Russian language in American schools. Native speech: how to teach a child Russian in the USA. What foreign languages ​​do the British study?

15.11.2011

Andrey Vladimirovich Korobkov is a professor at the University of Tennessee, USA. Below we publish the text of his report, which was made at the round table “Russian language in modern world» while in St. Petersburg. Recently, there have been positive trends in the United States related to the study of the Russian language. America again needed specialists who speak Russian. There are several reasons for this. The presence of a significant Russian-speaking diaspora is just one of them.

Listen to the program Russian world in action with the participation of Andrey Korobkov on radio "Russian World"

IN last years In the West in general and in the USA in particular, there is a revival of interest in the study of the Russian language and Russia. This fact indicates a significant change in the trends of the last two decades, when there was a rapid decline in interest in them and cuts in previously existing programs.

Paradoxically, the main reason for these trends was the end cold war, which initially led to euphoria and a feeling of complete ideological victory of the West and the establishment of the dominance of the model of market democracy. This was followed by a reorientation of foreign policy priorities and the attention of strategic services Western countries to other regions - the Middle East, South and East Asia, Latin America and Europe. The emergence of a group of post-Soviet states also played a role, leading to a redistribution of attention and resources in favor of other post-Soviet languages ​​and countries.

In addition, in an atmosphere of political euphoria, there was a general reduction in spending on “soft power” mechanisms. Initially, sharp cuts were made to the budgets and personnel of a number of organizations in this area. In particular, in 1998, the American Agency for International Development and the US Information Agency, which became part of the State Department, lost their independent status. At the same time, their Russian divisions faced particularly severe reductions. The West's expectations related to rapid development trade and industrial relations with Russia and the post-Soviet region as a whole.

What led to the change in trends in recent years? Firstly, this is the end of the above-mentioned euphoria and the understanding that the American and Western foreign policy in general, they are faced with a number of new serious problems. Secondly, it is a recognition that the mechanisms of “soft power” have been too weakened in favor of the traditional power and economic mechanisms of “hard power”. Thirdly, this is a change of generations both among the Western intellectual elite and among employees of foreign policy and strategic departments. In the context of personnel cuts in the 1990s, the supply of “young blood” to these structures practically ceased. As a result, by the time veterans of these departments retire, even in conditions of a general weakening of attention to the post-Soviet region, a significant demand for new personnel arises. Fourthly, for the first time in the history of Russia, an impressively large generation of young people from post-Soviet (and to a certain extent Eastern European) countries has grown up in the West, having the opportunity to maintain normal relations with friends and relatives in the CIS, as well as to work in the countries of the region. Nowadays, many of these young people study at schools or universities, while many second and especially third generation emigrants show interest in their historical roots - which is by no means small group: according to estimates, the Russian diaspora in the United States alone is about 2.6 million people [Ryazantsev S.V. “Labor migration in the CIS and Baltic countries: trends, consequences, regulation” Moscow: Formula of Law, 2007, p. 275].

What are the real trends in recent years?

Russian language in US schools

Let's start with secondary education. As noted earlier, the 1990s saw a dramatic decline in the number of students studying Russian and in the number of schools offering Russian language classes. According to the Committee on Russian Language in Schools and Universities ( Committee on College and Pre-College Russian), in the 1996-1997 school year in the United States, there were 306 schools that reported having Russian language classes, with 319 teachers teaching 10,371 students. By 2000-2001 the corresponding figures dropped sharply - to 124, 138 and 6672 (i.e. by 59.5%, 56.7% and 35.7%). In the fall of 2005, the first two indicators remained almost at the level of 2001 - 126 and 138, but the number of students increased slightly - to 7863. By the fall of 2010, the trend turned out to be contradictory: the number of schools and teachers decreased again - respectively, to 96 and 125, while the number of students increased significantly - to 9049, although it never reached the level of 1996-1997 school year. Thus, despite the fact that the number of students studying Russian increased by 35.6% compared to 2000 and amounted to 87.25% of the 1996/1997 level, the number of schools teaching the Russian language decreased over these years 14 years by 68.6%, and the number of teachers by 60.8%.

The number of states in whose schools there was the opportunity to study the Russian language continued to decline consistently - from 43 in the 1996/1997 academic year to 35 in 2000, 28 in 2005 and 25 in 2010 (i.e. a general reduction amounted to 41.9%).

Dynamics of American school programs Russian language

Although the development of language programs is a dynamic process, the significant number of their closures in recent years is noteworthy. During 1998-2010 227 school programs were eliminated, including 8 in 2010. Six more programs did not enroll a single student in the first year of study in 2010, and this practically guarantees their closure in the future. A number of states, including Colorado, have closed their last Russian programs. A particularly alarming trend is the closure large number programs in states with a high proportion of “old” populations with Russian and Orthodox roots (Alaska - 17, Iowa - 16, Minnesota - 14, Utah - 13, Wisconsin - 7, Indiana - 6, Nebraska - 5 and Idaho - 4 programs) and significant diasporas of “new” post-Soviet and Eastern European migrants (New York - 24, Pennsylvania and Illinois - 11 each, Maryland - 8, California and New Jersey - 6 each, Massachusetts - 4 programs).

At the same time, starting from 2007, 15 new programs were opened, including 4 in 2007, 6 in 2008, 2 in 2009, and 3 in 2010. The regional distribution of new programs is interesting. programs: 2 - in Alaska (a state with a historically high share of the population with Russian or Orthodox roots), 2 each - in California, Illinois, New York, one each - in Pennsylvania and Washington - states of both traditional and “new” immigration . Also noteworthy is the opening of 3 new programs in Tennessee and 2 in Arizona, states that did not accept significant volumes of Russian-speaking immigration.

However, the number of schoolchildren studying Russian has not fully recovered. Particularly alarming is the sharp decline in the number of Russian language teachers - thus reducing the employment prospects of graduates of Russian language programs, which means a weakening of incentives for studying it.

In conclusion, we note the extreme diversity in the Russian language textbooks used in schools - about 40 (in addition, 19 teachers use independently prepared textbooks). Of these, “Voices” is the most popular, used in 20 schools. Thus, the circulation of such publications must be very small, their cost must be high, and the training programs must not be coordinated.

Russian language study programs at universities

Although trends at the university level remain contradictory, the general trend in recent years has been an increase in the number of students studying Russian and the post-Soviet region. Of the 65 Russian language programs that reported data for fall 2009, 22 reported an increase in the number of first-year students, and about half reported an increase in the number of second-year students. Thus, even despite the closure of 15 first-year programs and 13 second-year programs, an overall growth trend is visible.

Data for 61 programs as of fall 2010 show that first-year student numbers in 43 remained almost the same, 7 programs lost between 15 and 50 percent of their students, and 11 experienced growth, sometimes dramatic growth (for example, the University Pennsylvania State - from 55 to 75 students, and in Texas technical university- from 44 to 70). Similarly, among second-year programs, 44 reported stagnant student numbers, 6 lost between 20 and 50 percent of their students, and 11 saw a dramatic increase in student numbers (in some cases by a factor of 2-3). The numbers for the 2010-2011 school year remain similar. Moreover, 10 first-year programs that reported growth in previous years saw their student numbers decline—often to previous low levels. However, almost half of the programs saw an increase in student numbers.

In total, 131 universities and colleges reported having Russian language programs in the 2010-2011 academic year. North America(including 5 two-year colleges) - note that this is not all, since many small programs do not provide information about themselves. Among the largest - Military Academy USA at West Point (127 first-year students and 73 second-year students in spring 2011), University of Washington (104 and 35), University of Wisconsin-Madison (91 and 44), Michigan State University (77 and 33), University of Minnesota (77 and 48), Indiana University (63 and 28), University of New Mexico (66 and 26), University of Oklahoma (53 and 25), Ohio State University (90 and 57), University of Oregon (63 and 19) , Pennsylvania State University (75 and 28), George Masen University (47 and 21), Georgetown University (37 and 30), George Washington University (47 and 66), Harvard (40 and 14), University of Illinois (34 and 27) , University of Maryland Baltimore County (47 and 28), University of Michigan (53 and 27), University of Missouri (50 and 14), University of Montana (51 and 14), University of New Hampshire (57 and 11), University of Pittsburgh (55 and 21), University of South Carolina (43 and 23), University of South Florida (52 and 12), State University of New York at Binghampton (31 and 17), St. Olaf College (43 and 35), University of Tennessee (43 and 27 ), University (36 and 32), College of William and Mary (50 and 28) and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee (42 and 11). One cannot fail to mention in this regard the traditionally strong military linguistics program at Monterey.

At the same time, it should be noted that in recent years, the liquidation of a number of Russian language programs has continued, including major and secondary majors (in particular, major Russian language majors at the universities of Alabama and Tennessee have been liquidated). The situation is further aggravated by the economic crisis that has continued since 2008, forcing many universities to “get rid” of specialties with a small number of students.

At the same time, 24 universities conducted summer Russian language courses in 2011. Among them are a number of elite universities, including Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Harvard, Indiana University, the University of Illinois, the University of Washington, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Michigan, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Virginia and the University of California at Los Angeles.

The number of American students coming to Russia for a semester or longer is about 500 per year, and those coming for shorter periods is about 1000. The number of teachers, researchers and professionals coming under the Fulbright program and other similar programs ( FLEX, Title IV, Open World, etc.), is about 1000 more. The admission of Russian specialists to the USA is about 3 thousand people per year, of which approximately 2.5 thousand receive support from the American side, and the remaining 500 from the Russian side. As expected, new program The Russian Ministry of Education and Science will almost double this figure due to a radical increase in the number of Russians sent to master's and doctoral programs in the United States.

The current number of Russian students studying at American universities (according to Open Doors) was 4,875 in the 2009-2010 academic year - however, it should be taken into account that this figure includes all students who are citizens of the Russian Federation, even if they permanently reside in the United States.

Note that the situation in Canada and the UK is quite close to the American one: among the largest Canadian university Russian language programs are the University of Toronto (77 first-year students and 42 second-year students) and Memorial University of Newfoundland (51 and 15). The British Association of Slavists (BASEES) has in recent years numbered more than 500 members, of which about 350 regularly take part in the annual conferences of the association. Although the teaching of Russian in schools has declined, the scope of university programs has generally remained the same (despite attempts to eliminate a number of them) - and this despite a pronounced trend towards a general decline in interest in the study of foreign languages ​​in Britain.

conclusions

First of all, it is necessary to support the emerging positive trends, including the creation of incentives for learning the Russian language at the school level - by providing teaching aids, scholarships, organizing summer linguistic camps - both in the USA and other countries, and in Russia. Secondly, the procedure for arriving in Russia needs to be simplified, incl. for Russian language courses, for those who show interest in Russian programs - both for students with Russian roots and without them. Third, direct work is needed with existing programs at all levels - be it school, university or graduate school - to encourage the study of the Russian language. Fourthly, and this seems especially important, it is necessary to take measures to stimulate the employment of graduates of Russian programs at American universities, create especially favorable conditions for them, including providing information about employment opportunities, creating a database of Russian-speaking specialists and providing them with assistance in contacting Russian companies operating in the West and Western companies represented in Russia. In the highly competitive American labor market, attracting strong students to Russian language programs without clear job prospects will be extremely difficult.

Learning a foreign language is not easy. To cram grammar every day and practice pronouncing unusual sounds, you need a serious incentive. For example, extra pay at work for knowing a foreign language. Or the desire to read classics in the original. Or a thirst for travel and new experiences.

It is quite difficult to establish exactly what motive or motives forced one to study a foreign language. Specialists are interested the economic aspect of this issue, writes Forbes. In 2005, Albert Saiz, economist University of Pennsylvania, and Elena Zoido, an economist at the LECG consulting group, published a special study in which they determined which languages ​​command the highest salary premiums in the United States.

According to the researchers' results, Spanish pays less (1.7%), followed by French (2.7%). Knowledge of German, Italian, Russian and Chinese is slightly more lucrative and gives an average worker a 4 percent salary increase.

Based on the results of the study, a rating of languages ​​that are most popular among young people was compiled. Researchers studied statistics on 1.5 million American college students who study in foreign language groups. It turned out that more students are learning Spanish. The second most popular is French. The top 10 most popular languages ​​also included German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, and Arabic. It is noteworthy that the ranking also included two dead languages ​​- Latin and Ancient Greek.

Alexander Genis: American Slavic studies are sensitive to political changes. As the director of the Russian School in Vermont told me last summer, “as soon as Putin opens his mouth, we have five new students.” And they all have to master one of the most difficult languages ​​in the world. Russian language teachers at American universities tell our correspondent Vladimir Abarinov how this happens.

Vladimir Abarinov: Learning a foreign language means understanding the lifestyle and logic of its native speakers. It's not easy when there is a cultural barrier. The teacher has to explain things that seem obvious to him and which he himself has never thought about. I talked about this with three of my friends who teach Russian language and literature to American students.

One of them is Yulia Trubikhina. She teaches at New York's Hunter College. To begin with, I asked her what kind of people her students were and why they needed the Russian language.

They sign up for Russian courses for various reasons. In New York we have a huge Russian population. That is, some are children from Russian-speaking families. Some of them go to language classes because they still need some foreign language and many of them hope for an easy grade at first. This almost never works out. American non-Russian speaking students choose Russian... well, I don’t know why. Maybe because they always wanted to, maybe because it was interesting, maybe they read something in the news, maybe because they were Russian friends or a Russian girl or young man. They still need to take some foreign language. But for those who sign up for literary and cultural courses, things happen differently to them. An interest in culture or literature may arise while you are studying the language. It depends on the teacher. If they like the teacher, then they go to literature and culture. And some people are really into it. So there are very different motivations here.

Vladimir Abarinov: Diana Gratigny began teaching Russian to foreigners in her native Saratov. She currently teaches at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. The question is the same: what are its students like, what explains their interest in the Russian language?

This is always a very interesting question, and I have asked myself it many times: why do they learn a language? Interest and motivation can be anything. But what happens to them in the process of learning the language and understanding the culture is the most interesting thing. All of them are clearly divided into two poles: those who do not accept the culture also experience difficulties in learning the language. Often there is a psychological background here - not some kind of linguistic impediment of our own, but psychological difficulties. And there are those who fall in love from the first moment, and no matter what happens to them in Russia, they really like everything. Of course, something happens to everyone, they all find themselves in extreme situations, but this is where their character is tested. One way or another, many are the majority! - have a keen interest in the subject.

Vladimir Abarinov: Elena Reznikova, a teacher at Union College in Schenectady in upstate New York, answers the same question.

Elena Reznikova: What motivates them? Well, in principle, many of them are engaged in either political science, or ecology, or international relations, so the Russian language is relevant and interesting for them. Some come to study Russian because their grandparents or more distant ancestors were from Russia. Some people are simply interested in Russian culture, the Russian language.

Vladimir Abarinov: The problems start with grammar.

Elena Reznikova: Well, of course, the very first thing that strikes students is grammar. Students in general are not prepared for this level. If they studied in high school Latin or even just a serious grammar of the English language, then, of course, they would be ready for this. But when they have to comprehend all the intricacies of cases, declensions and conjugations, they begin to panic a little. After that lesson, when all the secrets of the genitive case were revealed to them, all these many forms, they moaned for a whole week. And, of course, as soon as the cases ended, the perfect and imperfect forms began.

Vladimir Abarinov: But in English there are also perfect and imperfect forms of the verb.

Elena Reznikova: Yes Yes Yes! They were quite surprised when they learned that there are equivalents in English. When I told them: do you know, for example, that in English there is a present perfect? They said: what are you talking about? Give an example.

Vladimir Abarinov: Diana Gratigny understood what culture shock was back in Saratov.

The first thing that comes to my mind is this moment, this is the story of a student from New York. It was an African-American woman. She came to Russia 10 years ago and encountered racism. But what kind of racism? People paid attention to her. She was studying in Saratov then, and in a provincial city, even a big one, people paid attention to her appearance, she was very pretty and, apparently, in the cafe where they were relaxing, some comments were made, apparently a word forbidden in the USA the letter “n” was pronounced, and she suffered greatly about this. She couldn't handle it. Very often with students, not only from America, we have to explain in class... We put all our materials aside and explain why people don’t smile, or smile, but not as they should, or in the wrong place, or, conversely - why are they puzzled by your smiles...

Vladimir Abarinov: Well, there are comical cases.

I had an American Mennonite family. Mom and dad studied Russian, and they had three adorable kids. And so they lived in Russia, because there are Mennonites in Russia too, they have a parish, and the father is a priest there. But I was interested: what exactly did they show the children when they arrived in Russia? They went to Moscow, as always, to Red Square and showed the children Lenin’s mausoleum; they were in the mausoleum. And they went to the space museum and showed all these, you know, spaceships, apparatus, Gagarin and so on. In my opinion, a very strange choice for Mennonites. It seems to me that the parents remembered something from their childhood and wanted to see it for themselves. So here it is. When mom and dad came to me to study Russian, my daughter entertained the children. She was then 10 years old, and she had a richly illustrated book called “Russian History”. And there, in a popular way with many pictures, the whole Russian history was told for children up to the 60s of the 20th century. And there they were soviet posters dedicated to space. And before that there were posters dedicated to Lenin, the revolution, and so on. And after one lesson, the eldest boy, he was about seven years old, came up to his parents and said: “We were just watching Russian history. Do you know that Gagarin flew into space and reached God himself?” There was a pause. My parents looked at me, I looked at my parents. My child, of course, did not say anything like that, that is, it was the boy’s own conclusion. The parents tried to open their mouths and explain that they probably hadn’t seen it after all, but then the youngest, who was four years old, entered the conversation and he declared very solemnly: “And God was Lenin!”

Vladimir Abarinov: And here is what Yulia Trubikhina says about her students.

Both the strength of American students and their weakness is that they do not have a cultural context. This is a big problem. It feels like there is no overall context left. Previously, at the very least Mass culture It gave at least some general context. It turned out that with the increase in the number of foreign students, there is nothing in common at all; you’re afraid to joke – they won’t understand. And the amazing equality is absolutely wonderful, the absence of hierarchy. I remember how, in a course on Russian culture, one girl cheerfully began an essay on Habakkuk (and this, of course, is incredibly difficult, we read some fragments from Habakkuk) in this way: “As we say in Oklahoma...”

Vladimir Abarinov: When reading literature, students first of all encounter unfamiliar realities.

Elena Reznikova: For example, we read Bulgakov. What concerned all this phantasmagoric reality of Moscow in the 30s was very difficult to understand. The housing issue, all these communal apartments – I had to explain for a very long time. This whole currency situation...

Vladimir Abarinov: But it is much more difficult to comprehend the way of thinking and the logic of the characters’ actions.

Elena Reznikova: It was very difficult for students to read Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky himself torments the soul even of Russian readers, and such sheltered American teenagers, of course, have nothing to say. It was very difficult for them to understand all the suffering, all these tossing and turning of the main character and the entire galaxy of characters. Katerina Ivanovna, in my opinion, tormented everyone with her costumed children, dinner parties and so on. Students asked many questions: why do they do all this? Why do they behave this way?

Vladimir Abarinov: Understanding poetry is generally a problem.

One boy - this was Tsvetaeva’s “Attempt of Jealousy”... And so it is very difficult for them, and he completely does not notice the quotation marks interpolating the line “I’ll rent a house for myself,” and suggests that maybe Tsvetaeva wanted too much money from lover Home after all. She was too expensive for her lover - so he didn’t want to get involved with her. Probably so.

Vladimir Abarinov: Another great example of cultural differences.

We had a Korean student. She studied Russian at the Literary Institute for several years, then went to Korea and became a translator. And she translated Russian fairy tales, in particular “Teremok,” into Korean. The fairy tale was published, and she brought it as a gift. And then we set up an experiment. We gave our Korean students this fairy tale at Korean and asked to translate it into Russian. Here it is very interesting to see how different cultural codes work. For example, in our fairy tale, the mouse ran across the field without any reason, it just ran. They are all running: a frog, a bunny - there is nothing to do. But in Korean translation they all ran for a purpose. The mouse was looking for grains, the frog was looking for juicy grass, someone was looking for something else - they all had a goal. That is, in Korean culture, no one can just run somewhere, there must be a goal. Further: when the bunny knocked on their door, that is, there were already two animals in the little house, and to the request “Let me live with you,” they always answered the same thing: “Now we’ll consult.” And they began to consult about whether they could let the next beast in or not. And when it came to the bear, the animals separated. Strong animals - a wolf, a fox - said: “The bear is big, he will crush us.” Because they knew. And the small animals believed that he would protect them. And since there were more of them, the mouse, the bunny and the frog won the vote and let the bear in, and then what happened happened. Of course, we are facing a completely different fairy tale. Adapted for understanding by Koreans.

Vladimir Abarinov: I wonder if it happens that students force the teacher to see the situation from a new, unexpected angle?

Elena Reznikova: It seems to me that what foreigners notice is most likely the absurdity of what is described in literary work. There are a lot of situations, some idiosyncretistic characteristics of the characters, some completely crazy, absurd ones that don’t make any sense in a normal, sane situation. That is, very often they contradict common sense. This can be clearly seen in the example of Petrushevskaya’s prose - her heroes.

Vladimir Abarinov: Yulia Trubikhina believes that traditional teaching methods do not work with modern students.

In general, modern students are simply different. They generally read little, but they are absolutely visual. They find it difficult to focus on one thing for long. That's why educational process It turns out like television, with commercial breaks - you have to sing or dance before them. Figuratively speaking.

Vladimir Abarinov: And Diana Gratigny believes that all this torment is not in vain.

And this is the cross of the Russian language. And Russian literature, and Russia. They draw you in so much and suck you into themselves... It seems: oh well, I stayed here, left and that’s it. But no. Here he takes you by the heart and holds you. And then they start rushing about: we want to come - and they come, and read, and read, and become translators, researchers. And it all starts with something completely innocent: I didn’t know anything, I decided to try.

ABARINOV

With us were teachers of Russian language and literature in American colleges Elena Reznikova, Yulia Trubikhina and Diana Gratigny.

(dic.academic.ru)
Official and unofficial languages

The official language of education and office work de facto (and in some states de jure) is English. At the local level, along with English, they have official status. French- in Louisiana, Hawaiian in Hawaii, and Spanish in Puerto Rico and New Mexico. With the exception of Hawaiian, an indigenous language, French and Spanish are the languages ​​of the colonialists who once mastered the territory of the modern United States, but lost in the fight to the British. In an earlier period, on the territory of the modern United States, the official languages ​​were Russian in Alaska and Dutch in the state of New York.

About the language situation in the USA on the Esperanto forum (e-novosti.info)
There is no more multilingual country than the USA. For example, in New York alone, more than 20 magazines and newspapers are published in Russian. And how many newspapers are published in the country in Chinese and Spanish? Romanian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese... ... ... thousands! And television, and radio, national societies, restaurants, shops, doctors, lawyers... Textbooks, films, videos... And many other uses of national languages ​​in the country... they are countless.

With 4 Russian language TV channels here in America, I see and hear a lot of anti-American nonsense from Russia every day.

By the way, it is quite important for the Esperantist website to work to disseminate this idea of ​​the United States, and not the myth of a powerful monolingual country that exists in the world.

In general, New York is an emigrant city, everyone knows this. And now “emigrant” means Russian. But the world will only speak Russian if we trade well. For what else? Re-read Tolstoy?

Well, yes, in New York there are many immigrants with different languages.
And if you move a hundred kilometers (pardon me, only immigrants know what a kilometer is), a hundred miles to the side - any farmer firmly believes that other countries and peoples, if they exist, are only to serve the United States. And everyone speaks (well, they have to speak) English - because it’s more convenient for Americans.
What, isn't it?

Multilingualism: What languages ​​are taught in the USA (2006? - community.livejournal.com)
24.8 thousand students study Russian in the USA. In terms of popularity, Russian is inferior to sign language and Latin, but ahead of Arabic and Portuguese.

For comparison, almost 79 thousand students study sign language, Latin - 32 thousand, Arabic - 23.9 thousand, Hebrew - 23.7 thousand, Ancient Greek - 22.8 thousand, Portuguese - 10.3 thousand, Korean - 7.1 thousand. The popularity of all of these languages ​​is increasing, but the undisputed leader is Arabic: over four years, the number of students attending Arabic classes has more than doubled.

Illustration by Alexander Shatov for ForumDaily

Whether to teach Russian to a child born in the USA or not is a dilemma worse than Hamlet’s question for many Russian-speaking families. And even if parents want to pass on their language to the next generation, they face new problems: how to teach, how to motivate a child, and is it worth speaking English at home?

ForumDaily talked with parents, collected advice from philologists working with bilingual children, and found answers to many language questions.

Two languages ​​instead of one

Maria Williford has been living in the USA for the last five years. Married to an American. Her daughter was already born here. The girl will soon be three years old, she speaks only Russian. The child enjoys watching cartoons in Russian and listening to books that her mother reads to her. Maria speaks Russian to her daughter, dad speaks mostly English. “When dad tries to name things in English, she corrects him: “It’s not a cow, it’s a cow!” Dad is worried that she is behind in English, but I think she will catch up with him in time for school,” shares Maria.

“If dad and mom are of different nationalities and each has their own native language“, then they should speak to the child in their native language, this is the most correct thing in the development of the child,” Alice Baumgartner, director of the Vienna network of bilingual kindergartens “Multika”, told the BBC in a commentary. – Children perceive a person, a person who speaks to them. At least five people will speak to him in different languages“, this is not difficult for a child, but he must separate these people, then his brain perceives, and he can learn German, Russian and English in parallel and some other language at the native level.”

Bilingual kindergartens are now opening in many countries - and this is subject to the realities of the time. Many families are initially bilingual: each parent is a native speaker of their own language. Specialists working in these kindergartens consider it very important to be guided by the principle of “one parent - one language” in the family and “one teacher - one language” in children's institution. In this case, children easily “separate” native speakers, understand and speak even several languages ​​perfectly.

The principle of “one parent - one language”, proposed at one time by the famous French linguist Maurice Grammont, also works well in the form of “one language - one situation”.

In conditions where all family members speak the same (native) language, but due to circumstances moved to another country, the recommendations are as follows: speak only their native language at home, and speak the local language outside the home.

Three children of former Muscovites Anna and Igor Vernik were born in America. The eldest son is nine years old, the youngest daughters are five and a half. Everyone went to Russian kindergarten. The family lives in California, but at home the parents always speak Russian. All three children write well and read fluently.

My son enthusiastically listens to audiobooks in Russian, understands the classics - Pushkin, Chekhov, Kuprin, which is quite difficult for people studying Russian as a foreign language. He started learning English only when he went to school; his daughters had not yet taken up English - Anna hopes that they, like her older brother, will catch up on everything at school. “Learning a language is good for development. In addition, I understand that I may not learn English to such a level that I can convey all my feelings and emotions to my children. I wouldn't want to lose with them language connection, that’s why I strive for them to know Russian,” admits Anna.

Experts say that children have a sensitive period of speech development from birth to seven years, when a child can acquire any amount of speech information, both in his native language and in several foreign languages. And the more information he receives, the more intellectually developed he will be in the future.

Marina Manevich, mother of two daughters (9 years and 11 months), is a Japanese philologist by training. Speaks Russian, English, Japanese and Dutch. The eldest daughter was born in Moscow, and when she was seven years old, the family moved to Amsterdam. There the girl studied at a local school for about a year and studied Dutch. Last year, Marina’s youngest daughter was born in America. Now the family lives in Miami.

At the end of the school year, the eldest girl received the status of “best student in the class,” problems with English language the child does not. Marina says: at home she communicates with her children only in Russian, but her eldest daughter often answers her in English.

“It is easier for children to speak English, because the local language almost completely fills the lives of schoolchildren. And it’s easier to write too. But I force my daughter to write dictations at home in capital letters in Russian. At school everyone is surprised at how well she can do it, because they are not taught to write in capitals. She knows Dutch better than me, honestly. Sometimes we remember him and talk to her. I also try to give her basic knowledge of Japanese. Now she is at such a stage in her development that her memory and capabilities are easily enough for several languages,” Marina is convinced.

Through “I can’t”

Sometimes it happens like this: a child grows up, spends more time outside the home, where he does not need the Russian language at all - accordingly, he rarely uses it and gradually forgets.

Olga Novikova brought her daughter to the USA when she was five years old. The girl already spoke excellent Russian and even read a little. After I plunged into the English-speaking environment, I began to gradually forget my native language.

“At first, my husband and I spoke to her in English to support her, and after a year it became difficult for her to express her thoughts in her native language. Therefore, we brought home exclusively Russian speech and began to motivate our daughter in every possible way to speak Russian with us,” says Olga.

As a result, she is a certified teacher primary classes, who is proficient in teaching Russian as a foreign language, is now teaching her daughter and several of her Russian-speaking friends. “Bilingualism is always an advantage. People who are fluent in several languages ​​at the native level have an easier time mastering other foreign languages, and learning in general,” says Olga Novikova.

Experts in the field of bilingualism advise not to communicate with children in incorrect English, because the child will “absorb” all your language mistakes like a sponge. It is better to speak pure Russian, and in no case mix languages.

“If parents want to preserve the Russian language, then initially they should speak with their child in pure Russian and not allow themselves such statements as: “I’ll go shopping this weekend” or “We’ve booked a holiday,” says the head of the London Russian-speaking educational center Grammar Plus Elena Pershina.

Irina Serbina from California has an eldest son who has been living in America since he was four years old, and her youngest daughter was already born here. Now Irina recalls with a laugh how her already adult son asked his parents not to speak English with his little sister at home; he always said: when he goes to school, he will learn English from native speakers.

“That’s how it was,” says Irina. “In second grade, the teacher didn’t even believe me when I told her that my daughter started speaking English only a year ago.”

The right motive

So why do children born in America need to know Russian? Perhaps each family has its own motivation: to communicate with each other and other generations of relatives, so as not to lose touch with their native culture, just to know the “extra” language. One way or another, most parents want to teach their children to speak, read and write Russian.

“Both in the States and in Israel I had the opportunity to talk with older people who abandoned Russian in childhood. Each of them simply conjured me to keep the language in the family. My lecturer complained that the huge library in Russian that she inherited from her parents was simply closed to her. Without knowledge of the Russian language, it is impossible to convey the history of the family and maintain contact with grandparents,” admits Evgenia Shpitser. Her children were born in Israel, lived almost their entire lives in the USA, have never been to Russia, but speak Russian well.

In many Russian-speaking families living outside Russia, children preschool age know their native language better than schoolchildren. This happens for a completely understandable reason: they spend more time with adults, native speakers.

The less time a child communicates with his parents and grandparents, the faster he forgets Russian. Therefore, by the way, children should also be taught to read in Russian before school.

A grown-up child will find very boring works that he can “master” (simple texts, children’s stories and fairy tales), and he simply won’t have enough for more interesting and complex books language level, and he will not be able to join the entire wealth of Russian literature.

Learning Russian will be more productive if you set a goal for your child that is understandable to him: to learn the language in order to watch his favorite cartoons and films, participate in a theater production, study in a club, and so on. So that the learning process becomes not only useful, but also interesting.

Parents who are serious about selfeducation their child’s knowledge of the Russian language, they often “go too far”, trying to achieve best results. Linguists who teach Russian as a foreign language give some simple tips on how to avoid mistakes in learning.

Tips for parents

For your child, Russian is a foreign language, so don’t try to learn it the same way you were once taught at school. You came to school already knowing how to speak, that is, you had practice, so they gave you theory and forced you to learn the rules. Children living in a non-Russian-speaking environment, on the contrary, should be taught the language itself, and not theory.

Avoid endlessly memorizing the rules, this will only discourage the child from any desire. Grammar is best learned through normal conversation, in which well-formed phrases and sentences are naturally used.

Do not force your child to memorize as many individual words as possible (children have a good memory, they can also memorize a telephone directory). But why are these words needed in themselves? After all, language is first and foremost grammatical structure: word forms, word compatibility, word order in a sentence.

You can memorize poetry. At the same time, the rhythm of Russian speech, correct intonation and sound of words are well absorbed. Poems help to remember the necessary phrases.

Try not to overload your child with fairy tales, fables, proverbs and other folklore. This is, of course, a huge layer of Russian culture, and a child should get to know it. But now not every adult can explain the meaning of many outdated words (Lukomorye, Susek, Zavalinka, Kisten, Tuesok, etc.).

To understand folklore, it is also important to have a certain cultural baggage associated with Russian traditions.

Don't pay too much attention to the fun side of learning a language. Every normal child is a linguist at heart and can derive pleasure and satisfaction from the process of learning a language (searching for the meaning of words, finding the root of a word, composing words in the likeness of familiar ones, and so on).

What you definitely shouldn’t waste time on is “staging” your handwriting. Forget about sticks, hooks and pressure. All children have different handwriting, and this is due to unique properties their souls, brains and arm muscles. Forcing a child to write according to the standard is, firstly, violence against him, and secondly, it is simply unnecessary, especially in our computer age.

Nowadays, hundreds of Russian-language bookstores operate in the United States, dozens of newspapers and magazines are published, digital media with Russian cartoons and films are sold, many hobby groups and clubs are open, several Russian-language TV channels are broadcast, and the Internet is available. But in order for your child to benefit from this wealth, he must learn the language. And he can only do this in the family.