He could not distinguish between "or" and "but." How foreigners von Nolken, Abromavicius, and Chernyshov learned Ukrainian

On the morning of February 24, 2022, an unusual event took place in the office of the Ukrainian agricultural company Continental Farmers Group. The head of the logistics department, who was originally from Luhansk, gave an ultimatum. "He said: "In my department, from now on, only in Ukrainian", recalls the company's CEO Georg von Nolken. A German by birth, he realized that it was time to go over to Ukrainian. And now he speaks the state language fluently.

Other foreign top managers and entrepreneurs working in Ukraine have faced the same language need. How did they manage not only to learn but also to speak a language that was not their own? Life hacks from the German von Nolken, Lithuanian-born Aivaras Abromavičius, and Russian Pyotr Chernyshev.

Aivaras Abromavičius, former Minister of Economic Development and Trade, founder of Agro-Region

Lithuanian businessman Aivaras Abromavičius came to Ukraine in 2008, but he began speaking Ukrainian regularly only after 2022.

He served as Minister of Economic Development in 2014-2016, and in 2019-2020 he headed Ukroboronprom. While working in the ministry, he studied Ukrainian with a tutor, but it did not work.

"When you work 13 hours a day, and a teacher comes in the evening and you study with him for an hour, nothing comes to mind and you have no motivation," Abromavičius says.

When he became the head of Agro-Region, which he founded, the Ukrainian language became more prominent in his life. After all, the agricultural sector is more Ukrainian-speaking than other industries.

Now Abromavičius is fluent in the state language. To improve his language, he asks his Ukrainian wife to correct his mistakes. He also listens to Ukrainian videos, podcasts, and reads books to learn new words and expressions.

"If these words are very different from Russian, in a strange way they are more memorable to me," he smiles.

The entrepreneur practices a lot. For example, he speaks Ukrainian at conferences or forums. He assures us that it is not that difficult. "If I'm in good shape, have had a good night's sleep, and have knowledge of my topic, I can talk about it non-stop," he says.

The most difficult thing for the former minister now is writing in Ukrainian. If necessary, he uses his phone to correct his writing.

To master Ukrainian, Abromavičius advises listening to music, bloggers, socializing, watching Ukrainian content, and not trying to write without mistakes right away.

Petro Chernyshov, former president of Kyivstar, former head of Carlsberg in Ukraine

The former head of Kyivstar and Carlsberg in Ukraine, Petro Chernyshov, is a Russian by birth and graduated from Ural University.

He has been working in Ukraine since 2001 and received citizenship in 2015. Despite the fact that he constantly encountered Ukrainian-speaking people, he spoke Russian until 2022.

"Six months after the full-scale invasion, I decided that I needed to systematize my knowledge of Ukrainian," Chernyshov says. He found a teacher from Lviv, with whom he has been studying ever since.

One of the most difficult things to learn was to distinguish between the separating conjunction "or", which is used to express an alternative, and the opposing conjunction "but".

"I was confusing these words for a very long time. It was a complete mess. The teacher was trolling me hard," the entrepreneur recalls.

In addition to Russian, Chernyshov is fluent in English. He says that his knowledge of three languages creates a strange situation in his head: Russian lives in one part of his brain, while Ukrainian and English share another.

"And if I forget a Ukrainian word, I usually replace it with an English word, not a Russian one," he says.

Georg von Nolken, CEO of the agricultural holding Continental Farmers Group

Before working in Ukraine, Georg von Nolken had worked in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and until 2014 in the Russian Federation. Therefore, when he arrived in Ukraine, he began to understand Ukrainian almost from the first day, even though he spoke Russian.

After the start of the full-scale invasion and the ultimatum mentioned at the beginning of this article, he realized that it was time to communicate in Ukrainian. "I thought, 'Okay, I have no other options. I will finally learn Ukrainian," von Nolken recalls.

The biggest challenge for him was to move from passive language use to active language use. Von Nolken went to a tutor only a few times. The rest of the work was done by his colleagues and wife, who constantly corrected his speech. Now the entrepreneur speaks and reads Ukrainian, and writes with the help of an auto-corrector on his phone and computer.

"I will definitely never write a book in Ukrainian, it will be difficult. But basic things like letters or messages – no problem," he says.

Georg's main advice for learning a new language is not to be afraid to speak, even if you make mistakes. "The problem is often in your head," he says.

Von Nolken gives an example from his Czech experience. As a company manager, he had to deal with his employees, mostly tractor drivers, on a daily basis. Once, during important negotiations with bank representatives, he said that their commercial offer was "shit." After that, the office fell silent.

"I just knew the word meant something bad," von Nolken explains.

A bank representative who spoke English well explained to him what was wrong. However, the negotiations ended successfully. "Every language I've learned has had similar funny moments. You just have to accept it," says the entrepreneur.

Life hacks in language learning from a linguist who teaches Ukrainian to foreigners

Anna Ogoiko has been teaching Ukrainian for over 10 years. For the past few years, she has been working only with foreigners. She is the co-author of the Ukrainian Handwriting Book. In 2017, she taught Ukrainian at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States for a year.

There are difficult moments in learning every foreign language that are difficult for foreigners. In Ukrainian, it is the "I" sound, because there is no such sound in Romance languages. In fact, the linguist teaches foreigners a new sound for them. She works according to the principles of speech therapists.

"We use tongue twisters, listen to the sound, and compare it. I advise you to record yourself on a dictaphone," the teacher tells us about the methods of learning a new language.

Word shifting, the use of one word in different cases, which can be singular or plural, is also difficult for foreigners, says Ogoiko. That's why she advises listening to the language a lot, watching videos, and eventually the brain will organize them.

In general, the teacher says that since the start of the full-scale invasion, the number of people willing to learn Ukrainian has increased three to four times. "Before, Ukrainian was studied by those who came here to study, work, or have family here, but now it's different people. Among them are many volunteers who help Ukrainians and ordinary people who are just interested in Ukraine.