Why students do not study Russian anymore

[Alina Israeli]

> The figure for Russian
>is over 1000 [hours] and far more for that in Japanese.

By my calculation it means 200 weeks (@ 5 hours/week instruction), which
translates into 13.3 semesters (@ 15 weeks per semester), or almost 7
years. Most colleges though teach 3 hours per week.

On the other subject:

>This all would be fine if their teaching were consistent with the level of
>their students' proficiency. In some (if not many) cases they tend to teach
>ABOUT the language, rather than the language per se.
>In some universities students just attend lectures on the Russian grammar
>or
>phonetics, without actually learning how to use them. This is a hangover
>from the cold war days when oral skills in Russian were needed mostly by
>the
>military and secret service. All the rest were supposed to STUDY Russian
>rather than learn how to use it.

The difference between a college and a Berlitz school is that the college
should do both. It is part of the higher education or the essence of the
study of the humanities to understand things, not just be able to use them
(unlike my ability to drive a car without much knowledge of those things
under the hood). Take the study of one's native literature, a high school
student can decipher the text, a college student is expected to go a step
further. The same should be said about a language, any language, be it
native or foreign.

Remember the guy who was surpised to learn that he speeks in prose?

**************************************************************
Alina Israeli
LFS, American University                phone:  (202) 885-2387
4400 Mass. Ave., NW                     fax:    (202) 885-1076
Washington, DC 20016

aisrael at american.edu

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