Learn Ruthenian with us short internet lessons

Innovator: Natalija Budinski, https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalija-budinski-7624b680/

Organisation: Association Rustem, Ruski Krstur

Setting of the practice: online

Description of the practice:

The Ruthenian language belongs to the micro Slavic languages. A part of Ruthenians lives in Vojvodina and while many are aware of their origin, some of them do not speak or speak the Ruthenian language not well enough. In the Republic of Serbia, members of the Ruthenian national community have the opportunity to acquire education in the Ruthenian language at all levels. However, there are not many opportunities to learn the Ruthenian language in an informal setting. Today's connection of the world through the Internet as well as distance learning can contribute to making the learning of the Ruthenian language possible in the virtual world as well.

The project "Short YouTube lessons of the Ruthenian language - Learn Ruthenian with us" enables the availability of the Ruthenian language to a wider audience and an informal way to get to know the Ruthenian language. The project was organized in cooperation with teachers of the Ruthenian language who created 15 video lessons lasting 3 to 5 minutes, which would provide the basics of the Ruthenian language in an interesting and simple way, mostly in the form of dialogues or interactive exercises. For example, followers of this YouTube channel can learn how to say hello in the Ruthenian language, or how to introduce yourself. The idea is to keep the lessons short and simple so that the widest possible audience can easily follow and adopt them. Such lessons exist for many world languages and are very popular with a large number of views on Youtube. As for the Ruthenian language, the lessons would contribute to its preservation and enrich the resources of virtual language learning. The lessons would be interesting for people who have Ruthenian origins, people who want to learn more about the Ruthenian language and speak Serbian, but also for people who deal with microlanguages. Also, the project enables the Ruthenian language to be presented to the majority community in an interesting and informal way. Also, the project raises awareness of the Ruthenian national community in Vojvodina and helps to affirm the Ruthenian community in the virtual environment.