Estonian language policy

[anne marie devlin]

For a comprehensive overview of language policy and attempts to eradicate Russian in former Soviet States, have a look at this book edited by Aneta Pavlenko.

Pavlenko, A. (2008) (ed.) Multilingualism in post-Soviet countries. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

AMD
 
> Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2010 17:23:52 -0400
> From: paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Estonian language policy
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> 
> Article in today's /New York Times/, worth a read:
> 
> Tallinn Journal
> ESTONIA RAISES ITS PENCILS TO ERASE RUSSIAN
> ===========================================
> By Clifford J. Levy
> Published June 7, 2010
> 
> TALLINN, Estonia -- Sometime before year's end, a man with a clipboard 
> will drop by one of this city's best schools, the Tallinn Pae Gymnasium, 
> and the staff will begin to fret. He will saunter from classroom to 
> classroom, ignoring the children and instead engaging in seemingly 
> trivial chitchat with many of the teachers, 20 minutes at a time.
> 
> Tell me, what subjects are your specialties? How long have you worked 
> here? Can you explain to me a little about how you prepare your lessons?
> 
> He will not be particularly interested in what they say. He will care 
> only about how they say it.
> 
> So watch that grammar. The language inspector is coming.
> 
> Estonia, a small former Soviet republic on the Baltic Sea, has been 
> mounting a determined campaign to elevate the status of its native 
> language and to marginalize Russian, the tongue of its former colonizer. 
> That has turned public schools like the Pae Gymnasium, where the 
> children have long been taught in Russian, into linguistic battlegrounds.
> 
> Because Pae's administrators and teachers are state employees, they are 
> now required to have a certain proficiency in Estonian and to use it in 
> more classes. The National Language Inspectorate, a government agency 
> that is not exactly beloved in Russian-speaking pockets of Estonia, is 
> charged with ensuring that the law is followed.
> 
> The language inspectorate has the right to fine or discipline public 
> employees who do not speak competent Estonian. While the agency has only 
> 18 inspectors, it is such a provocative symbol of the country's language 
> regulations that even Amnesty International has criticized its tactics 
> as heavy-handed.
> 
> ...
> 
> Read the full article:
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/world/europe/08estonia.html>
> 
> -- 
> War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
> --
> Paul B. Gallagher
> pbg translations, inc.
> "Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
> http://pbg-translations.com
> 
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