Since the mobilization was announced, the number of Russians who started learning the Kazakh language has increased sharply – the head of the Language Center

“Since the announcement of partial mobilization in Russia, the number of Russians interested in learning the Kazakh language has increased dramatically” said Vladyslav Ten, the founder of the LingvaTen Center. He says that the large number of Russians coming to Kazakhstan will have a negative impact on the development of the Kazakh language. Stan.kz asked a linguist about the purpose of Russians in learning the state language and what difficulties they face in the language learning process, and learned about ways to develop the use of the Kazakh language.

The director of the online language center, Vladislav Ten, who independently mastered the Kazakh language in one year, is a Korean linguist who knows six languages. 120 people are learning languages in the center at the moment. In the interview, he told based on his experience that the demand for the Kazakh language increased after the mobilization.

Since the beginning of the war, Russians often sign up for the course

The expert said the demand for the Kazakh language has increased since the winter of 2022 exactly after the war started. The participants of Ten’s course are Russians who moved to Kazakhstan and Kazakhs as well who are from Russia.

“Some studetns of mine came from St. Petersburg, some of them came from Moscow. Most of them live in Kazakhstan. The reasons for their decision to come to the country are clear because they are against the current situation” he said.

There were also students who live in Russia and learn the language. But I could not get in touch with them since the beginning of the war.” says the head of the center.

The head of the center says that Kazakhs from all over the world also participate in Kazakh language courses. There are Kazakhs which are living in Canada, USA or Brazil. He teachs them the Kazakh language in English.

“The goal of Kazakhs living abroad in learning the language is to teach their native language to their children. Even though they do not live in Kazakhstan, they do not forget it their origins” he said.

Mobilization caused an increase in demand

“After the mobilization began, the number of Russians who wanted to take the course increased dramatically. For example, 5-6 people signed up for the course. Although they did not say where they were from, I immediately realized that they were from Russia. Because the locas are aware of our culture and know what “beshbarmak” is. So it is clear where they are coming from.

The head of center says “Their goal in learning Kazakh language is something that easy to understand because they want to live in Kazakhstan so they think that “if we don’t know the Kazakh language then no one will respect us.” and this is true because when I started learning the Kazakh language, the Kazakhs supported me a lot,”.

If the number of Russian speakers increases, it will have a negative impact on the development of the Kazakh language

According to Ten, the development of a certain language is strongly influenced by the increase in the number of speakers of that language.

“The same applies to the Kazakh language. As many Russians come, it will have a negative impact on the development of the language in the near future. Because the more number of people speaking Russian increases the more inequality sets between two languages. Kazakh language might face diffucilities as it did before.”

“According to my observation, the condition of the Kazakh language improved much after the arrival of the relatives (Qandastar) to Kazakhstan.”

“The way of avoid this situation is to help citizens living in Kazakhstan to learn the language.” said Director of the center.