Bright future for our Network in Ukraine

Our Network is spreading in Ukraine. When we started in Uzhorod and Lviv in 2015, we met with a lot of enthusiasm there. The same warm welcome was felt at our visit to Ivano Frankivsk, where we spoke to teachers and students of school NR 2, who wanted to know more about our Network. They are seriously considering starting a Summer School there in June 2019. Plus they want to join our international Network.

The trip from Lviv to Ivano-Frankivsk was a great adventure for Anglia HQ Marketing Manager Sebastiaan Posma. It was his first visit to Ukraine and being on the train for 3 hours with local people who all seemed to want to learn English was a warm bath. “The trains are huge, the atmosphere very friendly, materials are different from what we are used to in England, but basically it was a wonderful experience.”

The excitement of our young colleague reminds us of similar feedback of the international teachers that have been involved in Summer Schools or EFKF Projects in the past decade. Our history with Ukraine dates back  to 2010 when a group of 4 EFKF volunteers taught at Kharkiv University for 2 weeks. The eagerness of the students to learn better English, their stamina and friendliness was impressive from the start.

Our future in Ukraine looks bright. We can see changes in the country where more and more people speak good English. There are still big groups, though, waiting to join the international language train. Technology is opening up a lot a new opportunities. Using mobile phones has changed communication completely. UA Schools have joined Building Bridges and are exchanging videos around the world, Skype meetings are becoming more and more popular. We are now developing a new support platform based on EDS, English Direct Support, that we have used for 3 years now. Additional elements LOL, Learning Out Loud, based on Sound Bites and Smoothies. Learning to speak better English  and feeling more confident to join a conversation are the targets. We predict a bright future for our Network in Ukraine.