Increased Enrollments article

[Renee Stillings]

"But I also suspect Slavic competes for the same limited student pool as
Arabic and Asian languages. Is this merely mild paranoia? Could it be
that instead we bolster one another?"


I would think this competition is certainly the case. Arabic of course has
gotten the "anti-terrorist" boost and China has apparently been able to
disseminate the message that there are endless business opportunities there
- and students perceive this.

I am interested in any other opinions as to why we cannot seem to make any
headway in increasing Russian language study. My personal inclination that
from the aspects of culture, linguistics, literature, and the arts Russian
holds up just fine against the directly competing languages. What it lacks
is the clear and understandable draw of business/career opportunities. Those
opportunities are not as accessible to the average American. I suspect that
a far greater number of Americans can envison some involvement with China -
be it trade, manufacturing, or outsourcing. Such career opportunities are
more apparent to the many business-oriented students. The opportunities in
Russia, outside of the academic and NGO sectors, are narrower. They are
either for the extremely adventurous and thick-skinned entrepreneur, the
risk-attracted financial types, or those in resource-extraction related
industries. These are not opportunities for those right out of college or
the typical mom n' pop business in the US. They tend, in fact, to be for the
non-Russian major.

Even the lure of English teaching has always been more elusive in Russia.
There is no outreach really for teachers. It is those who happen to already
be there or are otherwise very determined. This is now going to backslide
even further as the new visa regulations are going to make it nearly
impossible for young people to "hang out" for a year or two teaching and as
such often transition into other positions in the Russian market. Especially
with prices in Russia skyrocketing, it is rapidly become impossible to
self-fund an extended stay there without legal (work-permit based)
employment. 

Still, we should expect more growth in the numbers than there is. Can anyone
offer up any feedback based on attempts to recruit students and reasons they
give for choosing other languages?

Renee

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