Elephant in the room

[Melissa Smith]

While Russian language enrollments lately have been stable or even 
rising at the elementary level, I have found that among students in 
general education courses at my university, the perception of the 
importance of Russian language, culture, or even political influence 
has dropped drastically.  I  infer that intrinsic/intellectual 
curiosity remains, but for those with instrumental motivation, Russian 
is off the scale. The presence of "sleeper" spy cells, in my opinion, 
is not likely to change this.

When I attended the Ohio Foreign Language Association meeting this 
spring, it appeared that Russian was not even on the radar screen in 
materials or approaches that were being marketed. Russian does not seem 
to have the sexy "otherness" that it has had for past generations. If I 
judge by my students in a "Foreign Film" class I teach, the Asian film 
industry has the cache, whether it be in Japanese anime or Chinese 
martial arts. The language interest seems to follow. Arabic appeals to 
the military and criminal justice students.

We must hope that our LOVE will  guide us...

Melissa Smith

On 7/10/10 6:20 PM, Beyer, Tom wrote:
> Funding is not likely to be forthcoming, but news about things 
Russian, any
> news has traditionally increased elementary Rusian enrollments for that
> year.
> 
> So plan on my work with the same resources.
> 
> :-)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 7/10/10 5:25 PM, "Inna Caron" <caron.4 at BUCKEYEMAIL.OSU.EDU> wrote:
> 
> > Does anyone have any idea as to how this situation with the Russian 
spies may
> > affect Russian language programs in the U.S. universities? Common 
sense
> > suggests that we should see some increase in funding, but common 
sense doesn't
> > always prevail in these matters, does it?
> > 
> > 
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------------------------------------

Melissa T. Smith, Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and 
Literatures  
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH 44555
Tel: (330)941-3462

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