Black Speaks Ukrainian in Capital Street Market

Once on a shopping tour of a street market, I spotted a Black selling jeans and chanting in fluent Ukrainian, «Please buy these pants. They're inexpensive...» He turned out to be a student from Nigeria. Remarkably, in response to his Ukrainian, prospective buyers would say in Russian, «Show me that pair over there. What size are they?» and so on. I found myself thinking that a man of culture is different from others because he never misses an opportunity to show respect for another nation by learning its history, art, and most importantly its language. This representative of faraway Africa learned Ukrainian in several years and now seemed to ridicule our local new Russian «intellectuals.» What independence can one expect with most urban residents using Russian thinking otherwise somebody might take them for peasants?

All talk about 20-30% of the populace being of Russian parentage is nonsense. Ambassadors take several months of courses in Ukrainian before turning up in Kyiv. I think that command of Ukrainian should be mandatory for every citizen of Ukraine. I think that allowing students to take entrance exams in the language of a different country should be regarded as unprecedented. If this is allowed by a presidential edict, it is another campaign stunt meant to gratify the Russian-speaking electorate. It is also more evidence that a bone tossed the crowd will not feed the people.