Why students do not study Russian anymore

[Marta Sherwood-Pike]

As someone who has a degree in Russian and worked as a secretary in a
Russian Department for 11 years, I think I am willing to voice an opinion
on the subject. The large influx of Russian immigrants in the 1980's and
1990's flooded the market, depressing wages for translators which were
never very good, and the end of the Cold War meant that government jobs
were no longer as abundant. Russian as a second language doesn't increase
a student's earning power, and with student loans and indebtedness being
what they are, prudent young people need to look at the bottom line. Look
at Japanese departments. It's a much harder language than Russian, but the
enrollments are up. -Martha Sherwood-

On Mon, 5 Jun 2000, E. Boyle wrote:

> Something that contributes to the "unattractiveness" of Russian, if that's
> what it is, is the good old GPA: many students to not have the time to put
> in the work required to get an A, or a 4.0 in Russian, and they simply
> drop it in favor of a "simpler" language.  They tell us that they have to
> keep their GPA up in order to get a good job later.
>
> I do not think we need to alter the grammar.  We need to change the way we
> present the language though.  No one will become enthralled with anything
> that's presented as merely so many grammatical structures.
>
> ***************
> Eloise M. Boyle
> Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
> University of Washington
> Box 353580
> Seattle, WA  98195
>
> (206) 543-7580 (office)
> (425) 483-4130 (home)
> e-mail: emboyle at u.washington.edu
>
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