Tuesday, May 10, 2011

How to get to Ukraine: step 1

I decided about a month ago that I would try to get a Fulbright Fellowship.  Fulbright Fellows travel to a country outside of the US for about ten months where they do research.  They also have a program where students go to a foreign country and teach English.  That sounded perfect for me.  I found out about this program from a friend who was applying at the time.  She was recently accepted to go to Scandinavia     

Anyway, this seemed like a great opportunity to travel and learn about other languages/cultures.  After much research, I determined that the best country for me to visit would be Ukraine.  I want to go to Eastern Europe and Ukraine has the benefits of a large program without the drawback Russia has: a strict language requirement.  The best part is, the US government will pay for it, if I can get in.  That's the hard part.

Technically, step 1 would be to start filling out the application, but that wouldn't make for an interesting blog post.

Step 1: begin to learn Ukrainian

The Teach Yourself Ukrainian book is sitting on my bed right now.  The UPS guy literally delivered it as I was starting to write this post.  Opening the package will be my reward for finishing this post.

One of my goals this summer is to learn basic Ukrainian.  I currently have two semesters of Russian completed.  This could be a big help or a big hindrance, I don't know which yet.  Russian and Ukrainian very similar languages.  I have trouble keeping Spanish and Russian strait.  They mix in my head.  It's like my brain has a section for English and then a section for other languages.  So, if I randomly speak Ukrainian in Russian class next fall this will be why.

Now to open the package and begin.

1 comment:

  1. Many prayers for your new language learning. Have fun.

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