What do foreigners think about Ukraine? / Lifetime

Since their childhood people have always been interested in many things. When you are a toddler or a child at the nursery school your interests are limited. It doesn’t really matter for you if your country is big or small, rich or poor, powerful or not. Then, while you are growing, your horizons become wider and wider. Finally, you ask yourself such questions as what does my country mean for me? Is it better to live somewhere else or not? What do people from other countries think about my country?

Now Ukraine is an independent country whose independence was declared in 1991. Since the collapse of the USSR, people’s lives have changed a lot. There are a considerable number of achievements of Ukraine as a sovereign state. A democratic political system allows us to express true opinions and elect the President and the parliament. We can freely travel to other countries and work there. Moreover, we are able to communicate in Ukrainian and use our native language at school and at work. In addition, as a birthplace of talented people Ukraine has achieved great results in sport and cultural events. In 2004 the representative of Ukraine, Ruslana, won the Eurovision Song Contest. Ukraine is proud to be the Motherland of such great sportsmen as Vitaliy and Volodymyr Klichko, Katya Serebrianska, Yana Klochkova and many others.

On the other hand, Ukraine as an independent country has a great number of different problems. First of all, with all its riches it’s still not a highly developed country. It has a lot of economical problems. Secondly, our democratic political system very often operates like a totalitarian communist regime. It refers to restrictions on freedom of speech and press and many other things. Besides, our education is not as great as in many developed European countries. For example, few Ukrainians can truly speak English. Our health care system needs reforming and state financing.

Ukraine has both problems and achievements. Taking everything into account, I wonder what foreigners think about our country?

Продолжение читайте в журнале English4U №12 (декабрь 2011) на который можно подписаться или купить здесь.