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My adventures in ENGin - helping Ukrainians practice English: Part 2 [1]

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Date: 2024-11-03  

Many of my friends have heard me talking about the ENGin program, which connects fluent English speakers with young Ukrainians who wish to practice speaking English. I’ve volunteered with ENGin since February, and just requested a second conversation partner (she and I talked for the first time, this past week).

I hope you already know about the Russian invasion of independent Ukraine, and I hope you can imagine what it means to someone in Ukraine to practice a language that helps to free Ukraine from Russian influence, and ties it more closely to the western world.

When I talk with people about volunteering with ENGin, I often hear these questions:

“Will I be able to understand my conversation partner?”: Yes. ENGin participants are tested for knowledge of English, and most are rated as “advanced”.

“What will we talk about?”: That will NOT be a problem! My conversation partners are both smart, and both have opinions. We have often talked about different parts of Ukraine, different parts of the United States, and different parts of Europe (both of my conversation partners have traveled outside Ukraine for work). There are structured lesson plans if you need them (about movies, and sports, and political ideas, and a bunch of other topics), but I’ve only needed to use one or two of them.

“Do I have to teach my conversation partner about the (complicated) English language?: No. What your conversation partner needs, is to practice speaking English with someone who is not also a Ukrainian who needs to practice speaking English!

“Is it a problem if I speak English with an accent?”: That’s actually very helpful. People in Ukraine are very likely to speak English with someone in Europe, who is not a native English speaker. Anyone who wants to do business outside Ukraine also wants to practice English. This is also true for Ukrainian researchers - English is still the language of international science.

If you speak English fairly fluently, that’s really all that’s required.

I just read that there are about 100 Ukrainians who are registered with ENGin, but are waiting for a conversation partner. If you speak English fairly fluently, you can help. What are you waiting for?

(You can find out more on the main ENGin Program web page. And, of course, if you have questions, please ask here - I’ll pay attention, and other people who volunteer with ENGin also answered questions on my previous post)

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2024/11/3/2282150/-My-adventures-in-ENGin-helping-Ukrainians-practice-English-Part-2

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