From January 24 to February 6, 2022, the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations, Lviv Polytechnic National University, held the XVI International Online School of Ukrainian Studies «Step to Ukraine».
Representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora and foreigners who want to get to know Ukraine from Kazakhstan, Germany and Japan became students of the School. During two weeks of intensive training, the students of the School not only studied the Ukrainian language, but learned more about Ukrainian culture, history and modernity.
At the XVI International School of Ukrainian Studies, the study took place in three groups, according to the levels of proficiency of Ukrainian (A2, B2, C1). The program of the School included daily classes in the Ukrainian language, daily conversational practices, workshops, virtual tours, and discussion clubs. IECDR researchers taught at the School, including Doctors of Philosophy, authors of textbooks on Ukrainian as a foreign language and scientific publications on the methods of teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language, in particular: Oksana Horda, Oksana Trumko, Olena Mytsko and Mariia Lyzak.
Within the School, students attended the master class on making a Christmas spider. It was conducted by the leading philologist of IECDR Olia Rusnak. During the master class, students of the School learned about the traditional Ukrainian craft – straw weaving, the ancient attribute of the Christmas holidays – a straw spider, learned about the legends and beliefs associated with this charm, learned about manufacturing technology and made the spider themselves from available materials – straws for juice.
No less interesting for the students of the School was the master class on traditional headscarves tying, which was conducted by IECDR researcher Oksana Halaichuk. She told students about Ukrainian traditional women’s and girls’ headscarves, acquainted with the customs of headscarves wearing and their modern use. The participants of the master class learned to tie a headscarf in different ways from different regions of Ukraine.
As part of the School, students had the opportunity to virtually visit the walls of the main building of Lviv Polytechnic, visit the recently renovated Assembly hall and reading rooms of the old library of the University. IECDR worker Nazar Danchyshyn conducted an excursion and told students about the history of the University.
Within a discussion club at the School there was a conversation about Ukrainian cinema: «Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors». Nazar Danchyshyn acquainted students with the history of making feature films by Serhiy Paradzhanov and Yurii Illienko, told about the preconditions for writing the literary novel of the same name by Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi, and features of the Ukrainian Poetic Cinema.
At the end students received certificates on the successful completion of the Ukrainian language course «Step to Ukraine» from Lviv Polytechnic National University.
