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The Guardian (Long Read) ·For the curious

‘The War Leaked Into Every Lesson’: Learning Ukrainian in a Country Under Siege

by Charlotte Higgins

Published 2026-08-04 04:00:12+00:00

How do you learn a new language when its everyday words include drones and bomb shelters?

0:00 / 32:45 · Narrator Sulafat

Context

When Charlotte Higgins started taking Ukrainian lessons in 2022, she just wanted to read road signs and order coffee while reporting from a country under siege. Writing on 4 August 2026, she reflects on what happens when a new language is dictated by conflict. Her vocabulary drills quickly filled with words for air-raid sirens and destroyed bridges. She captures a quiet, persistent reality of the invasion, asking how anyone absorbs a language when every grammar rule and stumbling conversation carries the weight of survival.

Show notes

An account of a reporter learning Ukrainian over four years of the ongoing war. Tracks the mechanics of acquiring a new alphabet and complex grammar alongside a vocabulary increasingly defined by military terms and missile alerts. Documents how the conflict permeates everyday speech, from the political weight of abandoning Russian to the daily reality of living under siege.

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