PAX - Program of Academic Exchange is a program of PAX Laurasian Exchange and is designated by the U.S. Department of State as a J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program sponsor.

Six students, six languages

There are around seven thousand languages all around the world. They are a key to understanding other people. Learning them all is impossible, but there are a few which are very popular and worth remembering.

My exchange friends and I decided to teach each other our native languages. We were taught Armenian by Hayk, Ukrainian by Karyna, Georgian by Vakhtangi, Arabic by Tala, sign language by Addison (USA), and Polish by me (Maciej). Each of us created slides on a presentation and wrote down a few important phrases, which people should know.

How incredible it is to befriend people having different mindsets, languages, traditions, and especially different points of view.

—Karyna (FLEX, Ukraine), Virtual Program

After a couple meetings, we all had opportunities to teach and learn. Our friend Vato made a quiz on an online platform to see if we remembered the phrases and whether our lessons had been effective. We also created a video which shows our progress and explains everything.

To summarize, if we have opportunity to learn, to be more, why do not do it? It is real fun to learn things and someday, even sooner than later, it could be very useful. I have learned so much and it was not even that hard—though I was learning five languages at the same time. We all can just stop for a moment and learn a few phrases, especially in times like this, when we have plenty of free time.

—Maciej (FLEX, Poland), Virtual Program