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Us Click here to download our brochure The Adult Ukrainian Language Immersion Course (AULIC) is educational, cultural and entertaining experience held annually at Trident Camp about 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of Canora, Saskatchewan. The idea of an AULIC program dates back to the late 1970s with the first successful course held in August 2001. For the first 5 years, the course was a four-day session, however in 2006 it was expanded so as to offer both a 4 day and a nine day session. The nine day session will focus on the advanced and intermediate levels. The project is a joint effort of the Ukrainian Business and Professional Association of Regina and the Ukrainian Self-Reliance (Ukrainian Orthodox Men's) Association of Regina. Funding for the project comes from registration fees, Saskatchewan Lotteries, Ukrainian Canadian Congress-Saskatchewan Provincial Council and Regina Branches, the Saskatchewan Organization for Heritage Languages and the two sponsoring organizations.
Ukrainian language instruction is provided at three levels, Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced. Our instructors for the Intermediate and Advanced levels are professional teachers trained in Ukraine. Consequently the focus is on contemporary Ukrainian as spoken and evolving in Ukraine. By doing so this helps attendees who plan to travel to Ukraine in the near future. But the weekend is not all language classes. There is a good mix of singing Ukrainian songs, watching Ukrainian videos, participating in cultural classes such as wood carving and embroidery plus learning about some of the finer points of Ukrainian culinary arts. And probably one of the things that people remember most about previous sessions is the socializing during mealtime and evenings. The registration fees in 2010 are a modest $185 ($200 if paid after July 12) per student for the 4 day session. The fees for the 8day session are $310 ($325 if paid after July 12). Included in the fees are the class materials plus rooms and meals. Trident Camp is a church camp but the facilities are quite new and adequate. The dining and sleeping accommodations are totally enclosed and thus inclement weather is not a particular problem. There are two wings of sleeping quarters of about 10 rooms each. Each room can easily accommodate up to two or three adults. Until now it has been possible to accommodate virtually everyone's wants for a single or shared room. There is a common bathroom, with showers, for the women and one for the men. The immersion course had a number of features that facilitated the use of the Ukrainian language, these included: 1) The classroom periods, about 2/3 of the day----with frequent breaks 2) Meal preparation time---students were encouraged to help with meal preparation which offered another/different language speaking opportunity. 3) Recreation breaks. These ranged from sports activity to simply lounging. 4) Evening breaks. These have been used for such things as singing, playing cards or other games, Ukrainian films, to attempts at Ukrainian dancing. Students are not obliged to undertake dancing or singing if they were not comfortable with either. 5) Evening barbecue, and 6) Closing ceremonies To the extent possible the instructors and students try to make the AULIC a total immersion experience. However since there will always be students with little or no knowledge of Ukrainian, English is used from time to time, but sparingly. The AULIC Committee wishes to acknowledge the generous financial support of the following organizations:
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