Growing up as bilingual (or poly-lingual) can pose several challenges, which monolingual people cannot grasp at the first (and even second) glance. In this article I describe the lessons which I learned from being raised in such linguistically enriched environment.
Actually I was interested in foreign languages and wanted to become an interpreter in my childhood but chose a career in IT instead. In the end, business analysis is kind of translation between business language and IT language. I was born in the Eastern Ukraine (on this point everybody makes a sad face, but no worries, everything is fine in my home city) and as most people in the Eastern Ukraine was raised as Russian-Ukrainian bilingual. But it started in a little bit more complicated and awkward way.
Several years of my childhood my family lived in Uzbekistan because of the jobs of my parents. Because both of my parents were employed, I went to the local Uzbek kindergarten, and learned the language and spoke it fluently. But after several years, upon returning to my home city in Ukraine I quickly forgot it. Actually according to my mum I only spoke Uzbek when I was ill or in a sleep. So, the first lesson I learned — a language is a muscle. If you do not train it, it diminishes.
Actually the vast majority of the population in the big cities of the Eastern Ukraine, like my family, is Russian speaking (the reasons for it are complicated and beyond the scope. For those interested in the topic it is very good described in this article. To put the long story short, the ancestors of most Eastern Ukrainians were speaking Ukrainian, but were forced to switch to Russian during Soviet times, for example by killing people speaking Ukrainian). But almost all the people understand and can use both languages, as Ukrainian is the only national language in Ukraine and is spoken (or supposed to be spoken) in the kindergartens, schools, universities, radio, TV and other state official channels. The mixing of languages or “surzhyk” is actually very common, especially among people with not very high number of years in education. Of course there are kindergartens and schools with Russian as primary language, but the most prestigious and high-quality schools were actually Ukrainian, like the school I went to. Most teachers spoke decent Ukrainian in the class, but some of them did not have good language skills, because Ukrainian was not properly taught in many institutions before 1991. So, some teachers either switched to Russian or spoke the language mix with the frequent usage of Russian words. The textbooks were all in Ukrainian, which sometimes lead to some kind of linguistic chaos in the class. Recent studies show that multitasking does not work and such kind of switching is counterproductive, but it taught me a big portion of flexibility and the skill to quickly navigate between the contexts.
In school I learned English, German and French as foreign languages. At some point, I started perceiving a language as a tool for describing information which did not even matter by itself. Sometimes I read a text and afterwards I could not tell in which language it was written. But the longer I learned the languages, the more I dived into them the more conscious I became. After becoming fluent in a language, it becomes clear that each language sets a frame of thinking and defines the mindset for expressing the content. This is why it is so difficult to learn a new language. Speaking several languages is like having multiple personalities — I am a different person depending on the language I am speaking- a little bit more playful when speaking English, serious and formal when speaking German (it is generally hard to be playful speaking German for non-native speakers I guess) and kind and soft when speaking French. And actually in such complicated linguistic environment speaking a clean and correct language is what distinguishes you. It is having an identity and clear mindset that sets you apart from others.
And then came the war. Usually you imagine the occupants or enemies attacking your country as some aliens or at least complete foreigners. When people speaking the same language as you occupy a part of your country and start a war in the other part, killing and torturing your countrymen, it is quite shocking and awkward. Before the war, the language issues were self-regulated in a natural way. In everyday life, nobody was really concerned about it and as I said it was not really a problem. After the war started, people became extremely cautious and sensitive about the issues. The easiness and playfulness of the language environment faded away. The language became for many people one of the ways to distinguish the enemy from a friend.
Many of my friends switched from Russian to Ukrainian in their everyday lives. For some time I was also very uncomfortable speaking Russian. I did not want to be brought in connection with the occupants and terrorists. With many of my friends I also switched to Ukrainian at least in chatting and messaging or completely even during meetings ( I never thought that would be so awkward to switch to the other language with people you know for years). I try to speak mainly Ukrainian when I am back in Ukraine and read a lot in the language because I want to discover that part of my identity. But then gradually I actually made peace with speaking Russian. Because a large part of Ukrainian army protecting my friends speaks Russian. Because Russian is also a part of my identity and heritage and nobody can occupy the right to speak a language, even if they have weapons and “green men”. Actually, sharing a language with your enemy is not always a disadvantage because you know his flaws and weaknesses better and can use the knowledge smartly.
But fortunately, a language did not become the only marker of friend or enemy. Nowadays in Ukraine you can easily hear two people speaking to languages- one asking in Russian and another responding in Ukrainian. At least I do not feel any discomfort when speaking Russian when I am there. Maybe one day the linguistic agility and playfulness which I experienced when growing up will come back with peace and everybody will make inner peace with their complicated identities whatever language they speak.
