August 22, 2013 at 12:47SQA Days-14 in Lviv. Debunking the myths of Western Ukraine
There is a generally accepted opinion that Western Ukraine is a harsh place where they fiercely hate Russian speakers and it is dangerous to go there.
In order to test the rumors about the Western citizens of Ukraine militarily disposed towards Russians, and also to evaluate the possibility of holding a conference of software testers - SQA Days-14 , we went to the very heart of Western Ukraine - the city of Lviv. What we saw does not fit with common stereotypes.
So, what did we see in Lviv:
1) People who speak their native language.
Ukrainian speech is very beautiful and, in fact, you get aesthetic pleasure while listening to Ukrainians. They easily understand Russian, but they will most likely answer in Ukrainian :) However, it can be easily understood. It is wonderful that people preserved their language and their culture, it would be strange to blame them for this. After all, no one accuses the British or the French of not knowing the Russian language. By the way, you can communicate in English there, many are fluent in it, and all inscriptions are duplicated on it.
2) People who will always help.
If you ask for a direction or a specific address on the street, several people will definitely stop and explain where to go. Note, they asked in Russian. No aggression - exceptional goodwill.
And also:
1) The tourist center and the beautiful old city of
Lviv is a beautiful architecturally and developed tourist center. Many sights, museums, castles and simply beautiful old buildings in the European style. In the city you can find many shops with tourist products. There are magnets with inscriptions like: "Thank God that I'm not a Muscovite." And in restaurants you can find a piece with seemingly politically incorrect jokes, again, about Muscovites. But all this is nothing more than a joke, a commercial move designed to diversify the rest of tourists. We asked local residents: is there a manifestation of negative attitude towards Russians? They perceived this question with humor.
2) Wonderful and very unusual cafes.
Did you know that in Lviv they get coffee from the mine? :) You will learn how to do this by visiting the Cava Digger. This is a huge number of varieties of coffee with various liquors. And there is also a "Masonic lodge", "Kryivka". We will not talk about them, let it remain a surprise.
3) Excellent service in hotels, restaurants and shops.
In Lviv, we talked with the wonderful Lviv community of testers, one of the most active communities in the CIS. The guys often meet, share experiences, hone their oratory skills in order to subsequently become speakers at international testing conferences or engage in customer consulting or training. Community activists have opened a testing school. A very interesting and correct initiative in our opinion.
They struck us with their cordiality. They helped us in every possible way, introduced us to colleagues from other companies (by the way, they are all friends and this is great).
Having visited Lviv, we realized that this is a great place to hold the next SQA Days-14 conference, and it will be held on November 8-9, 2013 . Also here we decided to try a new format of the conference - on November 7 we will spend a special English day, in which communication will be conducted only in English. Speakers from Western Europe will speak here.
The Lviv community of testers takes an active part in the preparation of these events , and we were also kindly supported by the Lviv IT cluster and the City Council .
In order to test the rumors about the Western citizens of Ukraine militarily disposed towards Russians, and also to evaluate the possibility of holding a conference of software testers - SQA Days-14 , we went to the very heart of Western Ukraine - the city of Lviv. What we saw does not fit with common stereotypes.
So, what did we see in Lviv:
1) People who speak their native language.
Ukrainian speech is very beautiful and, in fact, you get aesthetic pleasure while listening to Ukrainians. They easily understand Russian, but they will most likely answer in Ukrainian :) However, it can be easily understood. It is wonderful that people preserved their language and their culture, it would be strange to blame them for this. After all, no one accuses the British or the French of not knowing the Russian language. By the way, you can communicate in English there, many are fluent in it, and all inscriptions are duplicated on it.
2) People who will always help.
If you ask for a direction or a specific address on the street, several people will definitely stop and explain where to go. Note, they asked in Russian. No aggression - exceptional goodwill.
And also:
1) The tourist center and the beautiful old city of
Lviv is a beautiful architecturally and developed tourist center. Many sights, museums, castles and simply beautiful old buildings in the European style. In the city you can find many shops with tourist products. There are magnets with inscriptions like: "Thank God that I'm not a Muscovite." And in restaurants you can find a piece with seemingly politically incorrect jokes, again, about Muscovites. But all this is nothing more than a joke, a commercial move designed to diversify the rest of tourists. We asked local residents: is there a manifestation of negative attitude towards Russians? They perceived this question with humor.
2) Wonderful and very unusual cafes.
Did you know that in Lviv they get coffee from the mine? :) You will learn how to do this by visiting the Cava Digger. This is a huge number of varieties of coffee with various liquors. And there is also a "Masonic lodge", "Kryivka". We will not talk about them, let it remain a surprise.
3) Excellent service in hotels, restaurants and shops.
In Lviv, we talked with the wonderful Lviv community of testers, one of the most active communities in the CIS. The guys often meet, share experiences, hone their oratory skills in order to subsequently become speakers at international testing conferences or engage in customer consulting or training. Community activists have opened a testing school. A very interesting and correct initiative in our opinion.
They struck us with their cordiality. They helped us in every possible way, introduced us to colleagues from other companies (by the way, they are all friends and this is great).
Having visited Lviv, we realized that this is a great place to hold the next SQA Days-14 conference, and it will be held on November 8-9, 2013 . Also here we decided to try a new format of the conference - on November 7 we will spend a special English day, in which communication will be conducted only in English. Speakers from Western Europe will speak here.
The Lviv community of testers takes an active part in the preparation of these events , and we were also kindly supported by the Lviv IT cluster and the City Council .