Tweet
THE REDISCOVERY OF THE "RUSSIAN WORLD"
By Dmitry Babich
Russia Profile, Russia
June 18 2007
Sustaining the Russian Language at Home and Abroad
During the last few weeks, the term "russkiy mir," which can roughly
be translated as "Russian world," suddenly gained increasing
prominence. It became the center of numerous initiatives and
contentious debates. Although the term has been previously known but
not widely used, it was ushered into the public sphere by President
Vladimir Putin in his State of the Union speech at the end of April:
"The Russian language not only preserves an entire layer of truly
global achievements but is also the living space for the many millions
of people in the Russian-speaking world, a community that goes far
beyond Russia itself. As the common heritage of many peoples, the
Russian language will never become the language of hatred or enmity,
xenophobia or isolationism."
The president suggested creating the National Russian Language
Foundation, which would "develop the Russian language at home, support
Russian language study programs abroad and generally promote Russian
language and literature around the world." Starting in May, first
attempts were made to put these ideas into practice. Moscow hosted
an international conference on raising the international status of
Russian language. The event was attended by some of the country's
leading public figures, including First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev, widely seen as a possible successor to Putin.
However, Russians abroad continue to complain about the lack of
opportunities for the development of Russian language, especially
in the former Soviet republics, where it previously functioned as a
lingua franca.
"We don't forget Russian, but we use it in a less and less
sophisticated way," said Darya Zhdanova, 30, a Latvian citizen of
Russian descent. "We use it for informal communication between family
and friends, but the Latvian government limits Russian broadcasts
on television to only a few minutes a day and prohibits the use of
Russian in government offices. It's no wonder that people are losing
their language skills."
The situation in Latvia's capital, Riga, which lacks street signs in
Russian despite having a Russian-speaking majority of the population,
is typical of post-Soviet countries. When the former Soviet republics
became independent, the leaders of the new governments began to view
the widespread use of Russian as a hindrance to the development of
local languages and national identities.
The governments of Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and the Baltic states
refused to give Russian the status of a second state language or even
of a so-called official language, which can be used in the public
sphere. In these countries, Russian is taught as one of several
foreign languages, and schools tend to encourage students to study
English instead of Russian.
"English is very popular all over the world and its power is based
on the achievements of the Anglo-Saxon civilization," said Vitaly
Kostomarov, president of the State Institute of Russian Language
in Moscow. "But introducing it as the main language of interethnic
communication in the former Soviet Union will require a lot of time
and effort. There is no need to speed up this process artificially
by squeezing Russian out. It is far from a dying language, despite
the fact that it ceded some ground during the 1990s."
Most Russian intellectuals and language experts suggest that viewing
Russian and English as competitors or even viewing Russian as being
in competition with national languages in the former Soviet republics
is inappropriate.
"No language is an enemy to another language," said Roy Medvedev, a
noted Russian historian and himself a native of Tbilisi, Georgia. "In
London I met a family of a well-to-do Kazakh businessman who represents
a rich Kazakh company in Britain. His family members speak Russian
among themselves, but they speak English with his business partners
and switch to Kazakh when they visit their home country.
This fluency in languages is one of the sources of their success."
The government of Kazakhstan encourages the teaching of Kazakh,
English, and Russian, and the success of this plan so far makes
Kazakhstan unique among the post-Soviet states.
"The three-languages policy, as we call it, has allowed Kazakhstan to
encourage ethnic Russians to remain in the country," said Sholpan
Kalanova, a representative of Kazakhstan's government at the
International Research Group on Comparative Studies in Education,
a CIS-financed body that seeks to introduce common standards for
education in the former Soviet republics. "When Russian received the
status of an official language and Russians saw that they can watch
television in Russian and their children can receive an education in
Russian, they decided to stay. Some of those Russians who emigrated
from Kazakhstan to Russia in the early 1990s even decided to return."
In Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, Russian is also a state language -
a situation that offers significant benefits to the young people
in these countries. Learning Russian gives them greater access to
information and the media, including the Internet, and also makes it
possible to attend Russian universities. Russia has an equal-access
agreement with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which
allows qualified students from these countries to study in Russian
state universities. Additionally, Russian remains the language of
learning in most of the universities in the post-Soviet states -
partially because most of the available textbooks are in Russian.
Often the greater opportunities available for students who speak
Russian seem to contradict the desires of post-Soviet governments
that are attempting to promote national languages.
"In our country, we have 80 ethnic groups for whom Russian has
always been the language of interethnic communication," said Nailya
Khaliluyeva, a teacher of Russian from Kyrgyzstan. "In the south of
the country, all official documents are made only in Kyrgyz, but in
the capital of Bishkek we are still allowed to use Russian. Parents
want their children to attend schools that teach in Russian rather
than Kyrgyz."
Although Georgian and Ukrainian are not more widely spoken
internationally than Kyrgyz and Belarussian, these countries have made
a much more committed effort to replace Russian with their national
languages, particularly in educated circles. Additionally, Georgia
and Ukraine do not coordinate their educational policies with any of
the other CIS countries, further isolating their students from Russian.
In Roy Medvedev's opinion, these decisions are not damaging to Russia,
but are instead harmful for Georgia and Ukraine.
"Georgian and Armenian are the most ancient languages on the
territory of the former Soviet Union, but these are the languages of
relatively small states who also need Russian in order to help their
own development," Medvedev said. "During the Soviet era, more books
were published in Georgian than now. Georgian fiction found its way
to readers all over the world via Russian translations. International
scientific communication is conducted in 4-5 languages and Russian
is one of them. Of course, English is even more suited for this
communication, but years will pass before Georgians learn English
well enough for it to play the same role that Russian used to play."
Kostomarov cautions, however, that the survival and spread of Russian
cannot be guaranteed by Russia's past glories. Instead, it will depend
on the country's economic performance and its global image.
"Using Marxist terms, language is not the base but only an extension
of a nation's development in general," Kostomarov said. "Now that
the Russian economy is growing, the language has also shown some
indications of recovery, albeit a limited one, because the national
image has not yet improved significantly."
The other important factor, in Kostomarov's opinion, is the support
that the Russian state provides for the study of the language abroad.
Until 1989, Russian was a required subject for almost all students
in the Socialist bloc. Since then, however, the number of students
studying Russian has fallen dramatically and language courses are often
supported by Russian embassies, providing textbooks and sponsoring
conferences for students and teachers. Along with local authorities,
the Russian government also helps finance "Slavic universities" in many
of the post-Soviet republics that offer education in Russian. Graduates
of these universities receive diplomas valid both in Russia and their
country of origin.
According to the International Association of Teachers of Russian
Language and Literature, the number of people studying Russian
worldwide is comparable to the number of people studying French or
German. Along with Spanish and English, it remains one of the main
languages of international scientific communication. While numbering
fewer speakers than English, Chinese, Spanish or Hindu, Russian is
still spoken by more people than French (about 130 million) and German
(about 100 million).
According to the figures cited in a speech by Medvedev at the
conference on Russian language abroad on May 29, Russian is understood
and used to some extent by 274 million people. Out of this number,
130 million are Russian citizens living in Russia and 30 million are
Russians living abroad. The remaining 114 million are people who speak
Russian as their second language or know it as a foreign language. This
is a priceless heritage that needs to be sustained and developed.
http://www.russiaprofile.org/page.php? pageid=Politics&articleid=a1182161554
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
By Dmitry Babich
Russia Profile, Russia
June 18 2007
Sustaining the Russian Language at Home and Abroad
During the last few weeks, the term "russkiy mir," which can roughly
be translated as "Russian world," suddenly gained increasing
prominence. It became the center of numerous initiatives and
contentious debates. Although the term has been previously known but
not widely used, it was ushered into the public sphere by President
Vladimir Putin in his State of the Union speech at the end of April:
"The Russian language not only preserves an entire layer of truly
global achievements but is also the living space for the many millions
of people in the Russian-speaking world, a community that goes far
beyond Russia itself. As the common heritage of many peoples, the
Russian language will never become the language of hatred or enmity,
xenophobia or isolationism."
The president suggested creating the National Russian Language
Foundation, which would "develop the Russian language at home, support
Russian language study programs abroad and generally promote Russian
language and literature around the world." Starting in May, first
attempts were made to put these ideas into practice. Moscow hosted
an international conference on raising the international status of
Russian language. The event was attended by some of the country's
leading public figures, including First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev, widely seen as a possible successor to Putin.
However, Russians abroad continue to complain about the lack of
opportunities for the development of Russian language, especially
in the former Soviet republics, where it previously functioned as a
lingua franca.
"We don't forget Russian, but we use it in a less and less
sophisticated way," said Darya Zhdanova, 30, a Latvian citizen of
Russian descent. "We use it for informal communication between family
and friends, but the Latvian government limits Russian broadcasts
on television to only a few minutes a day and prohibits the use of
Russian in government offices. It's no wonder that people are losing
their language skills."
The situation in Latvia's capital, Riga, which lacks street signs in
Russian despite having a Russian-speaking majority of the population,
is typical of post-Soviet countries. When the former Soviet republics
became independent, the leaders of the new governments began to view
the widespread use of Russian as a hindrance to the development of
local languages and national identities.
The governments of Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and the Baltic states
refused to give Russian the status of a second state language or even
of a so-called official language, which can be used in the public
sphere. In these countries, Russian is taught as one of several
foreign languages, and schools tend to encourage students to study
English instead of Russian.
"English is very popular all over the world and its power is based
on the achievements of the Anglo-Saxon civilization," said Vitaly
Kostomarov, president of the State Institute of Russian Language
in Moscow. "But introducing it as the main language of interethnic
communication in the former Soviet Union will require a lot of time
and effort. There is no need to speed up this process artificially
by squeezing Russian out. It is far from a dying language, despite
the fact that it ceded some ground during the 1990s."
Most Russian intellectuals and language experts suggest that viewing
Russian and English as competitors or even viewing Russian as being
in competition with national languages in the former Soviet republics
is inappropriate.
"No language is an enemy to another language," said Roy Medvedev, a
noted Russian historian and himself a native of Tbilisi, Georgia. "In
London I met a family of a well-to-do Kazakh businessman who represents
a rich Kazakh company in Britain. His family members speak Russian
among themselves, but they speak English with his business partners
and switch to Kazakh when they visit their home country.
This fluency in languages is one of the sources of their success."
The government of Kazakhstan encourages the teaching of Kazakh,
English, and Russian, and the success of this plan so far makes
Kazakhstan unique among the post-Soviet states.
"The three-languages policy, as we call it, has allowed Kazakhstan to
encourage ethnic Russians to remain in the country," said Sholpan
Kalanova, a representative of Kazakhstan's government at the
International Research Group on Comparative Studies in Education,
a CIS-financed body that seeks to introduce common standards for
education in the former Soviet republics. "When Russian received the
status of an official language and Russians saw that they can watch
television in Russian and their children can receive an education in
Russian, they decided to stay. Some of those Russians who emigrated
from Kazakhstan to Russia in the early 1990s even decided to return."
In Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, Russian is also a state language -
a situation that offers significant benefits to the young people
in these countries. Learning Russian gives them greater access to
information and the media, including the Internet, and also makes it
possible to attend Russian universities. Russia has an equal-access
agreement with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which
allows qualified students from these countries to study in Russian
state universities. Additionally, Russian remains the language of
learning in most of the universities in the post-Soviet states -
partially because most of the available textbooks are in Russian.
Often the greater opportunities available for students who speak
Russian seem to contradict the desires of post-Soviet governments
that are attempting to promote national languages.
"In our country, we have 80 ethnic groups for whom Russian has
always been the language of interethnic communication," said Nailya
Khaliluyeva, a teacher of Russian from Kyrgyzstan. "In the south of
the country, all official documents are made only in Kyrgyz, but in
the capital of Bishkek we are still allowed to use Russian. Parents
want their children to attend schools that teach in Russian rather
than Kyrgyz."
Although Georgian and Ukrainian are not more widely spoken
internationally than Kyrgyz and Belarussian, these countries have made
a much more committed effort to replace Russian with their national
languages, particularly in educated circles. Additionally, Georgia
and Ukraine do not coordinate their educational policies with any of
the other CIS countries, further isolating their students from Russian.
In Roy Medvedev's opinion, these decisions are not damaging to Russia,
but are instead harmful for Georgia and Ukraine.
"Georgian and Armenian are the most ancient languages on the
territory of the former Soviet Union, but these are the languages of
relatively small states who also need Russian in order to help their
own development," Medvedev said. "During the Soviet era, more books
were published in Georgian than now. Georgian fiction found its way
to readers all over the world via Russian translations. International
scientific communication is conducted in 4-5 languages and Russian
is one of them. Of course, English is even more suited for this
communication, but years will pass before Georgians learn English
well enough for it to play the same role that Russian used to play."
Kostomarov cautions, however, that the survival and spread of Russian
cannot be guaranteed by Russia's past glories. Instead, it will depend
on the country's economic performance and its global image.
"Using Marxist terms, language is not the base but only an extension
of a nation's development in general," Kostomarov said. "Now that
the Russian economy is growing, the language has also shown some
indications of recovery, albeit a limited one, because the national
image has not yet improved significantly."
The other important factor, in Kostomarov's opinion, is the support
that the Russian state provides for the study of the language abroad.
Until 1989, Russian was a required subject for almost all students
in the Socialist bloc. Since then, however, the number of students
studying Russian has fallen dramatically and language courses are often
supported by Russian embassies, providing textbooks and sponsoring
conferences for students and teachers. Along with local authorities,
the Russian government also helps finance "Slavic universities" in many
of the post-Soviet republics that offer education in Russian. Graduates
of these universities receive diplomas valid both in Russia and their
country of origin.
According to the International Association of Teachers of Russian
Language and Literature, the number of people studying Russian
worldwide is comparable to the number of people studying French or
German. Along with Spanish and English, it remains one of the main
languages of international scientific communication. While numbering
fewer speakers than English, Chinese, Spanish or Hindu, Russian is
still spoken by more people than French (about 130 million) and German
(about 100 million).
According to the figures cited in a speech by Medvedev at the
conference on Russian language abroad on May 29, Russian is understood
and used to some extent by 274 million people. Out of this number,
130 million are Russian citizens living in Russia and 30 million are
Russians living abroad. The remaining 114 million are people who speak
Russian as their second language or know it as a foreign language. This
is a priceless heritage that needs to be sustained and developed.
http://www.russiaprofile.org/page.php? pageid=Politics&articleid=a1182161554
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress