Academician Yavornytsky – the Gardian of the Cossack’s History

Today’s session of the Gabfest Club session ("Window on America", Dnipropetrovsk / Ukraine) was dedicated to the outstanding Dnipropetrovsk citizen – Professor Dmytro Yavornytsky. The actuality of the topic was obvious – the main city street was re-named recently after this famous historian.
The group was offered a slide show prepared by the session’s moderator T.Gavryliuk. The presentation contained illustrative photos of Dmytro Yavornytsky that helped to keep the conversation going. The group needed to refresh their knowledge about the scientist and learn some new fun facts about his connection with the English language and culture.
The majority of the club members practice English in Ukraine for future travels abroad. It was logical to talk about Yavornytsky’s trips outside Ukraine. Besides several career trips (to Poland, to Russia, to Tatarstan) Professor made several trips to exotic destinations: to Central Asia and Egypt (via Greece and Turkey). The funny facts were that in modern times several Club members followed Yavornytsky’s steps: WOA’s American volunteer Mr.Jason visited the same places in Central Asia (Tashkent and Samarkand), the session’s moderator visited Egypt (Cairo, Aswan).
 

The conversation covered the memory and scientific achievements of professor Yavornytsky. The Club members had to guess the nicknames given to Yavornytsky and his home and render them into English for our American friend. That was quite a tricky task.
The highlight of the session was the use of various artifacts to create the appropriate atmosphere. A.Prakhov’s landscape “Scythian Babas” created the association with the local history museum named after Yavornytsky. The DOUNB Library’s XIX century edition of Zaporozhian Cossacks’ portraits enchanted the club members who are fond of history. The water color prints by a famous painter were framed into black and white vignettes. Each vignette was a still life depicting artifacts from D. Yavornytsky’s collection of Zaporozhian Cossacks’ antiquities: weapons, head gear, horse gear, household utensils.
The session enabled the participants to keep a conversation about D.Yavornytsky in English and enriched their knowledge with fun facts about their home town and oblast.
Number of participants – 27 persons.
Have a look at more pictures, please