Why Study Russian?
(With thanks to Ben Rifkin, University of Wisconsin)
Russian is great for training students to think clearly, organize their work: The Russian language curriculum is challenging but manageable -- we train our students to think things through, plan their work, so they learn language processing and study skills applicable to other classes and to professional lives after they graduate.
Russian is marketable for students' careers:
US Government Needs for Russian Language Expertise
70 Federal agencies report significant shortfall in staff with advanced-language skills in Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Turkic languages. Congressional GAO reports 29% of all State Dept. jobs require such language expertise. Federal jobs pay 5-15% more for language expertise. 70% of all US Dept. of Commerce Foreign Service Officer Positions in Russian are budgeted, but not filled due to lack of qualified applicants! US Military eager to recruit linguists / up to $60,000 towards college tuition! Sample Federal Employers include: NASA, FBI, Coast Guard, USAID, Energy Dept., Broadcasting Board of Governors, NSA/CIA, Commerce Dept., Dept. of Defense, Nuclear Reg. Commission, Dept. of Agriculture, International Trade Commission, US Dept. of State.
Private Sector Employers with Language Needs
Sample Private Sector Employers for Russian with Offices in Russia: Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, General Motors, Otis Elevator, Reebok, Hewlett Packard, Delta Airlines, Price Waterhouse, Citibank, 3M, AT&T, Ford, Honeywell, Avon, Exxon/Mobil, Gillette. For more information, see
www.bisnis.doc.gov
Private sector employers pay more for employees with language expertise and when those employees are posted abroad, they typically are given greater responsibilities than their peers posted in the US; when foreign-based employees transfer back to the US, they generally transfer in with higher pay and higher level of responsibilities than US-based peers
Sample Non-Profit Employers for People with Language Expertise US on-Profits in Russia Include: AA, Amnesty International, Citizens Watch, Nonviolence International, Green Cross, International Resettlement Agencies, IREX, ACTR/ACCELS, Mother & Child, Church Missions, Women's Crisis Center of St. Petersburg.
The Russian economy is booming: expect increased trade with the US and investment from US firms in the Russian economy. See
www.amcham.ru. Note Russian plans, reported recently in NY Times, to build an oil pipeline to Nakhodka. Russia is the largest or one of the largest producers of numerous natural resources and raw materials including petroleum, diamonds, gold, copper, manganese, uranium, silver, graphite, and platinum. Russia is the second largest steel producer in the world, after Japan and has an enormous timber reserve. Russia is the world's largest producer of natural gas, third largest producer of oil and fourth largest in terms of the mining of coal. Russia has an estimated 40% of the world's total reserves of natural gas, and Russia's proven oil reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia's and Russia is the TOP oil producer in the world. Russia is a tremendous potential market for US goods and services. Experts expect an increase in demand for American made equipment related to the energy sector, timber, and food processing equipment, as well as aircraft, air traffic control equipment, among other economic sectors. American companies have been quick to realize the potential of the Russian market; some of these are listed at
www.bisnis.doc.gov. In the year 2000, the Russian government held currency reserves valued at $30 billion and the Russian trade balance was in surplus to the tune of $50 billion: BUSINESS IS BOOMING!
Former students of Russian are now working or have worked: as engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center (with Russian cosmonauts training for the Space Shuttle), at banks operating in international markets, as professors of Russian literature at small colleges and large universities, in the Peace Corps, in major accounting firms (in Russia and in the US), in large corporations with Russian operations, in large and small law firms, Europe and America, in the State Department and Commerce Department of the federal government, teaching English in Russian high schools, for American press organizations (such as the New Yorker, NY Times, Washington Post, NBC News, CNN) in the US and in Russia, for non-profit agencies such as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the National Foreign Language Center, or the US-Russia Business Council, for ACTR/ACCELS and IREX both in the US and in Russia.
Russian is a world language, the national language of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and it is spoken by many people throughout the former Soviet Republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The Russian Federation has a population of just under 150 million people which constitutes slightly more than 50% of the population of the former Soviet Union. Of those 150 million, slightly more than 120 million identify themselves as ethnic Russians. (There are many more ethnic Russians in other countries of the former Soviet.) Russia spans eleven time zones and covers about 1/8th of the world's land surface. It is the largest country in the world, almost twice the size of the United States. Put simply, Russia is huge. And with more and more emigres from Russia living in the US, you can speak Russian in any large American city with native speakers delighted to speak with you in THEIR language!
Russian is valuable for students' personal development and personal goals:
Students who study Russian in college usually participate in a small program with great attention from their instructors; they don't get lost in the crowd as much as students in bigger programs, such as Spanish.
Students who study Russian may have higher rates of admission to the graduate and professional school programs of their choice.
Students who study Russian have special access to Russian culture: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov, Kandinsky and Chagall, Akhmatova, Pasternak and Pushkin, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Prokof'iev, Stanislavsky and Tarkovsky (not to mention Sokurov and his latest film to sweep the cinema world, "The Russian Ark") -- Russian arts have changed the world!
Students who study Russian have special access to understanding Russian history and Russia today: the turbulence of revolution, the tyranny of dictators, lack of freedom of expression and freedom of religion, the liberation of the collapse of communism, nationalization and privatization, democratization and the legacy of authoritarianism. All are important issues for understanding not only Russia, but much of the world today!
Russians are generally a very welcoming and hospitable people who place high value on their friendships, including friendships with American students on study abroad.
The infrastructure of the Russian field is great: there is support for professionals teaching Russian in the US.
The Russian field is well supported professionally, with two professional associations (ACTR & AATSEEL), a rich database of information about learning outcomes (maintained by ACTR), excellent summer immersion programs in the US and Russia (see the AATSEEL website for a complete listing of options), and a steadily increasing number and variety of instructional materials and curricular support available from commercial publishers (e.g., Prentice Hall, McGraw-Hill, Wiley & Sons, Kendall/Hunt, and others) and non-profit organizations (www.russnet.org, maintained by ACTR). The Russian field is moving towards the implementation of an Advanced Placement Exam, which may lead to a resurgence in high school programs and therefore even greater demand on college enrollments. The Russian field has one major conference (AATSEEL) and two affiliated conferences (AAASS and ACTFL) every year, giving professionals opportunities to network and share with one another both in formal and informal contexts. SEELANGs, the AATSEEL Newsletter, ACTR Letter, and SEEJ all contribute to the field's support for each practicing teacher and scholar.
There are great study abroad programs in Russia for American students, run by ACTR, CIEE, Boston University and especially: our own Arizona Russian Abroad!
For more ideas: AATSEEL & ACTR have a great video clip on the web: "Why study Russian?":
www.russnet.org/why/index.html
|
|
Russian
and Slavic Studies
