From the 4th to 8th November at the faculty of FPSC lasted a thematic week, dedicated to the Day of Ukrainian Writing and Language. The pinnacle of it was writing the All-Ukrainian Radio Dictation of National Unity by students and lecturers.
It all began, as it expected, on Monday. A number of interesting activities were organized by the student's self-government: competition for the best congratulation on the Day of Ukrainian Writing and Language, lexical quiz, in terms of which students, lecturers and guests of the university guessed the meanings of words and explained the offered idioms. There was also a board game festival «Igrobum». For winning and participating in these activities, students, lecturers, and staff received nice gifts.
The writing of the All-Ukrainian Radio Dictation of National Unity, the opening of Taras Shevchenko International Linguistic and Literary Competition of Pupils and Students and Petro Yatsyk International Competition of Ukrainian Language Experts were the symbolic ending of the holiday week.
All willing students and lecturers of the faculty of FPSC and other structural units of SumDU gathered in one of the largest university classrooms. It was full to bursting.
Organizers explained the rules that have changed a bit this year: each participant sent his personal paperwork within fifteen minutes after completing the dictation to UA: Ukrainian Public Radio's e-mail box for checking. The dictation was also broadcasted online by UA: The First Channel. The associate professor of Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, famous linguist Oleksandr Avramenko, traditionally read the text. Actually, he improved it taking into account new orthography rules.
The faculty of FPSC student Leila Vyshniak confessed to us that a radio dictation is a good way to test your literacy:
– Before I did not think about taking part in writing a dictation, but then I wanted to check myself. In total, I have made three mistakes. I can boast – I have correctly put all punctuation marks. But there is still much to learn.
Perhaps it is impossible to overlook the fact that foreign students wanted to check with a great interest their knowledge of Ukrainian. Thus, the student of the medical faculty Audrey Awni says that she knows and understands Ukrainian a little, and that is the reason she came:
– I’ve decided to write the dictation, because I wanted to know what it would be and see my results. I could understand a lot, but not everything of what was said was clear to me. I’ve got a great experience.
Nataliia Prokopenko, PhD in Philology, Lecturer of the Department Journalism and Philology, Organizer of the Ukrainian-speaking Week at the faculty of FPSC, shared her thinking on the importance of such competitions:
– Whatever terrible it may sound, but the war gives both impetus to the development of the economy, and to unity and cohesion of the nation. And on the way of acquisition of national identity, Ukrainian-language contests and events are gaining a great relevance. Although they are held annually, but today there is an especial need of them.
The vice-dean of the faculty, Olena Medvid, expressed her gratitude to all present for their informed choice to test themselves as specialists in Ukrainian. She also stressed the importance of improving language skills.
Karyna Khachatarian, a journalist student, a multiple winner of language competitions, was given a floor, too. She told the audience that that year the Taras Shevchenko language-literary competition would be held for the eleventh time, so she would take part for the eleventh time in that competition.
– The competition is a great opportunity to show your creativity.
... «Although digitization makes communication easier for us, the spoken word has its own magic power," - teachers and students of the faculty of FPSC of SumDU write the last sentence of this year's dictation and they agree that “it unites us in the Ukrainian family».
Kateryna Shestak, student of the group ZhT-61.
P.S. This year's writing All-Ukrainian radio dictation of national unity by the faculty of FPSC of SumDU was widely covered by local mass media: UA: Sumy; "Vidikon"; STS and others.
