The language reality
Kazakhstan, Politics and Society11 Comments
Everybody speaks Russian and most Kazakhs also speak some level of Kazakh. In this the most russified country in Central Asia the lingua franca is Russian.
The South in more ethnic Kazakh and the Kazakh language is used more than in the North. In the North, which was majority Russian in the time of the USSR, most Kazakhs prefer Russian. The North being defined unofficially starting somewhere around Karaganda.
Russian is often perceived as the language of “culture” with the implication that without Russian the people would still be nomads. Many Kazakhs are better in Russian as they were educated in this language and even the younger generation flocks to Russian as it gives easy access to such things as movies (both in Russian and dubbed), video games and the internet.
The cities are more Russian speaking that the countryside as the remaining non-Kazakhs make up a proportionately higher percentage in cities than outside larger centres. Like in most parts of the world where people have the freedom of mobility people are flocking to the cities.
To illustrate the issue lets look at Almaty and Astana.
Almaty is the undisputed business capital of Central Asia and the former capital. It is cosmopolitan with a centre that often makes you feel like you are somewhere in Europe rather than in Central Asia. The undisputed language of work and of play is Russian. I do not hear a lot of Kazakh spoken on the streets even though this city is majority ethnic Kazakh. Many Kazakhs, particularly those originally from Almaty, prefer Russian. Many foreign companies operating here reinforce this by working in Russian and English.
Astana the new capital that is being built almost from scratch it the centerpiece of the government’s language policy that makes Kazakh the only official language of Kazakhstan. One is required to speak Kazakh for many government jobs. Here Kazakh is widely spoken and a language of communication as in many smaller cities and towns. However, one can always speak Russian without a problem. As the city is so new and most embassies have yet to even transfer to Astana it’s still early to make a judgement on how the city will evolve.
Regardless of the inevitable conflict language rights/promotion brings, there is linguistic peace in Kazakhstan. What price can one put on peace?
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Stavros, sort of unrelated, but out of curiosity, given the level of russification in Kazakhstan, how common is it for foreigners to go there to study the Russian language instead of Russia? Do you know of any formalized study programs?
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I study only Russian here and it’s the norm for foreigners. The level of Russian in Kazakhstan is excellent and outstanding in Almaty. Thus Almaty has “better” (ie more standard Russian) than many parts of Russian.
Lots of programmes, depends on the lenght of time you want to stay, you could spend an academic year and do it right, a month or two is not a lot for Russian, it’s harder than modern Greek (well that comparission at least works for me).
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“Kazakhstan needs new concept of state language development”
http://www.inform.kz/showarticle.php?lang=eng&id=142285
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I know a few foreigners that studied russian in Alma-Ata. For instance, one of my japanese friends had chosen Alma-Ata to study russian for the following two reasons: (1) it is cheaper to live there than in Moscow, (2) one (in particular, asians) doesn`t get such problems, as russian skin-heads can deliver.
As my kazakh girlfriend once joked: “Kazakhs are the most europeanized asians after russians”. LOL
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Kazakh language is more spoken now on the streets in Almaty as it was 2 or 3 years ago. Recently I visited KZ (currently I live in Germany) and I was quite surprised by the fact that so many teens and young people speak Kazakh than Russian in Almaty on the streets, bars and etc. I guess the majority of them are “oralmans” coming from china and mongolia.
Once in Germany I was asked if it’s worthy to go to KZ to learn Russian I told doubtless “yes”, but I recommended only Almaty and Karaganda.
At the same time I know in some municipal enteprecises like APK Almaty 1 (energy supplier) there is no use instructions or broshures written in Russian. The only version you can get is in kazakh language…
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Turgai Sangar Reply:
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
“I was quite surprised by the fact that so many teens and young people speak Kazakh than Russian in Almaty”
In my experience, it depends on which parts of Almaty you go and which kind of people you meet but this is indeed true in certain suburbs, novostroïki, around the bazaars etc… and less in the ‘upper class’ centre. Lots of Kazakh-speakers have moved from the surrounding province and other parts of the country to Almaty over the last decade.
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Hi Stavros,
Going back to James’ question, do you know of any formalised study programmes in Almaty for studying Russian? I don’t mean programmes like where you pay per hour as an individual or in a group, that’s what organisations like kimep offer. I am looking for formal programmes with intensive daily lessons for a fixed period with exams leading to recognised qualifications.
Please advise. thanks
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There are many places to study Russian in Kazakhstan. The teachers are of high quality and it is cheap really to dwell here. The experience of teachers is inferior to none in this respect. You could either graduate at a university or attend special courses. For example, I can recommend you to take a course of the teacher AUBAKIROVA Alipa Nasibullaevna in Astana. She has the great experience of teaching russian to comers from many countries and speaks, as I know, english, turkish, persian. If you are keen on studying Russian in Kazakhstan,
here is the cell phone number of the teacher: +7 701 725 66 64.
Good luck!
Maral
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The quality of Russian in Kazakhstan is excellent.We speak russian,we think in russian In some ways we know russian better than native russians because we are also native speakers and and can demonstrate our skills…..
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Hi all,
I’m going to be in Almaty for two weeks in September, and I’m just wondering how I should divide up my pre-trip language study time. I’ve already worked my way through Russian and Kazakh textbooks once, but I’m now thinking that it may be smarter just to concentrate on Russian from here on in, even though I find Kazakh an immensely appealing language. Let me add that I’m a language buff and speak some languages that are similar typologically to both Russian and Kazakh, so it’s not a question of difficulty here, simply practicality, and the sort of reception I’ll get in using both. Will people be particularly pleased to have a Westerner speaking Kazakh?…..
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Turgai Sangar Reply:
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:40 pm
“Will people be particularly pleased to have a Westerner speaking Kazakh?”
Yes. Even is you speak Kazakh partially, ethnic Kazakh people will LOVE you for it especially in the province.
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