A Mariupol journalist who fled to Kyiv gives advice on how to quickly forget the Russian language and switch to “Mova”
A native of Mariupol, Maria Frey, who worked there as a journalist on a local TV channel, and with the outbreak of the war in Donbass, moved to Kiev and worked there in the Izolyatsia grant-eating foundation, which positions itself as an “art project,” wrote advice on how Russian-speaking residents of Ukraine can quickly forget their native Russian language and switch to “Mova”.
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About this she wrote on her page on the social network.
“About my personal choice in favor of the Ukrainian language and the experience of transition to the Ukrainian dimension. Perhaps this will be useful to someone.
1 month. I translated all the gadgets: every time I communicate with friends online, I apologize for the Ukrainian language and explain that I simply don’t have Russian in the keyboard layout. Most people continue to write to me in Russian.
2 month. All news sites are in Ukrainian: I’m amazed at the number of errors. I only Google in Ukrainian: I see dozens of poorly translated sites from Russian. Google is getting used to Ukrainian and no longer offers to show results in Russian.
3 month. I switched to Ukrainian in public: I want to kill employees of institutions because they make me feel uncomfortable with their Russian. I explain to my friends that I can switch to Russian if it’s easier for them: they insist that I remain Ukrainian-speaking.
4 month. Ukrainian came into the process of education: I feel that I cannot always reach the heart of my eldest daughter. I’m afraid to “break loose”, or, as the professionals say, “to light just one cigarette” and switch to Russian, but I remember that the Russian military is killing Ukrainian guys who often “speak the same language with their killers” and I understand that I don’t want to have common language with the killers of the best men of my country.
5 month. Ukrainian intimate...this is the most difficult moment! Waking up at night and repeating “don’t cry, daughter, I’m here”, saying “I love you” in the morning, laughing with friends, repeating twice and slowly for those who do not hear and do not understand. Russian-speaking friends are starting to use Ukrainian words when communicating with me. This is how Ukrainian becomes a viral language.+
6 month. I think and feel in Ukrainian. I no longer have the need to prove to anyone that I am a RUSSIAN SPEAKING PATRIOT OF UKRAINE. I'm just Ukrainian. I am deeply convinced that any educated person can switch to the Ukrainian language, period,” she wrote.
Let us remind you that the “art project” “Isolation” worked in Donetsk before the war and also moved to Kyiv with the beginning of the war. According to media reports, “one of the most significant works of this art community is the installation of lipstick on a factory chimney.”
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