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A short story about how I didn’t learn Ukrainian…
To be honest, I had never really considered learning Ukrainian. I didn’t have a real need for it, I didn’t know anyone from Ukraine, and even though I’ve always lived relatively close to the border, it never once crossed my mind to visit.
The first time I thought that knowing the language might actually make a difference was when I started working as a Polish language teacher.
The students I began building relationships with — not just as a teacher, but as people — were mostly from Ukraine. And suddenly, I could see two clear benefits of learning their language:
- first of all, I’d be able to teach Polish from absolute beginner level using simple explanations in Ukrainian and a basic shared vocabulary,
- secondly, I’d better understand the challenges my students face by seeing the similarities and differences between our languages.
In July 2023, I had my very first Ukrainian lesson.
My teacher? Absolutely brilliant. Well-prepared, patient, and great at explaining everything from scratch.
And yet, when December came and it was time to reflect on the year, I realised something quite frustrating:
I still couldn’t speak Ukrainian.
How was it possible that after six months of one-to-one lessons, I hadn’t made any real progress?
So I took a step back and reflected. The conclusions came quickly.
- I didn’t have the time — or at least, that’s what I told myself. I showed up to lessons because they were in my calendar, but outside that one hour a week, I did absolutely nothing. I genuinely thought that would be enough to learn at least the basics.
- I didn’t fully engage during lessons. I stayed quiet, avoided speaking, and didn’t push myself to try — even imperfectly. Most of my answers were limited to a single sentence, and I rarely developed my thoughts.
- I didn’t ask questions or take notes. I assumed I’d remember everything. Even though my teacher made notes for me on screen, I didn’t feel the need to write anything down. At one point, I realised I couldn’t even read handwritten Cyrillic.
- I didn’t do my homework. I told myself I didn’t have time and that it wouldn’t make much difference anyway. And whenever I did try, I quickly came across something I didn’t understand — which discouraged me straight away. I didn’t want to make mistakes… so I stopped trying altogether.
- I didn’t learn vocabulary. I assumed most words were similar to Polish, so I’d just “figure them out” when needed.
Everything changed in January.
And within just three weeks, both my teacher and I could see a clear difference. What changed?
- I scheduled learning time into my day. Not three hours, not even a full hour — just 15–20 minutes of focused learning, without distractions.
- I started doing my homework properly and marking the parts I struggled with, so I could go over them in class. If something felt too difficult, I looked for hints online (not answers!) or asked my teacher. Even when I got things wrong, I realised I was still moving forward.
- I asked for more practice in areas I found difficult. After enough repetition, things that once felt complicated became surprisingly simple.
- I surrounded myself with the language. In the evenings, I watched short videos in Ukrainian. While driving, I listened to podcasts. I didn’t understand everything — probably not even 50% — but I was getting used to the rhythm of the language and reinforcing words I already knew.
- I started taking handwritten notes. This helped me remember more and practise the Cyrillic alphabet. And once something was written down, I was far more likely to come back to it.
The changes I made were small — but the results were huge. And the best part? These methods don’t just work for learning Ukrainian. They work for any language.
Big steps are great — but who says they’re better than a series of small, consistent ones? I’ve already scheduled my next language “check-in” in six months’ time. And I’m really curious to see how far I’ll have come.
Paulina