When solidarity speaks Ukrainian

A gesture of solidarity and respect

Anait’s motivation for learning Ukrainian stems from a deep conviction about justice and European unity. When Russia’s aggression against Ukraine began, she felt compelled to act. For her, learning Ukrainian represents more than acquiring a new skill – it’s a sign of respect and solidarity with a nation fighting for its democratic right to exist.

“I think it’s very important that democratic nations and Europe – and Ukraine is part of that for me – connect and cooperate,” she explains. Having grown up in Berlin with Caucasian names reflecting her family’s possible Armenian and Georgian heritage, Anait understands the complexity of identity and belonging. Her father never fully knew his ancestry, yet this uncertainty taught her that roots, while historically interesting, don’t define who you become.

From test tubes to translation

Anait’s professional journey reads like a European odyssey. After twelve years in biochemistry research, including studies in Potsdam and two and a half years working near Paris, she found herself longing for human connection. The laboratory environment, with its test tubes and invisible proteins, felt increasingly isolating.

Working alongside her Portuguese boss and colleagues, including one from Lithuania, opened her eyes to the richness of multilingual collaboration. This experience, combined with a personal crisis, led her to reconsider her career path. She realised that her love for languages could become more than a hobby – it could be her new profession as a translator.

Life beyond the laboratory

At this transitional phase of her life, Anait is rediscovering herself. She treasures her relationship with her seven-year-old nephew, who started school last year. Their time together involves letting him lead their play, watching his creativity unfold, and simply cooperating with his imaginative ideas.

Her interests are evolving too. Once passionate about long-distance running and the arts, she’s working to reactivate these dormant hobbies. Travel and outdoor activities still appeal to her, but she’s also developing a keen interest in security policy and military topics. She’s even considering joining the German military as a translator, and has joined an organisation supporting German veterans.

The challenge of Slavic complexity

Anait’s linguistic journey with Ukrainian built upon earlier experiences with Polish at age twelve and Czech at university. This foundation helped her navigate the additional grammatical cases that don’t exist in German, though Ukrainian still presented unique challenges.

The Cyrillic alphabet wasn’t entirely foreign either – her curiosity about Vladimir Vysotsky’s songs had motivated her to learn it years earlier. She wanted to understand the Russian singer’s regime-critical lyrics that fellow travellers sang around campfires. What surprises her most about Ukrainian are the subtle differences from other Slavic languages, particularly the consistent use of personal pronouns. She’s also fascinated by the intricate family relationship terminology that doesn’t exist in Germanic languages – discovering that being married is expressed differently for men and women, and that in-laws have different terms depending on whether you’re the husband or the wife.

Cultural bridges through language

Living in France taught Anait valuable lessons about cultural adaptation. In a small town outside Paris, she discovered that many French people preferred not to speak English, forcing her to adapt quickly to French. This experience reinforced her belief that language learning creates essential bridges between cultures.

Her time in Poland at age twelve left a lasting impression of Slavic hospitality. Staying with a generous family who shared their small flat, abundant food, and warm welcome with complete strangers exemplified what she sees as a distinctly Slavic concept of hospitality. Now, as she learns Ukrainian, these memories take on new meaning – connecting her not just to Polish culture, but to the broader Slavic world that Ukraine belongs to. These experiences fuel her conviction that Europeans must speak with each other, learn languages, and understand different cultures – something she believes becomes more important with each passing year.