On November 3rd, ahead of Day of People’s Unity, the “Russian World” [Russkiy Mir Foundation] which promotes the Russian language and supports programs of its learning abroad will hold the Assembly of the Russian Language.
Vyacheslav Nikonov, the chairman of the fund’s executive council
The Russkiy Mir Foundation was founded on June 21, 2007. The main tasks of the fund are support of teaching the Russian language, the Russian culture in the whole world. The priority directions are establishing of Russian centers, Russkiy Mir cabinets, providing grant programs, conducting educational programs, the international social activity, and our information programs. Russian centers are resource centers which support teaching the Russian language in major universities of the world, in major libraries. Today we have 89 Russian centers in 41 country of the world. The latest center was opened in one of the oldest universities of Europe, Coimbra University. By the end of the year the fund plans to open five more centers.
The grant programs of the fund are connected with international festivals, text-books, research, scientific works, support of Russian schools, and Russian-speaking media. The fund has implemented more than 940 grant projects all over the world. The programs of the fund cover more than 100 countries. These projects will be continued. We consider new applications. It enables us to establish a huge net structure of our big Russian world.
Lyudmila Verbitskaya, the chairwoman of the guardian council of Russkiy Mir Foundation, the president of St. Petersburg State University
Today the conditions of the Russian language are better in many countries than in Russia. That is why Russkiy Mir Foundation sponsors publication of dictionaries, textbooks, methodological books – for the situation with the Russian language changes in the country. The problems of preservation of the Russian language are problems of the national security of our motherland. Russkiy Mir Foundation encourages learning Russian in the countries where it has never been taught before. In Sri Lanka and Indonesia there was no Russian language at all, but due to Russkiy Mir Foundation they began to learn it, and I am sure the number of people who want to speak Russian will increase day after day.
There is a series of organizations (Russkiy Mir Foundation, Rossotrudnichestvo, the Russian Society of Teachers of the Russian Language and Literature) which have to solve one and the same problem: preserve the Russian language in Russia, promote Russian in the world. We have to do our best for a strict coordination of the system. A lot depends on efforts of each of the organizations. St.-Petersburg State University prepared a series of books “Let’s speak correctly” which appeared to be a bestseller and “The Complex Normative Dictionary of the Russian Language” which will help us to settle these tasks.
Arsuyak Nersesyan, the head of the Russian center of Yerevan State University
Our center was founded on February 7th, 2008. Conduction of Days of Russian Word, the Russian language contests, methodological trainings, round tables, visual aid room meetings, literature nights, and guest arrangements in various towns of Armenia are a good tradition of the Russian center. Annually the Russian center of YSU is attended by more than 10 thousand people. Our main audience is students, pupils, and preschool children. We have separate events for each age group. School teachers, university tutors, and parents of the youngest visitors state that participation in events by the Russian center promotes motivation to learning the language and cultivates love of the Russian culture, literature, the Russian word. According to school children, the Russian center turns common lessons into festivals. YSU students conduct open lessons on literature for senior school. We arrange literature lessons on works by Pushkin, Dostoevsky, poets of the Silver Age.
This year we organized an event of a new format – a video bridge between pupils of the Yerevan school No29 and pupils of the Moscow school No221 within the festival “A Little Ambassador of a Big Country.”
We conduct readers’ conferences where students and school children of Armenia take part. The task of a participant is to present his or her favorite book in a limited period of time and catch an interest of the audience.
Every year we organize summer courses of the Russian language for our youngest members. In five years the Russian center of YSU was attended by 54 thousand people. Every year the number of participants in our events is growing.
Svetlana Sova, the head of the Russian center of Taras Shevchenko Kiev National University
The Russian center is working for three years. As it was established on the ground of Kiev University – the leading university of Ukraine – our target audience is students, tutors, professors, scientific employees, workers of the university and libraries. Moreover, everybody who wants to learn language can join us. Initially they didn’t understand us as the Russian language feels well in Ukraine. But after presentations of our resources, they realized that it was a good idea. As rooms given to us by the university are rather small, there are situations when we have no space for all desired people.
The documental fund of the Russian center which has a modern base for learning and teaching the Russian language is a fundament for tutors and students of not only our, but also other universities. We are working with school teachers. There are documents in our documental fund which are unique for whole Ukraine. Data bases are interesting for students. We have an access to internet, thus, the center is always full of people.
/ Vestnik Kavkaza /
