russian is in demand (otago etc)

[acohens at socrates.berkeley.edu]

hello seelangers,

for once i feel compelled to respond to a series of posts on this list.
i have read the recent set of exchanges with interest and sadness: sadness
because of the scent of the flame which has popped up, which is for the
most part relatively rare on this list; and interest because of the
reconsideration of the topic of 'is the study of russian (and other slavic
& eeur languages) useful?

i am one of those who veered away from doing advanced academic work in
slavic studies because it seemed apparent to me that there was too great a
risk of too little work.  i was gainfully employed as a czech linguist
during those halcyon days of the studena valka, but saw my job disappear
in november 1989.  all slavic studies thereafter have been driven by
love, not money (there is none, at least not here in the u.s.).

i suppose that interested parties (instructors, professors, libraries, &
others in the academic community) should emphasize the attraction of the
study of russian (or polish, or bulgarian, or sorbian) for its own sake,
and not as a gateway to a lucrative career (unless, of course, one can
combine slavic/eeur language skills with good old american know-how and
teach those benighted folk east of the oder how to live long and prosper
as we do here in the west).

it seems to me that being able to read tsetaeva or bulgakov or chekhov or
hrabal or krleza in the original should be reward enough.

i'll climb down from my soapbox again.

adam cohen-siegel
linguistics, uc berkeley