Episode Transcript
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 0:08
femininity is powerful in all its forms exceptional women, rare girls must be appreciated in every way for their perspectives, actions, thoughts, and their unique ways of being such rare girls are inspiring. And this is what this podcast is all about. Hello, my name is Aziz and my guest today is Victoria, who Senko Victoria is a German languages philology student at National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. She is a dancer, with more than 10 years of experience and with her modern dance group went to various competitions, including international ones, and one prices. Victoria loves knitting, reading, and wrote a research paper on the Ukrainian language, and won prizes. Victoria, how are you today? Oh, good. Thanks. If I could ask your friends about your personality. Who is Viktoria? In their eyes? What would they say about you?
Viktoriia Usenko 1:19
I'm sure they will answer that. I'm talking to you. So friendly, and I guess stubborn.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 1:26
I like that. Does it mean you're one of the people who's always smiling friendly to new people? Or in the beginning? Do you have like a poker face or a bit face that people think you're angry and intimidating?
Viktoriia Usenko 1:39
Sure. It's not so easy to meet new people for me. I just need some time to know them better. But then I am so open to know something about them and share my maybe secrets or my thoughts with them.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 2:00
I like that. Do you feel you are naturally that way that you're naturally an introvert? Or do you think because of the pandemic, the social distancing, the relying on social media, it reduced a lot of people's ability to communicate in real life with new people, and made them more awkward. What's your perspective on this? Yeah, sure.
Viktoriia Usenko 2:24
COVID has changed ever since. And, of course, there are a lot of troubles with communication, because everything has just stopped. And it it was really difficult to renew these skills in our head, because we didn't have that like for six months. So it was pretty hard. But I think that we got used to
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 2:59
it. Thank you, and why Germanic languages, because I'm
Viktoriia Usenko 3:03
so into English. I started learning it at school. And I really liked my tutor. And I have told everybody that she, I mean, my tutor made me love English. Just I wanted to know it better. And I continue to so I tried to get more knowledge. So yeah,
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 3:32
I really, really like that. And so these days, how do you fill your day with either activities or relaxation? Describe your typical day, how do you spend your time
Viktoriia Usenko 3:45
actually it is holiday now. So I don't have started and it's more relaxing then. I don't have so much activities to do. But my typical day I just wake up have some breakfast, then I'm just checking my social medias and do some stuff. I don't know how to describe just do what I want to do. redone Niger and as I said, maybe watching something I really like to watch movies. So I can do that. And then in the evening, I can meet with my friends. And just today is done.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 4:31
Thank you and since you love movies, is there a movie or a character in a movie that really inspires you?
Viktoriia Usenko 4:40
I don't think so. I don't really have the one movie I can choose because I've watched really a lot so I can say and I can choose only one.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 4:55
Thank you. You said your tutor and the English language as someone really Call what's cool about her? Can you describe? Like, what does she do that makes you more interested in the language? How can more teachers be inspired by your tutor? Etc?
Viktoriia Usenko 5:14
Okay, the first thing, I think that the teacher or the tutor doesn't matter, need to be needs to be ready, that some people have different feelings and different emotions. So there must be different tactics for each student. And what did I like the most that she understood me, if I need some time, just to think about something I can, like, give the answer immediately. She gave me time to think and it was okay. And the second thing that I liked was that she taught me that making a mistake. It's okay.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 6:06
That's a really, really good approach. And tell me about your friends. You said you don't open up to new people easily? What characteristics of people that makes them in your eyes? Good friends, what do you look for? In people, what makes you trust someone else
Viktoriia Usenko 6:24
scores, they must be honest, and talk to you because I like to talk a lot. And they shouldn't be like that. But my friends, I don't know how to describe them. I have only two, my best friends. And the first one I met at school and the second at university. So I guess that that situation that we were in the same building in the same class and the group, they made us friends. And yeah, like that.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 7:02
Thank you. Where are you right now? And when the invasion happened in Ukraine, etc? Did you decide to move somewhere else? Or tell me what happened?
Viktoriia Usenko 7:14
I'm in key now. It is the capital of Ukraine, maybe you know, and when the Russia started this war, I was at home with my family, and I haven't moved anywhere. So the whole time I was here. Because it is my home. So my family and I even didn't think about moving anywhere. Because we don't have friends abroad. We don't have like any relatives. So I can say that it was hard. Because you know, in Ukraine, we have such saying that at home, even the walls are caring about you. So
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 8:05
thank you. And I understand and we will speak about the invasion and the war. But did your life change in these six months in a significant way? How was everything going for you
Viktoriia Usenko 8:19
course, it changed the it was hard. I say, like the first two or three months because everyone just didn't understand didn't realize what happened and what is what was happening. So we needed some time to just to rethink everything. And every single thing that we did before the war, it stopped our life, of course, changed. But now I I got used to it, like everybody else, I guess. But we started to come back to our previous life. So now in Ukraine, a lot of shops are open. A lot of some different activities are open. People want to live their lives as it was before the work so we we didn't want we don't want to stop at all. So we need to continue our our life. But of course it is sent to our soldiers.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 9:33
I agree. 100% How do you keep your own mental health and less stress during these very difficult times? Is it mostly about social media communicating with friends knitting, and movies? Or did you have a new perspective maybe appreciate every day more? Or something like that that helped you not burn out during the difficult situation,
Viktoriia Usenko 10:01
surely it is my family and my friends, because they are the people who I can talk with and who I can share my feelings and emotions with. And they can support me. And I know that I can do the same if they need to some advice or support. And just as I said earlier, we want to continue living our life. So I try to do the same. I just try to do my sinks, as I do it as I did it before. The worst started.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 10:44
Thank you. And since you're speaking about doing things as if it was before, can you tell me about your own method for learning languages? How do you study? How do you improve the accent? Remember vocabulary? Is it watching movies in English? Or what is your structured method? For that,
Viktoriia Usenko 11:06
I guess that we can learn a foreign language, just doing our favorite things. So I like to watch movies in English. And of course, if I see an unknown word, so I just translate it and try to make a sentence with it or something like that. If we talk about vocabulary accent, I don't realize that my accent is pretty good. So I'm just kind of shy? Because I don't think that I speak like, well, and just another thing, written books.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 11:51
I agree that's really, really, really useful. What's your plan in the future with learning languages? Is it to become a teacher, a tutor, a translator, to live abroad or something like that,
Viktoriia Usenko 12:04
of course, it is difficult to say because I'm on this third years starting. So I have to now to finish. But I want to be a translator more than tutor, but it is okay. If I don't have some success in translation job, it is okay to me to work as a tutor to work with kids or even adults. But I want to know and to get more knowledge of English, I want to speak better, I want to know, more words. So and I want to learn more foreign languages. Because as more foreign languages, you know, as confident you are,
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 13:01
thank you, I really, really, really like that. And to you. You said you're like honest and sincere people. Does it mean that if you find someone who's honest and sincere, but you disagree on many things, you don't make friends with that person? Or you like such people because you learn from them. And you like debating and new ideas?
Viktoriia Usenko 13:25
Of course it is okay, because everyone has his or her own ideas. So I just can say that. I'm not agree with that. But it's okay that you think like that. So it's not saying that if you have a different opinion, I don't want to be friends with your with you. So of course, no, it's fine. If we have different opinions about something.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 13:50
Thank you. And can you speak about the Ukrainian culture? What are some things that foreigners don't know about Ukrainian people and the culture that maybe you can share so that everyone can understand the uniqueness of Ukraine? I assume that now,
Viktoriia Usenko 14:06
the world has known us better. And I don't think that there are some things that the world hasn't known it yet. But Ukrainians are really friendly people and ready to help. Of course, there are some there are bad people in every nationality. So it is okay to have some people, but in general, we are sorry, we are so I don't know how to say I can describe these feelings that we have in our heart in our personality. Because we are stubborn, and we love freedom a lot and the world now You can see that we are ready to fight. We are ready to be ourselves because it is our it is in our blood. It is in our ways.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 15:13
I agree. I think some people will call it being defiant or even rebellious, which is bad meaning or autonomous, sovereign. There are many ways to describe it. And I like exactly what you said nowadays, you know, the war has been going on for six months, there are so many Ukrainians who are maybe living abroad, they started a new university new job do you feel when there is victory for Ukraine, many of them will return or because they have a new life they are maybe they will send back home money, or something. But millions of Ukrainians will live abroad.
Viktoriia Usenko 15:55
Surely I can say that a lot of Ukrainians have started returning now. And how good their life is in Europe. They want to live in their own country in their own freedom country, I can say that. If you love your country, you will return because here, here is your family. Here is your friends. I don't know your home. We should start with that Ukraine is your home. But of course, there are a lot of people, as you said that they started a new life there. I don't know in Italy in Poland doesn't matter. So I understand. Because maybe these people don't have where they can return. Maybe there are no homes. Because as you know, a lot of people just don't have some places to return. It is so sad. But I believe that we we can rebuild it. And everyone who has lost their homes, they can return back.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 17:16
I agree. 100%. And I believe is this correct? That all your university education, you did it online? Because you started during the pandemic? Is this correct? Yeah,
Viktoriia Usenko 17:28
it is correct. Yeah. I started when the COVID has started. Actually, I finished the school when the COVID started, and then yeah, we started starting online. And I can say that I was in university just for I haven't gotten there just for two weeks. And then the worst started,
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 17:57
yes. Do you prefer online studies or going to university physically and why
Viktoriia Usenko 18:06
I can choose because I really like online education because it's more convenient. You don't need to go somewhere you don't spend time for commuting. So it's more easier here to start it online. But I really liked also when we were going to university because it is communicating in person. I can see the teacher I can see my group mates, we can go for a coffee break. So I really liked that. But I can say that going to university it's more difficult of course, because starting online, it's really easy. You don't need to change your clothes so you can just start it in your pajamas or have have a breakfast during the during the election is so I can't really choose but you can make your decision.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 19:16
I agree Victoria, thank you so much for sharing your story, your voice your life and all I wish for is victory for Ukraine and all I can say is love our grainy. Slow.
Viktoriia Usenko 19:30
Thank you so much.
Abdulaziz M Alhamdan 19:31
You're welcome and keep going and I wish you a good day. You too.
