Russian as an international language — is it possible? I am sure that many people who hear this, even conservative ones, may be surprised by these words and decide that I am talking absolute nonsense. This is not surprising, because now it is customary to call English the “international language”. Although, in fact, there are no international languages, the prevalence of English is associated only with a large number of colonies whose inhabitants had to learn this language. Among the colonies of England were such countries as Ireland and Scotland, Scotland has now lost its sovereignty, and among the Irish almost no one knows their native language. Also colonies were: Canada, USA, Zanzibar, Kenya, Zambia, Northern Nigeria, Southern Nigeria, Uganda, Lesotho, Sudan, South Africa, India, Australia and others. The same «secret of success» is in the French language, but to a somewhat lesser extent. The colonies were: Algeria, Tunisia, Malta, Morocco, Syria, Congo, Sudan, Niger, Chad, Guinea, Senegal and others. Now, when those times have long passed, I think it is possible to question the current situation of foreign and Russian languages, which is why I decided to write about it.
Lobbying your interests is the basis for the survival of the country and the dominant nation of this country. If it is indifferent to such important issues, then the country will constantly lose its position in world politics. Promoting one’s language is, of course, part of these very interests that need to be promoted. The promotion of the language increases the number of people who will speak it, learn it. This increases the chances of interest in the country itself, which can give us migrants who are specialists in their field. The country can get workers; the amount of literature in Russian may increase due to translation into Russian or even writing a book by a foreigner in it. And this is only part of the benefits that a country that realizes the importance of spreading its language can get.
Russian as an international language
The Russian language is quite suitable for the role of an international language, as the language of a great people with a long and interesting history. The Russian language itself also has a long history, it has undergone changes. It cannot be called a difficult language to learn, such as Chinese or Japanese. For those who have English as their native language, it will be of medium difficulty to learn. Although, in fact, even the incorrect pronunciation of any words is unlikely to cause misunderstanding among a native Russian speaker.
According to some reports, the Russian language is now in 8th place in the world, we have room to grow. Nothing prevents us from surpassing the English language, the main thing is desire. We need to abandon anglicisms as far as possible, otherwise our language will degrade into a strange mixture of Russian and English, turning into an absurd mess. In order to promote our language in other countries, you must first consolidate it in your own, and not become a colony of your own free will. All these inscriptions in English, the constant use of Anglicisms and English slang, the compulsory study of English in our schools is a shame, our defeat as a sovereign country. Instead of learning a foreign language, we should promote our own so that others learn our language in their schools, not us.
Even emigrants from Russia in other countries are in no hurry to abandon the Russian language. According to the Visasam website, Australia has 3 newspapers in Russian and 2 TV programs. New Zealand has a Russian cultural center in Christchurch. Russian emigration after the Civil War decided to preserve and develop their culture without losing their national identity. They tried to popularize the Russian language, including in schools. The National League of Russian Americans collected 500 signatures for the introduction of the study of Russian along with other languages, but the California Board of Education in 1932 denied it.
You may not know, but the Russian language in some countries has been and is now a studied language within the education system. According to the Languageplus website, Russian as a second native language is studied in Belarus, from the first grade they study in Russian-language schools in Ukraine and the Baltic countries. As a foreign language, it is studied from the second grade in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Armenia. The study is in depth. It is studied in less depth in the Baltic countries, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Moldova. It is partly studied in Latvia and Estonia. According to the media publication «Arguments and Facts» for 2019, about 6 million people who speak Russian live in Germany. In addition, in Europe, the Russian language is in the top five in terms of the number of students studying it, overtaking Italian. In 2021, TASS wrote that the study of the Russian language would be returned to the school curriculum after a long break. In Vietnam, they study 2 foreign languages of their choice, you can choose from Chinese, Russian, French and Japanese.
Russian as an international language — why is it?
As you can see, the Russian language is quite suitable for the role of an international language; it is known not only in the Russian Federation. But why should residents of other countries choose it? There are many reasons for this. One of them is national peculiarities. The Russian language is very diverse and interesting, just like the Russian people themselves. Russia throughout its existence has been in the center of attention of residents of other countries. She was and will be, so to speak, in the center of events. Isn’t that a good reason?
Russian as an international language is the works of Vladimir Lukin, Denis Fonvizin, Alexander Radishchev, Nikolai Karamzin, Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Goncharov, Mikhail Lermontov, Alexei Tolstov, Ivan Turgenev, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alexander Ostrovsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, studied by foreigners, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Alexander Kuprin, Ivan Bunin, another Alexei Tolstov, Alexander Grin, Korney Chukovsky, Evgeny Zamyatin and many other of our writers.
The Russian language is an understanding of the words of such, albeit negative, but famous people as Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Dmitry Medvedev, Sergey Lavrov, Alexei Navalny, Dmitry Peskov, Ilya Yashin, Vladimir Solovyov and others. Apart from politicians, this also applies to negative musicians like Sergei Shnurov, and not only to them. If we talk about more positive people, then public figure Vladislav Pozdnyakov speaks and writes in Russian, public figure Mikhail Mavashi, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, politician Konstantin Malofeev and others. There are many performers who sing in Russian, such as the King and the Jester, the Gaza Strip, Yegor Letov, Aria, Kino, Lyube, Igor Rasteryaev, Igor Talkov, Agatha Christie, Alice, Mumiy Troll, Virus, Maxim (singer) and others.
Russia is the third most influential country in the world in 2022 according to the Geografishka website; No. 11 in PPP in 2021; No. 6 in GDP PPP in 2021; country No. 1 by area; #1 country in terms of forest area in 2020; country No. 5 in terms of gold and foreign exchange reserves. The Russian Federation is one of the most discussed countries in the world, which can afford sovereignty, in contrast to the many countries that are forced to adapt to the interests of others. A lot of countries, especially Japan, adapt to the United States, being something like modern colonies of this country. This does not apply to RF.
Russia was the seventh country in the world in terms of scientific activity in 2018, the eighth in terms of the number of scientific patents in 2020. According to Elibrary, there are more than 18,600 scientific journals in the Russian Federation, more than 14,400 of which are still being published at the time of this writing. On the most famous scientific Russian site Elibrary, there are more than 690,000 authors registered in the Science Index, there are 6137 contracts with publishers. There are over 2900 manga in Russian on the SelfManga site alone that have at least one published chapter. More than 230,000 books sold in Chitai-Gorod alone, more than a million in LitRes, the exact number cannot even be imagined.
Electric car, monorail, electric motor, color photography, bicycle, telegraph, incandescent lamp, radio, television, parachute, movie camera, first automatic machine, laser, artificial heart, anesthesia, Mozhaisky plane, aerodynamics, atomic and hydrogen bombs, eye microsurgery, Tetris, pocket communicator, personal computer, nuclear-powered icebreaker, satellite, space power, internet, Mayan writing decoding, lightning rod. What connects them? They were created by Russian people. The Internet and the personal computer did not gain a foothold in Russia only because the stupid communists did not appreciate these inventions and did not begin to develop such good developments.
The history of Russia is associated with such people as Alexander the Third, Yuri Knorozov, Ivan the Terrible, Alexander the Second, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Evpaty Kolovrat, Yuri Budanov, Peter the Great, Nikolai Pirogov, Dmitry Mendeleev, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Ivan Pavlov, Vladimir Vernadsky, Sergei Korolev, Lavr Kornilov, Mikhail Kutuzov, Alexander Menshikov, Prince Svyatoslav, Ivan Paskevich, Roman Ungern, Pyotr Wrangel, Nikolai Gumilyov, Yuri Gagarin, Ermak, Yakov Baklanov, Alexei Ermolov, Alexander Alekhin and many other people who make the history of our country greater.
Methods for promoting the Russian language
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation or the Ministry of Education, or even the Ministry of Culture should think more about the promotion of the Russian language than not the most popular publicist like me, but, unfortunately, the employees of these ministries are so screwed up in this that the English language in our country is gradually replacing Russian , and there is no talk of promoting our language in other countries. Therefore, enthusiasts like me have to think about such things, who, unfortunately, have incomparably less resources for this than those ministries that were mentioned earlier. But I, nevertheless, will try to do everything possible so that our language does not die in the future. I try to use as little as possible ridiculous anglicisms and other tracing paper, which I recommend to you too. Some of my old acquaintances even learned English just to understand the meaning of the music they listen to. It’s humiliating.
Since the article is called «Russian as an international language», I, of course, need to touch on the very ways of promoting our great language. Let’s start from the very foundation. In order for promotion to be possible at all, it is necessary to give foreigners the opportunity to learn our language. More potential audience will be brought to us by the creation of textbooks and educational articles for learning the Russian language in English and Chinese, although more targeted materials, for example, in German, may be more successful. Moreover, not all people speak English or Chinese. These materials should be as widely distributed and accessible as possible in order to increase the chance of their study by foreigners.
When the materials are created, we should move on to their direct promotion, as well as the promotion of our language. Promotion among the states themselves is the establishment of our language as one of the main ones or its other recognition at the state level, the introduction of its study in schools and other educational institutions on a mandatory or additional basis. For such a promotion, you need to have a lot of influence or a lot of money, although this may not be enough.
Promotion among the population is the promotion of everything that is created in Russian or translated into the language where it will be distributed. It is better if it is distributed in Russian. Music, books with parallel translation, films in Russian with subtitles are great. It would be quite good to promote translated books and films, in which Russia or Russian traditions and the like will be somehow affected, because this may arouse interest in them, and this interest, in the future, may arouse another interest in the form of a craving for the study of the Russian language. In general, a good way is to promote the culture itself. For example, stories about the country itself, or interesting facts about it, or photographs of Russia.
If you have the opportunity to promote our language, then please use it, future and current generations of thinking Russian people will be very grateful to you for this. This article is over.
