Russian language losing ground

it is sad that a language as rich as russian is losing grounds to regional nationalistic forces. however, it is good to hear that English as the international language of trade is becoming more popular. i guess i better start learning kyrgyz before my next trip to bishkek.

It is only a few people i Kyrgyzstan who happen to speak the language properly. Perhaps no more than 35 - 40%, and it is indeed a grave error to eliminate the russian language.

So now, hardly noone speaks English, and Russian is on the way down. In the future the Kyrgyz populist members of the parlament will leave the country with no proper language at all.

With all respect, but it's not that people will line up to learn Kyrgyz.

Russian language, culture and people need to become extinct as fast as possible. It is everyones duty to kill off the memory of these horrible brutal crazies.

Bob Burns wrote:

Russian language, culture and people need to become extinct as fast as possible. It is everyones duty to kill off the memory of these horrible brutal crazies.

What do You suggest? To build "concentration camps" Robert?

I think it would be of great profit for the further development of the country to pay proper attention to the importance of the Russian language. It has its historical background as well as economical and political interests.

Bob Burns wrote:

Russian language, culture and people need to become extinct as fast as possible. It is everyones duty to kill off the memory of these horrible brutal crazies.

So what's your problem....panties in a twist?


You remind me of that Frank Burns character in MASH..........thick as mud and just as slow.

Alexander wrote:

It is only a few people i Kyrgyzstan who happen to speak the language properly. Perhaps no more than 35 - 40%, and it is indeed a grave error to eliminate the russian language.
So now, hardly noone speaks English, and Russian is on the way down. In the future the Kyrgyz populist members of the parlament will leave the country with no proper language at all.
With all respect, but it's not that people will line up to learn Kyrgyz.

Hello, Dear Alexanre, U cannot be more wrong on this, 30-40% speak Russian?????????? which language do we all use there to communicate than?????/ coz russians living in my country - Kyrgyzstan never were able to grasp anything from Kyrgyz language. English, Most of the youngsters know english and a pretty good number of adults, so, i dont know which Kyrgyzstan u visited or heard of, but believe me things u said here are MORE than just WRONG.
Russian is a second state language and Kyrgyz is the first, u guys all being from west talking some nonsence, it is Kyrgyz Republic not Russia so the language is naturally is Kyrgyz, Russian came only coz of siviets rulling the replublics, but we and other 14 republics had and have their own languages and traditions.

Janna wrote:

<quoted text>
Hello, Dear Alexanre, U cannot be more wrong on this, 30-40% speak Russian?????????? which language do we all use there to communicate than?????/ coz russians living in my country - Kyrgyzstan never were able to grasp anything from Kyrgyz language. English, Most of the youngsters know english and a pretty good number of adults, so, i dont know which Kyrgyzstan u visited or heard of, but believe me things u said here are MORE than just WRONG.
Russian is a second state language and Kyrgyz is the first, u guys all being from west talking some nonsence, it is Kyrgyz Republic not Russia so the language is naturally is Kyrgyz, Russian came only coz of siviets rulling the replublics, but we and other 14 republics had and have their own languages and traditions.

Everyone should listen to Janna - she speaks the truth. Having been to Kyrgyzstan, I will vouch for her. Being Kyrgyk, Janna knows better than anyone.

Although the country is named for the largest ethnic group, the country enjoys rich diversity in people, heritage, and languages. This is similar to where I live where many speak Navajo, Hopi, Spanish as their home tongue. However, we have all agreed to use English as a language that can bridge our cultural barriers. It is important to remember our own languages. We also appreciate sharing a common language that can be efficiently used in most business transactions, education, government, mass communication, papers/forms, signs, and international trade. It is practical and its source does not matter as long as it works.

I also agree with Meli.
And I wish we could revise English so that it is not a language where spelling equals memorization and where grammar rules actually work.
A language which has spelling bees because we have to memorize crazy spelling is not a good language. And a language which has so many (too many) weird exceptions to its rules is not a good language.
Consider languages like Russian and Korean (Hangul). Don't need spelling bees - if you can pronounce the word you can spell it. The grammar is actually reliable.
And don't even get me started on the archaic English system of measurements as opposed to the metric system...

Dear Jannna. Now read what I wrote once again...

I wrote: "It is only a few people i Kyrgyzstan who happen to speak the language PROPERLY. Perhaps no more than 35 - 40%, and it is indeed a grave error to eliminate the russian language."

Now, perhaps most of the Kyrgyz speak Russian, but far from all speak it PROPERLY.

Most of the youngsters know English? LOL, if You concider saying "hello, what is Your name" for speaking English, I rest my case.

Somehow, I doubt that Russian is all of a sudden disintegrating and fading gradually into oblivion; frankly, it remains an important language in many international affairs. It's the chief tongue in commerce and communication between members of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). The language is even one of the official UN languages. Furthermore, there still exists a significant number of people who speak Russian worldwide -- in Europe, for instance, it is among the more widely spoken languages.

Russian certainly has lost its previous status as an absolutely necessary and significant language worldwide as a means of international communication in a variety of affairs; it has also lost its status, of course, as the sole language that united the many different peoples living in the fifteen former Soviet republics. However, there are still plenty of Russophones throughout, and it still enjoys a major yet diminished position as a major international language.

Chto eto "Russophone"

(What's a Russophone?)

Moses Madison wrote:

it is sad that a language as rich as russian is losing grounds to regional nationalistic forces. however, it is good to hear that English as the international language of trade is becoming more popular. i guess i better start learning kyrgyz before my next trip to bishkek.

Not THAT necessary and very difficult. Most of the students and people of Bishkek speak Russian, the ethnic Kyrgyz usually speak both Russian and Kyrgyz. Most of the time they now a little english and want to learn it. Despite the Bull-shite you hear on the teles here in the US, English is the business language of the future, and it isn't being ethno-centric to desire to teach it to other nationalities, infact you are serving them to bring them advantages. I am returning to Bishkek this summer, and plan to use an ESL certification to teach there in Bishkek while I start another project therw with some friends. Unfotunately in the past five years militant islam has hijacked the youth of Kyrgyzstan to soke degree and this 'Kyrgyz pride' is a result of militant Imams and clerics to make Kyrgyzstan a back-water nation doomed to poverty. This way they can insure many warm bodies to be lead to their slaughter. I left Bishkek in August 2001, that was when the taliban was tearing down the 8th wonder of the world and right before 9/11, since then Kyrgyzstan has been invaded by Uzbek islamic cells attempting to de-stabilize the nation and create tulmult.

Bob Burns wrote:

Russian language, culture and people need to become extinct as fast as possible. It is everyones duty to kill off the memory of these horrible brutal crazies.

You really are an idiot, and have obviously no clue where how the ethnic russians arrived in Kyrgyzstan. You are the typical 'useful idiot'. Stalin (as well as Kruschev)forced a great number of ethnic Russian-jews into kyrgyzstan, if you could read russian you'd notice that many ethnic russians living say in Bishkek have russian/jewish last names. But we can all see you're an idiot so why bother trying to explain these things to you.

Meli wrote:

Although the country is named for the largest ethnic group, the country enjoys rich diversity in people, heritage, and languages. This is similar to where I live where many speak Navajo, Hopi, Spanish as their home tongue. However, we have all agreed to use English as a language that can bridge our cultural barriers. It is important to remember our own languages. We also appreciate sharing a common language that can be efficiently used in most business transactions, education, government, mass communication, papers/forms, signs, and international trade. It is practical and its source does not matter as long as it works.

I cried the day I left Bishkek, it IS diverse in almost every aspect, the New York of central Asia in my opinion...Al-maty is a bit better but still...not Bishkek. And Issyhk-Kul....another wonderful thing about Kyrgyzstan. But the commonality of language is important and this is further de-stabalizing the nation as we speak.

what is wrong with russian?
all you are deliberatly manuplated to hate certain group of people...
shit westerners i spit on you...
long live russian language...
zivayut ruskia yezika

Keith wrote:

Chto eto "Russophone"
(What's a Russophone?)

dumaui 4to eta kakoj ta telefon ;)
(i think, it's kind of phone)

Okay everyone,
Most people if not all, speak Russian in the Kyrgz Republic. Much less know the Kyrgyz language. It is better this way since they will be better able to communicate with other countries if they know Russian than Kyrgyz. Many people, outside of Russia, and the Kyrgyz Republic learn the Russian lanuguage. How many people from Europe or the USA or China or Russia learn to speak the Kyrgyz language? I'm sure it's not many.

PaulMotes wrote:

<quoted text>You really are an idiot, and have obviously no clue where how the ethnic russians arrived in Kyrgyzstan. You are the typical 'useful idiot'. Stalin (as well as Kruschev)forced a great number of ethnic Russian-jews into kyrgyzstan, if you could read russian you'd notice that many ethnic russians living say in Bishkek have russian/jewish last names. But we can all see you're an idiot so why bother trying to explain these things to you.

Now now, be nice! no need for name calling...

As a Kyrgyz muself, I think knowing Russian language gave (and will continue giving) us all a lot of advantages - biz, political ties wiht neighbouring countries (all still carried out in Russian). What about world literature - how lucky i was to be able to read it (as Russians are crazy about reading, and not so much of it has been translated into Kyrgyz).

while i came across various forms of shovinizm from both Kyrgyz (when I spoke Russian i could be reminded by someone just in the street that I should speak my own language)AND Russians (in less obvious but much more hurtfull ways) back in Kyrgyzstan, we all know there will always be things like that in any country; I am all for promoting national roots and culture, but i still believe we should not undermine importance of Russian language in our lives. it is only to our advantage.
btw, i do speak and read Kyrgyz, but only because I went to Kyrgyz school. Most of my friends back at home don't speak or even understand it properly,(which is quite sad).