Living Culture - Ukrainian Style

Learning the language and culture of your ancestral heritage is a precious gift to open! Canada provides top notch public school education, and fabulous Ukrainian Bilingual Programs in many of the large cities, places like Edmonton, Vegreville, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Dauphin and Toronto. The students who are fortunate enough to participate often become polyglots - fluent in many languages - and not only in the languages of their familial ancestry. Elsewhere things are perhaps a bit more complicated.

Fortunately for "elsewhere", there are great opportunities opening up for summer studies in Ukraine. Take for example this L'viv Summer Course offered by the University of Alberta. They are announcing the twelfth annual travel study course hosted by the University of Alberta's Ukrainian Language and Literature Program  in L'viv, Ukraine to take place from May 17th to June 14, 2013.

Ukrainian Through Its Living Culture is an opportunity to explore the culture and local flavour of the Ukrainian world, while practicing your language skills in a living experience. If you are interested in what could be the most memorable experience of your life, you will find L'viv Ukraine is a beautiful city. The program itself is full of educational value, not only the academic kind, but learning from an immersion in the culture and daily life of this vibrant Western Ukrainian city.

A recent CNN article calls L'viv "Little Paris of Ukraine." That sounds like high praise to me, so it's a wonder that so many waves of Ukrainian immigration to Canada eminated from L'viv and area - there clearly must be layers of the story we don't necessarily know about in the western world.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/12/travel/lviv-ukraine-culture-capital/index.html

To make things even more interesting, I have discovered that there is financial support for potential candidates of this program too. Makes it a very worthwhile little detour from the daily grind, eh!

For more information, see the course site at

http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/ukraina/study_in_ukraine/ukrainian_through_its_liv/

or contact the instructors yourself at

Dr. Alla Nedashkivska, Associate Professor
Undergraduate Academic Advisor: Ukrainian
Chair, MLCS Curriculum Committee

Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
University of Alberta, 200 Arts Building
Edmonton, AB T6G 2E6
TEL [general office] (780) 492-4926
FAX 492-9106

Canadian Author, and a Kobzar?

Each new Canadian arrives here with some experience of the ancestral, the cultural, language and traditions of another home - an older world. Leaving the older world gives way for exciting synergistic energies, the melding of old and new, the fusion of ideas that draw the world to our shores.

Perhaps it is too early in the evolutionary curve to see the unique trajectory Canada's culture is taking, however some subtle hints can be gleaned. Ideas like the rule of law, ethical standards, younger economies, respect for nature and care for her health all have some resonance.  Some of these values are cumulatively different from the lives in ancestral homelands, but the older lands are also deep wells of accumulated wisdom.

Thank heavens for the Ukrainian experience of of Taras Shevchenko - Ukraine's Great Kobzar (bard). Twice recognized by UNESCO as a world cultural leader - his work continues to be a beacon of truth and hope. Reading Taras Shevchenko's poetry, whether in English or in the original Ukrainian is such a grounding experience. The words written over a hundred fifty years ago still ring true. Learn, he says, all the languages of the world, and get to understand people around you! Learn from their wisdom! Look forward and plan using these things you have learned, but always remember whence you came - and whisper a thank you, acknowledge those whose steps led you here.

Because of this terrific perspective, the Ukrainian community has for 8 years running, honoured Canadian writers who have used the Ukrainian Canadian experience in their literary work, with a Kobzar Literary Award. Who are are these Canadian bards - kobzari?

Larissa Andrysyshyn wrote Mammoth (2010)- a debut collection of poems celebrating life and loss, tragedy and beauty. 

Rhea Tragebov wrote about the sometimes difficult immigrant/emigration process in Knife Sharpener's Bell: A Novel (2009).

Shandi Mitchell's Under the Broken Sky is an engaging read about Canadian pioneers, farm life, survival and loss.

Myrna Kostash's strong voice in depicting the Ukrainian Canadian experience is again taking us on an epic journey through the Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium.

Myroslav Shkrandrij's Jews in Ukrainian Literature is a refreshingly warmer assessment of this interesting relationship.

So here is a recommendation for the reader on your Christmas list. Try these nominees, or opt for the winner of the 2012 Kobzar Literary Award - Shandi Mitchell's Under the Broken Sky. At least you know what is on my list for the holidays!