​​Weird Fun 'Can you do a dictation for me? Please?' It's be | Happy Interpreter

​​Weird Fun

"Can you do a dictation for me? Please?"

It's been over 5 years since she's gone. I mean, literally, gone from this dismal world that failed to embrace her cheerful, ebullient nature. But the page is still there, carefully stored in a box of personal effects somewhere in Vinnytsia—in neat handwriting, sprinkled with the cutest of mistakes, with my girlfriend's name solemnly inscribed in the corner. 

Having some weird fun together fosters the strongest bonds between people. However, this particular kind of fun—albeit in a less intimate form—keeps happening here in Ukraine on an annual basis. I mean the All-Ukrainian Radio Dictation of National Unity. This year, as usual, it's scheduled for November 9, and if you know the language, I encourage you to take part.

The reasons to participate abound, including the already mentioned weird fun, and a slight chance to revisit some grammar rules, keeping one's skills from growing stale. Let's not fool ourselves into thinking one short dictation can produce any serious progress in any person's knowledge. Yet, as the numbers and years pile up, the initiative can have a truly profound effect, instilling in the general public the very idea of polishing one's language skills, and doing so for the right reasons. What are those right reasons? I believe they are: feeling the beauty of the language, respect for fellow language users, and the joy of learning so innate to human nature. 

In 2021, the text is going to be authored and read by Yurii Andrukhovych. This fact alone is enough for me to join. I first met Yurii in Wrocław back in 2009, when he voted for my slam poetry performance in a bar, thus helping me win the cash, some of which I gladly spend on his concert the very next day. Later, in 2011-12, his son and I shared the joy of studying at the University of Warsaw. Much later, in 2021, when Yurii's daughter won the Women in Arts Award in literature, I interpreted at the awards ceremony; Sophia herself was absent for health reasons (which had an unexpected upside: unlike me, she didn't have to listen to Ms. Zabuzhko's relentless self-bragging). In short, their whole family keeps producing awesome feelings, both for me and for thousands (millions?) of other people worldwide.

Finally, there's one more reason to participate: the whole thing is happening over the radio, which always redoubles the magic. 

None of us is here forever. Let's enjoy the weird fun while we still can.