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Russian in Central Asia | ||
Tags: Language Importance | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Bradley326 Groupie Joined 6174 days ago 78 posts - 104 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Kazakh, Spanish | Message 9 of 20 04 March 2011 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I can speak for Kazakhstan, as I currently live there.
Russian is understood by pretty much everyone. I've been here for a year and a half and I've never run into anyone who didn't understand Russian. That's not to say they speak it perfectly, and I've noticed some little oddities with how they speak it compared with what I experienced in Russia proper. However, Kazakh is also VERY common, I hear it on a daily basis here in Astana, and from what I've heard it's even more common down South. There is currently a big push to get everyone in the country speaking Kazakh. School children study both Russian and Kazakh, for example. There's a grand plan to have everyone speaking Kazakh by 2030, but I seriously doubt Russian will go away anytime soon. Here's a humorous little anecdote about a colleague of mine and the usefulness of Kazakh: When he came to Kazakhstan he opted to learn Kazakh instead of Russian, as he felt it would be the better choice since it's the "local" language. He quickly got to basic fluency. Recently he had a problem with his bank card; the ATM ate it! He went into the bank to see what could be done, and it turns out that all of the bank workers (both Kazakhs and Russians) only spoke Russian, so despite speaking the official language, he was completely unable to communicate what he needed! 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mikael84 Bilingual Pentaglot Groupie Peru Joined 5298 days ago 76 posts - 116 votes Speaks: French*, Finnish*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Arabic (classical), German, Russian | Message 10 of 20 05 March 2011 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Bradley, you are saying that Kazakh is definitely on the rise. Do you feel that in parallel Russian is going downhill? Ie, do you feel that the grand plan to have everyone speaking Kazakh by 2030 also discourages people from learning Russian?
Even though Russian is prevalent nowadays I am a little wary of the future (next 10-20y) as the linguistic situation throughout Central Asia seems to be changing quickly... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bradley326 Groupie Joined 6174 days ago 78 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Kazakh, Spanish | Message 11 of 20 06 March 2011 at 6:37am | IP Logged | ||
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I do think that Russian is going downhill, but I don't think anyone is being discouraged from learning it. As I said, school children study both Russian and Kazakh in school, and I think the main goal of this "push" is to get everyone speaking both languages, and to push Kazakh into the position of sole first language.
Right now EVERYTHING is written in two languages (Russian and Kazakh): signs, notices, pamphlets, advertisements, and even audio on the radio, television, and PA systems. On New Years Eve the president gave two identical speeches: one in Russian and one in Kazakh. Ideally the government would like to be able to only worry about putting all this information in one language, which makes sense as I'm sure it would save quite a bit of money in addition to just being easier. At the moment they can't do that as the anecdote about my colleague above shows, because there is still a huge percentage of the population that doesn't know a lick of Kazakh. Thus this big "push". I also think the government realizes that Russian is vital to Kazakhstan's continued economic and political development. They have very close ties to Russia and travel between the two counties seems to be almost on the level of travel between the USA and Canada. Almost everyone I know here has been to Russia at some point, and many of them have family or friends living just over the border. So Russian will most likely have a continued, although somewhat diminished, existence as a lingua franca. The situation is really interesting, and could change very quickly. Nazarbayev, the current president, is considered a "friend" to Russia and the left-over Russians (from Soviet days) who are living in Kazakhstan (and there are many). He himself was the former Communist party leader here in Kazakhstan, so he's part of that old guard, kind of like Putin. A lot of people, especially these Russians, are uncertain about the future after Nazarbayev. He's getting really old so he most likely won't be around much longer, and it's unclear who will take his place when he steps down or dies. Although generally Russians and Kazakhs live peacefully side-by-side, there is a lot of unspoken dislike and tension between the two groups. It's not as blatant as the racism that exists in the USA, but it's definitely there, simmering behind closed doors. Depending on who takes over after Nazarbayev and what happens, I could absolutely see mass-exodus of Russians back to Russia. That would change the whole dynamic of the country and would obviously greatly effect the language landscape. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7154 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 12 of 20 12 March 2014 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here's a bit of an update on the preceding comments on the subject: "The Decline of Mother Russia's Mother Tongue"
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| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5128 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 13 of 20 12 March 2014 at 4:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I traveled in Uzbekistan a few years ago and remember a conversation I had with two teenagers in Samarkand. I met them at a concert of the Toten Hosen, a German punk band who happened to be touring Central Asia at that time. Being generally interested in language politics, I asked them about Uzbek and Russian, and they conveyed to me that they don't speak Russian. They said older people did, but younger people not necessarily. They definitively spoke Uzbek amongst each other. Whether this is just an anecdote or reflects a more general shift in attitudes in Uzbekistan I don't know.
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| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 14 of 20 12 March 2014 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | ||
Very interesting article. I understand I have better get my butt over to Central Asia before Russian becomes irrelevant. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4620 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 15 of 20 13 March 2014 at 12:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Strange as it may seem, German was until very recently a language of Kazakhstan. It may even still be heard
in isolated pockets, although most people with German heritage emigrated to Germany following the break- up of the Soviet Union. The Volga Germans, a long-standing community in Russia, were forcibly moved to Kazakhstan upon the outbreak of WW2 and were trapped behind the Iron Curtain for decades afterwards. I have a few friends who came to Germany from Kazakhstan, some of whom grew up speaking only Russian. None of them speak anything more than basic Kazak, they insist that everyone in Kazakhstan can speak Russian. So it seems that Russian is still the business lingua franca across large parts of Central Asia? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jarel Diglot Groupie Turkey Joined 4324 days ago 57 posts - 77 votes Speaks: Turkish*, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 16 of 20 13 March 2014 at 11:08am | IP Logged | ||
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well i've never been into the region myself but many people from there came to study here in Turkey, I spoke to an Uzbek, a Kazakh and a Tajik very recently about languages. What i wrote down below sums up what they told me.
- Russian is still the lingua franca of the region. If you want to learn one language and be able to survive in the entire region learn Russian. - If you are interested in a specific country of the region learn their mother tongue. Exception here is Kazakhstan where Russian seems to be more prevalent then or at least in the same foot as Russian. - You might meet people who are not bilungual and can't speak Russian, in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. - In Kazakhstan you might have the same trouble with Kazakh. There are Kazakh people who can't speak Kazakh and only understand Russian. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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