional appeal likely lead to the song being named the winner of the competition.
Over these two weeks, my language partner and I took a break from the newscasts and instead did something a bit more fun. We watched the popular Ukrainian competition show "Holoc Deti," which is essentially "The Voice" in Ukrainian. I really enjoyed doing this because it was a change of pace from what we had been doing before, and I understood a lot more during the show than I thought I would. Hearing the language and how it is used conversationally (as opposed to on a news broadcast) was helpful for me because I feel like this is the type of language I will hear in daily life in Ukraine.
For this artifact, I summarize a news article about a bomb being thrown into a Polish Embassy in Lutsk, a relatively calm and safe western town in Ukraine.
My language partner and I have been working on watching news reports and reading corresponding news articles to help me increase my listening and comprehension skills. It is challenging to understand the news reporters, as they talk very quickly, however, I have found that if I keep myself informed about what is going on in Ukraine (in English), the understanding the general topic that reporters are talking about becomes much more understandable. My learning activity is below:
1. вибрати статтю з газети читати.
2.Підсумувати статтю. Що сталося? Хто бере участь?
3. що ви думаєте про ці новини? це хороша новина чи погана новина?
This activity asks students to read a newspaper article, summarize it, and share an opinion about what happened. This is essentially what I have been doing with my language partner.
I think my learning activity is effective in soliciting answers about a newspaper article from a student. The questions guide the student and help them understand what needs to be talked about. These are the types of questions my language partner asks me after I read an article or watch a news segment. Although they are relatively elementary questions, I feel that they are helpful in guiding my thoughts and helping me put together a coherent answer in Ukrainian.
This is a file of me talking about the recent development that Russia has chosen a singer to compete in Ukraine for Eurovision who performed in Crimea following the illegal annexation of Crimea. I talk about how it seems like a political move to provoke Ukrainians and make them angry and uncomfortable in their own country.
Recently, Belarus screened a "documentary" in Russian about the Ukrainian Holy Hundred (the people who were killed by police and the Berkut during the Maidan protests in 2013-2014). The documentary falsely claims that the Holy Hundred were actually killed by protestors, and not by the police. This documentary has naturally caused a stir in Ukraine because people feel that it is hugely disrespectful to the people who lost their lives fighting for their country on the Maidan. This documentary ties in with my cultural project, because I have been finding political songs that are about Maidan and the Orange Revolution. Comparing the difference in treatment of the Holy Hundred in Ukrainian v. Belorussian media is an interesting task, as they both have such different takes on the issue. Despite these different takes, however, it is clear that the Belorussian documentary is completely false propaganda with the goal of discrediting Ukraine in the eyes of Russian-speaking people in Belarus, Russia, and (maybe) Ukraine.
I am really enjoying the learning methods that I am using this semester. I feel that the way my language partner and I have been studying will give me a huge edge when I go to Ukrainian school this summer, because I am seriously working on my listening comprehension. While it is still easier for me to understand what is being spoken when I can read along, I am getting better at hearing and understanding without reading along. I have been working with my language partner by watching cartoons, listening to music, watching TV shows and watching the news to improve my listening comprehension. I did actually notice an improvement when I was in Ukraine over spring break. I was actually able to hear the difference between Russian and Ukrainian, and, even better, I was able to understand a lot more in Ukrainian than I did when I was there over winter break.
Over these two weeks, my language partner and I began trying branch out from cartoons and simple TV shows to watching the news. While it is definitely more difficult for me to understand what the news anchors talk about (they talk very quickly), I have found it interesting to watch Ukrainian news. I have a google alert set up so that I get updates on Ukraine (in English) on my email every morning, so that is actually very helpful for me when watching Ukrainian news. I think that having the background knowledge about things that are going on in English helps me put the pieces together better when I watch in Ukrainian. Usually, we watch a few segments and then we talk about it to make sure I understood what was going on. I often have questions, though, because there have been times when the speaker slides between Russian and Ukrainian, and I go from not understanding much to understanding everything. I know that this is something I will have to get used to (as many Ukrainians do speak with a mix of Russian and Ukrainian), but it still throws me off at this point. I still have to work hard to keep the two languages separate in my mind, so when people mix them together purposefully, it really confuses me.
Over these two weeks, I worked with my language partner on maintaining my grammar and improving my listening comprehension (through cartoons, songs and spoken stories). My language partner has started finding some children's stories for us to use in our lessons. He reads them to me, and then he asks me questions about them. It is much easier for me to answer the questions when I have the story in front of me so that I can read along when he is reading, but I know it is important for me to develop my listening skills enough that I do not have to see the words being spoken in order to comprehend them. We are working on taking away that crutch, but for now, it is more effective for me to read along.
I have also been working on finding some songs for my cultural project. Through these songs, I have learned new Ukrainian words and phrases, and I have also been able to gain a deeper insight into the political climate of Ukraine.
I have noticed an interesting trend in Ukrainian political music so far. The songs that are being produced and sung are not all in Ukrainian, which is what I would have anticipated, seeing as these songs are overwhelmingly patriotic in nature. I have found patriotic Ukrainian songs sung in English and Russian (in addition to Ukrainian), which at first struck me as odd, but after remembering that Ukraine is a multi-lingual nation with reasons to publish their political songs in languages other than Ukrainian, it made more sense. One of the songs that I found in Russian is called Вставай (Stand up), and not only is the message overwhelmingly patriotic, the music video evokes traditional images of Cossacks and Ukrainian peasants. The song is about the struggle between Ukraine and Russia for Ukrainian sovereignty, and the music video begins sometime in the past in a peasant village. A group of Russian soldiers ride into the village on horseback and terrorize the village, killing young children, implying rape of women, and burning down the entire village in the process. A traditional Ukrainian Cossack comes to the rescue, but is unable to save the entire village. The final scenes of the video take us into present day Ukraine, with the lead Russian soldier from the village (dressed in present day clothes) versus the Cossack (still in Cossack attire). The two fight in the streets, and the Cossack is able to kill the Russian, but ends up dying from a stab wound. A young boy passing by picks up the Cossack's sword, which has a message of "stand up, fight" printed on it.
Obviously, this is a very strong propaganda song for Ukrainians, as it shows Russians as long time antagonists to Ukrainian sovereignty and way of life. The fact that this very Ukrainian song was sung in Russian was confusing to me at first, but I think it was done purposefully to reach some of the Russian speaking population in Eastern Ukraine, where the fighting is the most intense.
Over the last two weeks, my language partner and I have watched and discussed several Ukrainian cartoons. This strategy of watching cartoons is meant to increase my listening comprehension abilities. At first, I had some difficulty understanding the dialogues in the cartoons, but then we found some with Ukrainian subtitles as well, so it became much easier. I think of these subtitles as training wheels, because of course in real life there will not be any subtitles to rely on. One of my goals that stemmed from using subtitles is to be able to understand cartoons without using subtitles by the end of the semester. I think that it can be possible, especially because of the supplementary visuals that exist while watching a cartoon.
This semester, I will focus on modern day Ukrainian political music. Originally, I thought about doing my project on folk music, but I realized (by accident) that the modern day politically charged music coming out of Ukraine is more relevant and interesting. The conflict with Russia, Russian backed separatists in the East and the widespread government corruption in Ukraine all shine through in the music that is popular. As far as I can tell, there was a large increase of political pop music during and after the Maidan Revolution. This element of Ukrainian culture is complicated and difficult to understand because there are so many moving parts, however, I believe that researching this topic can begin to show much about Ukraine's current culture in the wake of multiple political and social crises.
Based on my work from last semester, I would consider myself at level 1 intermediate. Because I have been accepted to an intensive summer Ukrainian program, I decided that for this semester, I will not focus as much on grammar, but instead I will focus on listening comprehension. In order to do this, my language partner and I will watch Ukrainian films (starting with children's cartoons and working our way up to something more applicable like the news or a sitcom). We will also work together on things like listening to a dialogue and answering questions. We will spend the first month working with very simple material (cartoons designed for children) and then we will move to watching a show designed for more advanced audiences (sitcoms or game shows), and for the final month, we will try to watch the news. I anticipate that the news will be the most difficult to understand because they often speak quickly.
