Ukrainian linguist keen to translate Chinese books

[Photo provided to China Daily]

"I am eager to improve my Chinese so that I can translate independently," says Yaremchuk, who developed an interest in translation after working with Chinese students in her university.

She also found that only a few Chinese books had been directly translated into the East Slavic language. Instead, most were translated from Russian.

Yaremchuk says that she liked kung fu movies since a young age but found it hard to get a Chinese teacher in Lviv where she grew up.

In 2013, a teacher was sent from China to teach Chinese in her university by the Chinese Language Council International, a nonprofit affiliated to the Education Ministry. Yaremchuk joined the classes until they were stopped following the teacher's return to China in 2014.

Her university has had a long history of Sinology, Yaremchuk says. Chinese was taught there in the 1950s.

But the teaching of Chinese language stopped for various reasons and wasn't restored until recently.

A breakthrough was made in 2015, when the university started a major with focus on both Ukrainian and Chinese languages. Now that stream has 13 students.

While the university has applied for more Chinese teachers from the language council, Yaremchuk has volunteered to teach Chinese there.

She developed an interest in Chinese calligraphy after she spent a month in Shenyang last year.

Yaremchuk says cultural exchanges between China and Ukraine have increased in recent years. She recalls how local audiences were thrilled by a kung fu performance in Lviv earlier this year. It was staged by a martial arts school from Central China's Henan province and was organized by the Chinese embassy in Kiev and a cultural agency.

She is excited that her university and Beijing Foreign Studies University will be cooperating on research in culture.