On 29 October, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine presented Ukraine’s Language Barometer, a sociolinguistic study conducted by the Info Sapiens research agency in August and September 2026. The researchers focused on what drives changes in language use and how Ukrainians communicate in their daily lives.

The researchers conducted 40 in-depth interviews with Ukrainians from 10 regions across western, central, eastern and southern Ukraine. The study covered three groups: predominantly Russian-speaking people, those who use both Ukrainian and Russian, and those who switched to Ukrainian after 2022.

We explain why Work.ua supported the study and what lessons the labour market should draw from its findings.

The language environment is also shaped at work

Work is an important part of our daily lives, and the language we use with colleagues, managers and clients helps shape the broader language environment. This is why Work.ua supported Ukraine’s Language Barometer. Its findings will provide a basis for further decisions and policies aimed at promoting Ukrainian and strengthening its position in society.

This issue is also close to Work.ua because of our own experience. We have undergone a language transition ourselves: we switched entirely to Ukrainian in our internal communications and interactions with clients, and the Work.ua website now operates exclusively in Ukrainian. It was a conscious decision to make Ukrainian the language not only of formal processes, but also of everyday work.

Ukrainian has become the language of work. What happens beyond it?

One of the researchers’ main observations is that Ukrainian is used much more frequently in public and formal communication than in private life. Moreover, professional settings often become the first bridge towards changing the language a person uses.

For most respondents, workplace policies, official documentation and language legislation played an important role in their transition to Ukrainian at work. The shift is especially noticeable in sectors where employees interact with people every day, including retail, healthcare, the civil service and transport. Most participants said they had started switching to Ukrainian in professional settings even before the full-scale invasion.

One respondent, a 42-year-old civil servant from Kirovohrad Oblast, recalled how this shift took place:

“Starting in 2016, all correspondence, orders and directives in our civil service office began switching to Ukrainian. At first, my colleagues and I checked every word in a dictionary. Now it all happens automatically — we do not even think about it.”

At the same time, the study found that public and private settings are changing at different rates. A person may use Ukrainian at work, in education or at government institutions, but continue speaking Russian or Surzhyk at home, with their parents or with old friends. The reasons include long-standing habits, linguistic comfort and the desire to speak without constantly monitoring themselves.

This observation also applies to professional settings. After all, workplace communication is not limited to formal emails, meetings and messages in corporate chats. It also includes conversations over coffee, shared lunches, jokes and discussions about weekend plans.

Although the study did not specifically examine the language used in such conversations, it highlights an important pattern: complying with language rules does not necessarily change everyday habits. To create a Ukrainian-speaking workplace, Ukrainian needs to be used not only where it is required.

Work may be in Ukrainian, but professional literature is still in Russian

One significant challenge identified by the study concerns professional education and access to specialised knowledge.

Participants said that some subjects at universities in southern and eastern Ukraine continued to be taught in Russian as late as 2014–2021. They attributed this to lecturers’ habits and a shortage of Ukrainian-language textbooks.

Yet even where Ukrainian has long been the language of instruction, access to professional literature remains an issue.

A 25-year-old musician from Lviv Oblast described his experience:

“Teaching at the conservatory in Lviv is in Ukrainian, but nearly all the foundational textbooks on harmony, musical form and music history are in Russian and date back to the Soviet era. There are simply no Ukrainian-language equivalents of the same standard, and this is a major problem for students.”

Another participant, a philosophy researcher, pointed to the shortage of Ukrainian translations of primary sources, including classic works of philosophy.

These examples do not mean that the same situation exists in every profession. However, they point to a problem that extends beyond everyday communication: Ukrainian should be not only the language of instruction, but also a language in which professional knowledge can be acquired, developed and passed on.

The importance of specialised vocabulary also becomes apparent when people change jobs. According to the researchers, moving into the civil service or local government sometimes required participants to quickly master professional terminology in Ukrainian.

What language do future employees use?

One notable finding concerns families in which parents continue to speak Russian but deliberately choose Ukrainian-language books, cartoons, schools and extracurricular activities for their children. Some children later begin encouraging adults to switch to Ukrainian themselves by correcting their mistakes or suggesting that the family speak the state language at home.

At the same time, studying in Ukrainian does not necessarily mean that children use it outside the classroom. Participants said that schoolchildren may speak Russian or Surzhyk with friends, in their neighbourhoods or in gaming chats.

The digital environment has a major influence on teenagers’ language habits. Participants identified the shortage of Ukrainian localisations for video games, gaming servers and entertainment content as one of the most significant gaps. There are few Ukrainian-speaking content creators covering certain topics, such as gaming, so both the content and conversations within these communities remain predominantly Russian-language.

According to respondents, YouTube and TikTok algorithms also continue to recommend Russian-language videos even when users try to choose content in Ukrainian.

Schools and families therefore provide a linguistic foundation, but children’s everyday language is also shaped by the language in which they find entertainment, make friends and consume content.

For the labour market, this is a question about the future. Today’s school and university students will eventually become employees, entrepreneurs and managers. The language habits they form now will influence the professional environment for decades to come.

Switching to Ukrainian is not a once-and-for-all decision

Even people who consciously switched to Ukrainian after 2022 said that maintaining this choice requires daily effort. They may automatically respond in the language used by the person they are speaking to or revert to Russian when they are tired, angry or in a hurry.

For many participants, the idea of a native language is connected not only to the language they have spoken since childhood, but also to their civic identity. Even some respondents who still predominantly speak Russian consider Ukrainian their native language.

Another challenge is the fear of making mistakes. People may feel self-conscious about their accent, Russianisms, Surzhyk or limited vocabulary. This is especially noticeable in professional settings, where they may need to explain a complex technical or legal matter quickly, advise a client or use specialised terminology.

Participants said that harsh corrections and ridicule can discourage people from speaking Ukrainian, while a supportive environment helps them practise. For some respondents, Surzhyk became a bridge to standard Ukrainian — a way to gradually change their language habits without being afraid to speak.

The researchers emphasise the importance of creating an environment where people can improve their Ukrainian without fear of judgement. Requiring the use of the state language is not enough: people also need conditions in which they feel confident speaking it.

Ukraine’s Language Barometer shows that changing language habits is a long-term process shaped by government policies, personal convictions and everyday surroundings. Ukrainian has already become the standard language of many formal processes, but its wider use in daily communication requires time, practice and support.

A Ukrainian-speaking professional environment is shaped not only through job postings, work emails and conversations with clients. It continues over coffee with colleagues, in classrooms, in professional literature and in everyday interactions. This is why it is important not only to establish Ukrainian as the language of work, but also to create an environment in which people want to speak it.