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  • Russian Language Still Needs Protection

    RUSSIAN LANGUAGE STILL NEEDS PROTECTION
    Alexei Peskov

    Moscow News
    June 19 2008
    Russia

    The Russian language has encountered serious problems in recent
    times both in the former Soviet republics and in the Russian
    Federation. People are using less literary Russian in their everyday
    communication, the influence of foreign languages is growing and
    obscene language is spreading. These were the subjects that were
    discussed at a roundtable conference that took place on June 17 in
    the RIA Novosti news agency headquarters.

    This round table meeting was held as part of the Session of the
    Forum of the youth elites of the CIS countries, which is a public
    and educational project by the Center for Political Conjunc­ture
    of Russia within the framework of a grant from the President of
    Russia. Representatives of 10 CIS countries took part. The tasks of
    the Forum are the development of the intellectual interaction and an
    establishment of links between youth from the post-Soviet states,
    as well as civic diplomacy in relations between Russia and the
    neighboring states.

    Speaking at the press-conference, the Director General of TSIRKON
    research group Igor Zadorin, said that research reveals differences
    in terms of the dispersal and the number of people who know
    Russian. According to him, there are countries in the CIS where an
    overwhelming majority of the population said that they know Russian
    either fluently or use it as the second native language, and there are
    such states where less than one third of the population said that they
    know Russian fluently, and first of all these are the Trans-Caucasian
    republics and Lithuania.

    "The same situation can be obser­ved in the former Soviet republics,
    in terms of knowledge of the Russian language by younger children,"
    he said. "And it must be that people at work communicate in Russian
    more and more seldom than at home. This is related to some legal and
    juridical restrictions on the use of the Russian language at work. And
    there are countries in which this distinction is considerable and
    significant. Such countries are Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia. Questions
    were also asked by us how often people watch TV in Russian, read
    newspapers or books. And the research also revealed that in the
    Trans-Caucasus and in the Baltic countries a consumption of information
    in the Russian language lags behind other CIS states. And we also
    observed the following picture. If in Tajikistan and in Armenia the
    usage of the Russian language is not widely developed, the demand and
    requirement are obviously on the rise. More and more people in these
    countries want to learn or to improve the knowledge of the Russian
    language and to use it. Such demand is also significant in Kyrgyzstan
    where an overwhelming majority of those polled said Russian teaching
    should be expanded.

    "The matter is that very many guest workers from these countries
    temporarily live and work in Russia. And these are economic reasons
    which can give an explanation of such a demand. And most of those
    polled expressed desire and hope to increase the level of knowledge
    of the Russian language."

    He then continued that there are countries in which, according to his
    assessment, the current state of the Russian language is acceptable,
    and the practice of its usage is extensive. "Such countries, first
    of all, are Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. And there are countries
    where the Russian language has actually already left the information
    space, its current usage has been lowered and the demand in the
    Russian language is inconsiderable. And its current state is accepted
    as satisfactory by most of citizens of these countries. These are,
    first of all, the Trans-Caucasian republics, Georgia and Azerbaijan,
    and the Baltic states, such as Estonian and Lithuania. Also among
    the countries where the demand in learning Russian is significant
    is Moldova. In fact, up to one third of men, citizens of Moldova,
    are constantly absent because they work abroad, and one half of
    those absent work in Russia." He then emphasized the significance of
    the economic aspect of learning of the Russian language. Of course,
    according to Zadorin, the importance of the cultural factor should not
    be diminished but the economic factor is so far in the first place,
    it is now dominating. He said that more educational programs should
    be conducted in this respect in the CIS countries, especially in
    those in which the demand in learning the language is so considerable.

    Political figure Alexei Mitrofanov said that quite recently the
    Center for World Strategies had been formed in Russia by the Just
    Russia party. "One of its important tasks is the popularization of
    the Russian language. We shall also help our countrymen who find
    themselves in a difficult and complicated situation abroad, including
    those who had been imprisoned or simply abandoned. The matter is
    that on the territory of some CIS states armed conflicts continue,
    and many Russian citizens simply cannot leave these regions. And the
    time has come to settle these problems and to help these people."

    It was also emphasized at the news conference that many people in
    distant countries are eager to learn Russian. For instance, this
    phenomenon can be observed in China. Young Chinese now know Russian
    worse that the Chinese people of the older generation but they are
    eager to learn and to master the language. And many Chinese even
    remember and know Russian songs by heart and melodies even better
    than members of the Russian delegations who visit China.

    The total number of people who know or learn Russian abroad is 300
    million.

    The roundtable participants noted that the Russian language is
    gradually gaining popularity both in the post-Soviet space and in
    other countries and expressed the hope that many nations would soon
    understand the need to learn it.

    --Boundary_(ID_8SVETy3RuA78YmQKY91g3A)--
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