By: Sandi Dempsey
Brief Balakun student, a businessman from Vinnytsia currently serving in the armed forces of Ukraine.
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has been an active Balakun student since October 2023. He joined to improve his English and to keep himself occupied between shifts evacuating wounded soldiers in the Donbas.
Before the full-scale invasion, he ran several pubs in his hometown of Vinnytsia. He had many hobbies and was training for his glider licence. On the 24th Feb 2022, he and his brother went straight to enlist. He still runs two of his businesses from his laptop while defending Ukraine from the russian invasion.
I first met Nazar when he attended a speaking club. It was his first time speaking English with a group of strangers from the internet so he was naturally a little shy back then. These days if Nazar is in a speaking club everyone knows him because he is the one doing most of the talking.
After attending his first speaking club he asked the Balakun community for help translating some his writing because he wanted people to understand his day to day reality.
He uses a neutral tone to describe people enduring conditions of absolute horror and situations that seemed unjustifiably nightmarish. The very real people he describes in text become as real as people you know in life. Only they are transformed into some hellish alternate reality that no one who has not served can fully comprehend.
Each story breaks my heart every single time I read it. For Nazar, it was just Tuesday, or maybe Sunday its hard to tell in the military. And it happens every day.
Nowadays he doesnt write so much, but enjoys meeting with his ЗСУ peers, other students and mentors within the international community at Balakun during speaking clubs and group lessons. He has become a close friend and a fierce advocate for Balakun, which is absolutely humbling.
I asked him a few silly questions so you could get to know him in his own words:
If you had to describe your personality as a type of weather, what would it be?
Changeable like in spring on top of mountains)
Whats something small that makes your day instantly better?
It could be many things. Funny flashbacks with my close friends or relatives, a good joke, when I perform a small act of kindness for stranger, a devoted look from a dogor I can answer with a photo:
Have you ever had a paranormal experience?
On 24 February 2022
If aliens landed and asked you to explain humans in one sentence, what would you say?
People are like uranium fusion. If left unchecked, its a disaster.
Whats one thing you wish more people knew about you?
My open smile does not always indicate that I am a kind person.
Why did you join Balakun and what makes you continue to show up?
Because I wanted to learn English, because I was really interested in getting acquainted with people from other countries.
Balakun is an area where I feel like myself. A little part of the civilized world, because you never feel alone with Balakun.
People who lived in the USSR perceived foreigners like aliens. Balakun gives you an opportunity to touch this other world and to understand that no matter how well you speak English or how many languages you know the main thing is to understand the hearts words. kindness, compassion, humanity this language has no boundaries.
This is why.
遇見敘事者系列：Nazar
作者：Sandi Dempsey
簡介Nazar是一位巴拉昆學生，一位來自Vinnytsia的商人，目前在烏克蘭武裝部隊服役。
Nazar自2023年10月以來一直是活躍的巴拉昆學生。他加入的目的是提高英語水平，並在頓巴斯疏散受傷士兵的輪班之間保持忙碌。
在（俄羅斯）全面入侵之前，Nazar在自己的家鄉Vinnytsia經營著幾家酒吧。他有很多愛好，並且正在接受滑翔機執照的培訓。2022年2月24日，他和他的兄弟直接去入伍了。他仍然在用他的筆記本電腦經營著兩家公司，同時也在保衛烏克蘭抵抗俄羅斯的入侵。
我第一次見到納扎爾是在他參加一個口語俱樂部時。那是他第一次用英語與一群來自互聯網的陌生人交談所以他當時自然有點害羞。而如今，如果Nazar在一個口語俱樂部裡，每個人都知道他，因為他是說話最多的人。
在參加了他的第一次口語俱樂部後，他請求巴拉昆社區幫助翻譯他的一些作品，因為他希望人們理解他的日常現實。
他用一種中立的語氣來描述那些忍受著絕對恐怖的境況和看似無端噩夢般處境的人們。他在作品中描述的真實人物變得和你生活中認識的人一樣真實。只是他們被轉化成了一種地獄般的另類現實，只有那些服過役的人才能完全理解。
每次讀讀他的每一個故事都會讓我心碎。對於Nazar來說，那只是一個星期二，或者也許是一個星期天......在軍隊裡很難說。而且每天都一樣。
現在他不太寫作了，但他喜歡在巴拉昆國際社區的口語俱樂部和組別課上與他的ЗСУ同伴、其他學生和導師碰頭。他已經成為巴拉昆的親密朋友和堅定的倡導者，這絕對令人感到謙卑。
我問了他幾個愚蠢的問題，這樣你就可以用他自己的話來了解他：
如果要你用一種天氣來形容你的個性，那會是什麼？
- 像山頂上的春天一樣多變
有什麼小事能讓你的一天瞬間變好？
- 這可能有很多。回想到與我的親密朋友或親戚的有趣往事，一個好笑話，當我對陌生人做一個小小的善舉，一隻狗的忠實表情......或者我可以用一張照片來回答：
你有沒有過超自然現象的經歷？
- 2022年2月24日
如果外星人來臨並要求你用一句話來解釋人類，你會說什麼？
- 人類就像鈾聚變。如果不加以控制，那就是一場災難。
你希望更多人知道關於你的一件事是什麼？
- 我坦率的笑容並不總是表明我是一個善良的人。
你為什麼加入巴拉昆，是什麼讓你堅持？
- 因為我想學習英語，因為我真的很像結識來自其他國家的人。
- 巴拉昆是一個我覺得做自己的地方。文明世界的一小部分，因為在巴拉昆你永遠不會感到孤獨。
- 生活在蘇聯的人把外國人看成是外星人。巴拉昆讓你機會接觸這個其他的世界，並理解無論你說英語有多好或你懂多少種語言，最重要的是理解內心的話語。善良，同情，人性這種語言沒有界限。
這就是原因。
