Why students do not study Russian anymore

[Marta Sherwood-Pike]

Here in Eugene we have a French language and Japanese language immersion
program in the elementary school, but the quality of instruction does not
seem to be such as to really teach the children the language. When I was
in sixth grade we were exposed to a televised Spanish program (1960) which
really gripped me.  Spanish is an obvious first choice for an elementary
and middle-school language program, for one really does need to know how
to use it for many jobs. I took both Spanish and German in high school,
German in college, studied French and Latin on my own as part of my
graduate curriculum, and got a second bacchalaureate in Russian when
working in the Russian Department at the University of Oregon. Being a
minority has nothing to do with it. Holding out the promise of job
opportunities which don't exist is dishonest, and moreover
counterproductive. So is the promise of entry into a greater understanding
of Russian literature, for how many third-year Russian students can
appreciate Pushkin better in Russian than in translation? One is left, I
think, with the principle, that studying any hard language is worthwhile,
because it really increases your mental flexibility and teaches you how to
think.  -Martha Sherwood-

On Tue, 6 Jun 2000, Cheri C Wilson wrote:

> On Mon, 5 Jun 2000, Marta Sherwood-Pike wrote:
>
> > Most American students emerge from high schools without the mental
> > skills to learn difficult foreign languages, chiefly because they are
> > not exposed to a bilingual environment in their childhood.
>
> Marta,
>
> I would have to agree with you on this one.   It appears that the trend
> nowadays is to start language training early, such as in Montessori
> schools, pre-K programs, etc.  It appears that the language usually taught
> at that stage is Spanish.
>
> I am hoping to demonstrate this point through my personal story, which I
> hope no one will mind.
>
> I started studying French in the 6th grade and continued it through my
> freshman year of college.  I also studied Spanish for three years in high
> school.  My high school offered Russian, which I wanted to take my senior
> year; but, the guidance counselors said no because I was already taking
> two other languages (as if being multilingual is a bad thing).  I was the
> only student in my high school taking two languages.
>
> I started taking Russian my 2nd year of college and was immediately
> fascinated by how little I knew about the geographical area in
> general.  Next, I started taking literature, culture, history, politics,
> etc and then changed my major to Slavic and East European Studies.
>
> I transferred schools and had the opportunity to intern for a semester in
> a think tank.  I also spent the spring semester of my final year in Russia
> where I lived in 4 different cities--Nizhnii Novgorod, Moscow,
> Chelyabinsk, and St. Petersburg.  I received a B.A. in Russian language
> and literature (with a broader focus on Russian Area Studies, although the
> University did not have an official program).  I continued on and
> received the M.A. in Russian Area Studies.  Initially, my plan was to
> receive the M.A. and then go on to law school, so that I work specifically
> with Russia.  My advisor convinced me to apply to the Ph.D. program in
> History, so here I am a Ph.D. candidate in Russian history.  The wonderful
> thing is that I have been able to combine my passion for Russian, history,
> and law into my area of specialization, Russian legal history.
>
> Believe it or not, I still remember much of my French and Spanish from
> junior high and high school and use both languages whenever I have the
> opportunity as well as for research.  I also managed to pick up a reading
> knowledge of German on the side for good measure.
>
> Add to the mix that I happen to be black (not African-American please);
> then one really has to ask how did I get interested in all of the
> different languages when I don't have any of those ethnicities in my
> background?
>
> This leads to a question that I would like to pose to the list.  How does
> one get minority students interested in foreign languages, specifically
> Slavic languages?  I ask because no one had to use the old Pushkin trick
> to try to hook me in.  But, then again, I don't think that you have to be
> a particularly ethnicity to study the history or language of a certain
> ethnicity.
>
> Just my $.02 kopecks,
>
> Cheri C. Wilson
>
> Cheri C. Wilson
> Ph.D. candidate, Russian history
> Teaching Fellow
> Loyola College in Maryland
> Department of History
> 4501 N. Charles Street
> Baltimore, MD 21210-2699
> Office telephone: (410) 617-2017
> Fax: (410) 617-2832
> E-mail: CWilson3 at loyola.edu
> http://www.evergreen.loyola.edu/~CWilson3/
>
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