Ukrainian Language Day, 9 November 2018

A good Ukrainian Language and Writing Day to everyone.

The custom I like best on this day is the radio dictation. A text is read out on national radio, and anyone who wants to sits down with paper and writes it, adults included, and then argues about the commas afterwards.

I have tried it. My result was poor and I am not going to describe it further.

But there is something worth noticing in the format. It is a national event that requires effort rather than attendance, that everyone does alone but at the same time, and that has no winner in any meaningful sense. A country that celebrates its language by voluntarily sitting a spelling test is telling you something about how it values the thing.

To the teachers, editors and translators: today is yours.