Nick Dow's blog : Why your child needs Russian Language
Here comes another school year, and with it many parents have a headache: will their child want to go to a Russian school? On the one hand, of course, it is necessary to study the native language. On the other hand, there is the workload at an English school plus various clubs and events. Again, the child will be tired and capricious...
So, do our children need Russian?
A little background. Russian is one of the five most widely spoken languages in the world and one of the six official languages of the UN. Research in 2013 showed that Russian has become the second most used language on the Internet. And, of course, its universal value, associated with Russian classical and Soviet literature, cannot be overlooked.
According to the British Council, the long-standing dominance of the English language is coming to an end as a result of changes in Europe and the world. British university graduates who speak only English are significantly less likely to get jobs in international firms than their colleagues who speak several languages, especially Eastern European or Eastern languages, as well as German and French.
These facts alone indicate that knowing one’s native language is necessary, first and foremost for the future of our children.
Many parents who have moved to Great Britain do not want to teach their children Russian. They believe that their child is growing up as an "Englishman". If he wants to learn Russian, he will master it later. However, life shows the opposite - he will not master it. Or it will require incredible efforts on his part.
According to neurophysiologists, if the Russian language is not supported for four years, children completely forget Russian speech. The period necessary for a child to master the language system covers the age of two to five years and continues on average until 11-12 years, after which "language maturity" occurs. Therefore, if this period is missed, the language can be completely lost.
Gradually, English takes over from Russian, which is no longer their native language, and the children communicate in English with both parents.
Today, a new problem of "fathers and children" has appeared in Russian-speaking and bilingual families living outside of Russia. They literally speak different languages. Parents stop feeling their child, sometimes understanding him. And there is only one way to solve this problem - to teach your child your native language.
So what benefits does knowing Russian give your child?
Firstly, bilingualism develops intellectual abilities, broadens horizons and often encourages further study of other languages.
In addition, learning Russian opens up new horizons: new friends in a Russian school, conversations with Russian relatives, interesting plays and books.
The child feels like a full-fledged person during trips with parents to Russia or the CIS countries. Language contact in the family is not interrupted, mutual understanding and respect are maintained.
And the most important thing is the opportunity to communicate with the greatest culture, reading Russian classical literature in the original language.
Learning Russian for children growing up abroad is not limited to learning the rules of spelling and punctuation. Children have much greater difficulty with the following questions: how to form a sentence from words, why in a particular case it is necessary to choose this particular type of verb, this case and this preposition.
Russian grammar needs to be explained to children not as for native speakers (who don’t have these questions), but as for foreign children.
The situation with colloquial vocabulary is complicated. Russian from the school curriculum is far from the colloquial language of a schoolchild. Here parents can hardly help their children, since their speech, as a rule, has “frozen” in the state it reached by the time they left abroad. Therefore, only a specialist can tell a student how the language organism digests or filters out jargon, new words, Internet memes.
Therefore, children growing up abroad cannot learn Russian on their own and unconsciously. Correct and "useful" study of Russian is possible only when working with an experienced teacher who knows how to teach Russian in foreign conditions.
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