A language that unites peoples

The event brought together dozens of experts from all over the world. Experts spoke both online and offline. Moreover, representatives of several far-abroad countries - Uruguay, Laos, the Central African Republic, Colombia, Burkina Faso and many others - attended the event in person.

The experts noted that, despite the difficult international situation, the knowledge of the Russian language was and remains operative throughout the world. Today, it is spoken by 250 million people on the planet, while Russian is one of the six UN official languages. Russian is spoken and written in Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Transnistria.

Recently, within as part of a large-scale project of the Ministry of Education of Russia, centers for teaching and promoting the Russian language have been established and successfully operate in many countries. This project has received a particularly wide scope in the countries of former USSR.

Consul of the Consulate General of Kyrgyzstan in Yekaterinburg Sanjar Tanirov recalled that 2023 was declared the Year of the Russian language in the CIS as the language of interethnic communication.

“In our republic, the Russian language has the status of an official language. President Sadyr Japarov this year, at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin, will attend the May 9 Victory Parade in Moscow. The economy of Kyrgyzstan is tied precisely to Russia. Therefore, the study of the Russian language has a long-term and friendly nature. It is not only the language of everyday communication; it is the language of science and culture. I believe that all plans to open Russian language centers will be fully implemented,” Sanzhar Tanirov said. The speaker also noted that the great Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov wrote a significant part of his works in Russian.

An officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Yekaterinburg, Yegor Rybin, introduced the experts to the First Secretary of the Angola Embassy in the Russian Federation, Lucia Pascoal, who told how much the Russian language was now in demand in her country: “In our country there is a great need to study the Russian language, Russian culture. Until recently, the citizens of Angola associated Russia only with matryoshka and the song ‘Kalinka’. But times are changing. Ural State University of Economics greatly facilitated the cooperation between our universities and states.”

Today, Russian universities are doing a lot to spread and develop the Russian language abroad. A representative of the Shadrinsk State Pedagogical University, Olga Kalinina, spoke about the serious interest in the Russian language in the Seychelles and Madagascar. The rector of the Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University, Igor Petrishchev, noted that they had good ties with Egypt, Ethiopia and Djibouti. In all these countries, there are centers for the study of the Russian language.

It is important that such centers not only teach the language but also let you know more about the history and culture of Russia. Survey training courses developed by specialists from Russian universities are of interest to high school students who dream of studying in our country, to students and their parents, many of whom already know Russian.

Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University made friends with three Indonesian universities at once.

“The temperature difference in our countries is 60 degrees: when we have minus 30, they have plus 30. However, there is a lot in common between the citizens of our countries. The Russian language is very interesting today for business, especially hotel and tourism,” Marina Kholina, rector of KSPU, said. “This year we are admitting the first group of Indonesians who want to study Russian.”

Video communication experts said that the Russian language is now in great demand in India, Iran, Pakistan; it is being studied en masse in China, Russian is perfectly understood by elderly people living in the Balkans and in the countries of the former socialist camp.

The participants of the roundtable concluded that the sanctions had little effect on the desire of people around the world to learn Russian .

And the new trade, economic and cultural ties that Russia is establishing will contribute to its even greater spread.