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Why Do the French Study Russian?

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Why Do the French Study Russian?

15.05.2010

In recent years interest toward Russia and Russian culture has been on the rise in France. It is no coincidence that 2010 has been declared the Year of Russia in France, which entails over 350 various cultural events related to Russian history and culture: exhibitions, tours by musical groups and much more. The celebration of the Year of Russia in France will undoubtedly have a positive influence on the teaching of the Russian language, which hasn’t been all that popular in France recently. Although one shouldn’t call it a crisis situation, as in comparison with other countries, particularly in Eastern Europe, there are a sufficient number of places where one can study Russian.

For teachers of the Russian language, the best period was in the decade following WWII, when thousands took up the study of Russian. Some did so due to the fact that the communist party had an enormous influence in the country, particularly among the intelligentsia, and every self-respecting communist though it his duty to study the language because it was Lenin’s language. Others did so for more pragmatic reasons – in comparison to German Russian was considered a complicated language, the study of which was useful for developing logical thinking.

And as demand generates supply, Russian language and Slavic study departments opened in many universities in the capital and throughout the provinces. Despite the large number of these departments, there was no lack of good teachers, thanks in part to the many Russian immigrants of the first and second waves residing in the country.

For rather understandable reasons, demand for Russian language has substantially fallen in recent decades in France. Many parents do not understand why their children should waste their time with an incomprehensible and difficult language, and thus over the past eight years the number of schoolchildren studying the language has fallen threefold. However, the language-learning infrastructure continues to exist to this day. Russian language and Slavic studies departments are present at about two dozen universities, and the language is taught at the so-called “higher schools” (Ecole Normale Sup

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