A unique academic year at Harvard: more and more students learn Ukrainian

The academic year 2023-2024 was marked for Harvard University by a record number of students who chose to study the Ukrainian language. Natalia Shpyliova-Sayid, a teacher of Ukrainian at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, told this in an interview with the Voice of America, UNN reports.

Details

Since 2023, the Ukrainian language has become a separate study program in the general catalog of Harvard University's educational programs. In addition, this year, for the first time, the university is offering a summer intensive course in basic Ukrainian.

This academic year, 15 students from different levels decided to study it, which, according to Halyna Hryn, president of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the United States, is "an unprecedented figure." For example, in 2018, 5-6 students attended Ukrainian courses at Harvard.

15 students studying the Ukrainian language - this has never happened at Harvard before

Despite the fact that interest in learning Ukrainian has increased, the study of russian in American higher education institutions still remains at a much higher level, Natalia Shpyliova-Said, a lecturer in Ukrainian at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, told the publication.

Recall

The number of students studying in a non-state language in Ukraine has decreased from 455,000 before the full-scale invasion to only 4,000 since the start of the invasion, representing a more than 100-fold increase in the number of students switching to Ukrainian language education in one year.

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