The grand opening, which took place at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, was attended by renowned Ukrainian linguists, representatives of the diplomatic corps and cultural centers, Ukrainian politicians – members of the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Education. Perhaps the most honored guests of the event were Mr. Oke Peterson – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sweden to Ukraine – and Denis Daniilidis – First Secretary of the European Commission.
THE FIRST AND SO FAR THE ONLY ONE
As part of the event, a presentation was held of the first and so far the only museum of languages and linguistics in Europe, and possibly in the whole world (it is located in the red building of Kyiv University). The museum was created nine years ago – in 1992 by decree of the rector of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and with the active assistance of the university's Society of the Ukrainian Language in honor of the 50th anniversary of Ukraine's accession to the USSR. It was conceived as a museum of the languages of the peoples of the USSR, but recent events and news in the life of the country have made their own adjustments. How much the museum has outgrown its original purpose – judge for yourself.
The museum consists of five collections of materials on the languages of the peoples of the world and linguistics: a collection of graphic exhibits, a collection of language sound recordings, a collection of three-dimensional exhibits, a library collection and a collection of cultural objects.
The collection of graphic materials includes more than 300 stands of unique author's graphic works that illustrate various aspects and key issues of the science of world languages. These graphic works were created over 30 years by the head of the museum – Professor Konstantin Nikolaevich Tishchenko, Doctor of Philology, professor at the Institute of International Relations, as well as by students. The exhibition begins, as expected, with... the basics, or rather – with alphabets: a collection of primers from different countries of the world.
The collection of sound recordings of oral speech is also unique, containing more than 100 languages of the world. The foundation of this collection was laid back in the late 1950s by Professor A. O. Biletsky and Associate Professor T. S. Mishchenko. Time will pass, and their work will be supplemented, expanded and transferred to modern media by Professor Tishchenko.
The smallest (so far) is the collection of three-dimensional exhibits, including models of the human brain with designations of areas responsible for human language activity, models of cuneiform tablets, archaic analogues of writing.
The museum's library contains books in various languages of the world, including those with dedicatory inscriptions from world-famous linguists, textbooks and manuals of both well-known and relic languages: Basque, Welsh, Frisian, Manx, Breton, Galician, Catalan, Romansh, as well as languages of India, Africa, Asia and America.
WHAT THE YEAR OF LANGUAGES HAS IN STORE FOR US
The number of events planned for this year is huge: each of the 47 European countries that have expressed a desire to participate is preparing its own program. These will be meetings, seminars, conferences, festivals, theatrical performances, concerts. I will list only some of the events planned in our country: a week of introductory foreign language lessons (February 20-26, March 26-29, April 16-21), a European week of foreign language learning for adults (May 5-11), a language festival (May), "Lunaria" – a school performance in 14 languages (June), a language festival in Berdiansk (March 17-18). Plus numerous seminars and conferences. Let us add only that in our country the program is coordinated by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine.
To all of the above, we will only add that this week your correspondent is leaving for Budapest – for a preliminary meeting of the organizers of the seminar "Rainbow of Languages – a Bridge to Cultural Values", organized by TEJO – the international organization of young Esperantists with the support of the Council of Europe. The seminar itself will take place from March 25 to April 1 at the Youth Center in Budapest.