Russian Language Abroad

Russian language abroad.Conference at Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH) on studies and teaching of the Russian language in CIS states and the far abroad. - Yefim Pivovar, rector of RSUH, doctor of historical sciences: - Of course for us, as for the Russian State University for the Humanities, - the role of the Russian language and culture in Russia, as well as in the world, is vitally important. - I won't conceal from you that we are not particularly happy with the present state of affairs within the country, - also among the new generation amid the information revolution, - which provides less knowledge in the field of literature and native language in a traditional way, - meaning through reading and all the other ways which were always common in the culture, - and more through the information field, - which is nevertheless an important direction for our actions. - By all means we are extremely interested, on the one hand, - in expanding and supporting the Russian-speaking world - outside of the Russian Federation and in the borders of the world, - which existed already within the Soviet Union, - meaning post-Soviet space, as well as far beyond its borders. - I don't very much like such notions as the "near abroad" and the "far abroad", - but so far the Russian language has not come up with another suitable notion. - And this is very important. - And it is particularly important in a philological perspective, - as well as linguistically, regarding the context of the language's development. - Language is the most important means not only of communication, - but also of promotion and preservation of a culture of any civilization, - including the Russian civilization. - And this direction is very important for us. - Nowadays, the system of Russian language instruction is undergoing some changes, - as well the subject of this process and those who would like to deal with it are also changing. - On the one hand, we should actively support interest in Russian language coming from any person, - according to the concept of the Russian world. - This concept dictates that a representative of any ethnic group - interested in the Russian language, - trying to study it and enter its cultural world, - already becomes a part of the Russian world. - This Russian world also embraces by any means the representatives of ethnic groups - who live and who used to live on the territory of Russia - and who happened to be outside the Russian Federation, - as well as ones who never used to be a part of the Russian world, - but are interested in Russian, - who are affiliated with institutions teaching the Russian language in the world - and are actively collaborating with us. - In this regard the present conference is very significant. - I hope that this exchange of opinions and the study of the present day situation in various corners of the world - In this regard will further contribute to our efforts, - which have not only great educational and scientific value, - but also a pedagogic one. - While universities are also collective pedagogues, - I am convinced that this conference also has this function. - The importance of this conference is obvious, - as its main objective is to expand cooperation - between Russian and foreign centers of Russian studies, - leading institutions in promoting the Russian language abroad and diasporas. - The main subject under discussion today is - the "Fate of the Russian language as an integral part of the Russian culture, - an important means of international communication and ethno-cultural preservation of Russians abroad." - In this regard, the Russian State Collaboration pays special attention to the realization of programs - aimed at supporting and promoting the Russian language abroad, - as well as among fellow nationals. - I would like to present briefly the present projects of the agency. - Together with the Ministry for Science and Education the Russian State Collaboration - is the main developer of a new federal program, - the "Russian language" for 2011-2015, - which you surely have heard about. - Starting from this year the agency will be one of the state employees in this project - regarding two important strategic tasks among our priorities. - The first task is support for the Russian language as the basis for development - and processes of integration among the CIS countries. - The second task is aimed at answering the cultural and language needs of our fellow Russians abroad. - The realization of these tasks will provide a partial solution to a number of problems - connected to the strengthening of the position of the Russian language in the world. - In respect to the requests from abroad, we are planning to continue regularly sending abroad educational, - tutorial, referential materials on the Russian language, - organizing cultural, educational and tutorial events - which facilitate the promotion of Russian and Russia in general - and to start developing in cooperation with foreign partners the Russian language textbooks - designed for particular nations and, as it could be interesting for this audience, - I am inviting you to cooperate. - Stanislav Golubev, general director of the "Chrysostomos" center: - The "Chrysostom" center has been developing and publishing Russian language textbooks for foreigners for the last twenty years and in the last few years has turned to a new field that is actively developing in the world, - - that is the development of the Russian language among the children of fellow Russians, - and the issue of bilingualism is connected to this subject. - Apart from this, we are very interested in issues of language policy - and in the experience of promoting this policy in various countries, - as to think about new method and find new, interesting authors - is entirely purposeless without an understanding of the background - of the actively developing processes in education and language policy in different countries. - Thus we have managed to publish on this subject in the past few years - and organize interesting seminars in various countries with the participation of interesting scholars. - This field is discussed here as well and it is exciting to participate in this. - Vera Zabtokina, professor at RSUH: - The conference is very interesting and up-to-date, - because we all talk about a modern, multi-cultural world of multiple languages - and in this modern, multi-cultural world of multiple languages the Russian language - rings out along with all the others. - And although the strengthening of Russian abroad and in our country has been discussed - and will be discussed here today, I think that the Russian language has quite a strong presence abroad - and it can be observed in international projects. - Therefore, I would like to pay special attention to the international students' project of Mobility - as a means of raising motivation. - Mark Andreevich has mentioned that we have to think about - how to make people learn Russian, - what mechanisms to look for to raise interest in Russian. - There is one, by means of mobility. We have several programs for mobility in our university, - including Erasmus-Mundus, a large-scale project with the participation - of ten Russian universities and ten foreign universities. - We have students coming from the University of Bologna, - Goettingen, Humboldt University, from Loewen, Turku (Finland) and from other cities of Europe. - They come here having a great knowledge of Russian. - When I meet these students, I am always surprised. - We have to motivate youth with this - with an opportunity to study in Russia, - get acquainted with Russian culture. - Many of them, after having studied a year, prolong their stay here,they want to study more. - They say Moscow is a stunning city with an amazing culture. - And this is important.