Overcoming the metro mentality in Ukraine
“The best cure for one’s bad tendencies is to see them fully developed in someone else.” Alain de Botton ‘What improvements do you hope to see in your country in the future?’ This is one of the guideline questions that we ask a typical intermediate-level student on our placement tests. In light what’s going in Ukraine these days, it may seem even more appropriate than ever. But then again, do we really want to ask such a question when we have just a few minutes to talk? Do potential students really want to answer such a question? It’s like, welcome to our language school, what do you think about the situation in Ukraine? Turns out, I’ve rarely needed to ask it. In the time I’ve been doing placement tests – on average, every other term over the past 3-4 years – a good number of students come to us because they want to boost their English enough to take IELTS and emigrate. In the past couple of months, a rapidly increasing number want to emigrate. On a couple of d...