Slavic field

[andrea nelson]

A response to Robert Orr's question:

>Just a wee rhetorical question .... did people stop studying German after 1945?
>Russia's still a "big, imporatnt country", as Genevra Gerhart pointed out ...

Yes.  You and I know that Russia is still a "big, important country" but
enrollments have dropped EVERYWHERE in the United States in Russian.  We
need to be able to communicate very passionately our view that it is a "big
important country" with a rich language and culture.  And we need to do it
at the earliest language levels. I think part of what will perhaps sustain
our enrollments and possibly make them grow in the future is a reorienting
of priorities in the field and in the Russian and Slavic departments of this
country which would focus every ounce of excitement and passion and hard
work on the very early levels of language instruction.  This means making
excellence in language instruction at this level a must, rewarding those who
succeed in it a must, and nurturing a curriculum which would be flexible yet
solid from year to year.

Andrea Nelson