By KAZUNORI HAGA/ Staff Writer
May 31, 2022 at 07:10 JST
Kostiantyn Ovsiannikov and Riki Kusaka, the developers of Japanese word cards for Ukrainian evacuees, in Kochi on May 10 (Kazunori Haga)
KOCHI--A manga artist and an academic from Kyiv have teamed up to help Ukrainian evacuees in Japan communicate with staff at hospitals and pharmacies.
Riki Kusaka, famed for her “Help Man!” comic themed on nursing care, and Kostiantyn Ovsiannikov, an assistant professor of economics at the Kochi University of Technology, released illustrated word cards that show Japanese expressions often used at hospitals.
This is the first part of their endeavor to help Ukrainians who have fled to Japan.
Kusaka said she was heartbroken over the daily news reports detailing the plight of Russia-invaded Ukraine, so she came up with the word-card idea.
“It would not be good if evacuees become isolated in Japanese society,” Kusaka said. “I did not want them to be troubled by the language barrier.”
Kusaka focused first on settings at hospitals and pharmacies, where patients must accurately explain their symptoms in detail.
The cards feature 80 words, including those for “nose,” “lower back” and other body parts, as well as “nausea,” “dizziness” and other conditions. They are written in ordinary Japanese, Romanized Japanese and Ukrainian.
Comic drawings were added to the cards to lift the spirits of the Ukrainian evacuees.
Ovsiannikov provided the translations.
“Medical definitions are difficult to say, so the cards will prove helpful for the Ukrainians,” he said.
Ovsiannikov arrived in Japan from Ukraine in 2014. After studying at the University of Tsukuba’s graduate school, he began living in Kochi in April last year.
Although his mother has escaped to safety outside Ukraine, his father remains in the country.
“I am worried about developments in my homeland,” Ovsiannikov said.
Kusaka posted the word cards on Twitter and other social media, resulting in more than 5,000 retweets, shares or reposts in about a week.
“I hope our cards will help as many individuals as possible,” Kusaka said.
The nine cards portraying hospital scenes can be downloaded from Kusaka’s Twitter account at (https://twitter.com/kusakariki0609).
Kusaka and Ovsiannikov plan to create something similar to “karuta” traditional cards so that Ukrainians can learn Japanese while playing with them.
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