Russian universities have begun to reduce English hours: is it right?

Our Englishwoman, a fan of her subject, did not apply this rude term to Shakespeare’s language. There was no English room, but in one of the classes she still hung pictures: Tower Bridge, a map of Great Britain, handsome Lord Byron (bought, perhaps with her own).

In our towns and villages, Englishwomen were often young, and even pretty (although adolescent tastes and current memory are an unimportant basis for statistical conclusions). And in the physics and mathematics school at the Leningrad University, where I accidentally ended up in the 9th grade, English. given in depth. I remember that in the My Favorite Writers series, beyond the Shakespeare-Byron-Dickens standard, the Thackeray I mentioned provided love-indulgences for the Englishwoman there.

Another mental barrier was taken because the language of Shakespeare turned out to be the language of Lennon, McCartney, Jagger, Richards and Bob Dylan who joined them. The ability to explain “what they are singing about” is a trump card in companies. They translated by ear: the lyrics on the sleeves of the records were rare, the records themselves were even more rare. A fresh, uncut Queen worth two stipends, and so on. The difficulties of those translations, the Homeric errors turned into the now popular heading “Shizgara”: this is an almost schizophrenic distorted accompaniment of the Russians to the hit of the “Shocking Blue” group. But since it was composed by a Dutchman and sung by a Hungarian gypsy, “Shizgara” is a monument not to Russian mistakes, but to the worldwide triumph of English. In the business of charming girls with translations of songs, especially slow dances, there was competition: the majority studied English. Parents fussed: to enroll children in English, not German classes.

In 1983, with a diploma in cybernetics, I began to implement ACS (Automated Control Systems) at the USSR Ministry of Foreign Trade. Like many colleagues, he mastered a very serious English for Business course, and, I remember, also with painful translations of Dickens’ novel Dombey and Son. Those who passed received a surcharge for the language: 5% of their salary, negotiated without interpreters, and more often went to foreign countries. And everyone remembers: in English it was easy to communicate with non-English people. Finns, Swedes, Belgians, Germans… spoke more slowly, more simply, without idioms, abbreviations, which are deeply ingrained in the structure of speech among the native Albionians. Today, the Internet approved all these LOLs (Laughing out loud, I laugh out loud) … And then they rained down on the poor foreign trader like peas.

I will give an example of the triumph of English more seriously than whispering versions of Western hits to girls. One of the leading translators of Shakespeare, Yuri Klyuchnikov, said: “The leading role of Anglo-Saxon geopolitics to this day is based on the universality of language, to which Shakespeare contributed a lot. The language, which received powerful impulses from the work of the great bard, influenced the formation of English character traits: independence, patriotism, pride, conservatism.

Let’s go back to Russia. We see the vital need for Peter’s reforms on old maps. The whole world was colonies and semi-colonies, except for our strip of Northern Eurasia. Historian and philosopher Arnold Toynbee wrote: “Since the 17th century in the West, the continuous advance of technology has become a challenge to the rest of humanity. Russia, faced with this, was the first to decide to maintain its independence by adopting a broad program of technological transformation in a Western way. Russia’s happiness that Peter, a born technocrat, had the dictatorial power of the Muscovite tsar.

Detail 1. Peter did not steal new military technologies (mostly of Swedish origin). The West, inviting Russia into the coalition, sold them on a turnkey basis. There was no semblance of theft from China of the secrets of porcelain and tea bushes.

Detail 2. The introduction of the necessary Western terminology has not yet been accompanied by the dominance of foreign languages. The century of maximum success, the 18th century, even retained a special Russian style: the author of the main intellectual hits of the century was read among us, but his name was Ivan-Yakov Russo. Successful borrowing of naval sciences, diplomacy, trade was not hindered by our majestic disregard for English grammar. No more clearing the letters: Bay, Hudson River? Hudson!

This is the style of effective contacts with a foreign culture. Later, the nobility, fencing themselves off from the rest of the country with the manifesto “On Liberty …”, supplemented the opportunity not to serve with the same insanity – a total transition to French (and / or German with English). They communicated with their peasants through translators. Reading in the newfound language was no longer military regulations or current technical literature. The flow was the most blatant pop. “They moved rubble and rubble from the backyard of German literature,” wrote Belinsky. Eugène Xu, who is “Mysteries of Paris”, is still a genius in the ocean of vaudeville.

The year 1917 struck a balance: a foreign language ceased to be a mark of difference in social status, and the returning functionality of foreign languages ​​did not exclude acquaintance with real culture. Anthologies of New English Poetry, Modern American Poetry came out in 1937 and 1938. Here we estimate only the years of publications. If the approaches of the 19th century had been preserved, some kind of “London Secrets” by some Eugene Sewell would have been published …

But the Russian “all-humanity” (Dostoevsky) in combination with the vector of modernization (Peter’s, socialist) affected the preservation of reverence for their languages ​​and speakers. The love of our Englishwoman was ideal: then there was no hope for material contact. But today there is reason to think: hasn’t that vector of influence stuck too deep? Recall the ease of communication with ordinary schoolchildren. They taught a simpler version than those who lived according to the “Bible” of Natalia Bonk, who entered the language laboratories with trepidation and sighed: “how miserable is American and how beautiful is Oxford, aka RP (Received Pronunciation)”, the language of Byron, Etonians, Oxfordians.

I remember negotiations with the Belgian. All documentation in English is ok. But in communication, turns from Jane Austen, Dickens … were useful to me like Sanskrit. The whole world outside the “holy island” used an extremely simplified version. Digital English has developed (Digispeak, digital – digital), in a mobile phone penny translators (voice, texts). Against the backdrop of global consumerism to keep the adoration of RP? Maintain his priests? Humiliating stupidity.

From emotions to numbers. Since 1991, 6.5 million people have left Russia. (According to some estimates, although counting emigrants is no easier than counting flocks of cranes and rooks.) The proportion of scientists and qualified specialists is even more difficult to determine. They fly, unlike the same cranes, for many reasons. Except the economy. Some people dislike local politicians and taverns, some people like local pubs and (almost rhymed) ladies. Here sits the influence of a long admiration for England-Byron, the catch of our Englishwoman. Or, as in “Woe from Wit”: “Ah, France! There is no better place in the world!” – decided the two princesses, sisters, repeating the lesson that they learned from childhood.

A new reason for such reflections was given by acquaintance with the project “DNA of Russia”. The “Fundamentals of Russian Statehood” complex developed on its basis was discussed and corrected by more than 2,000 teachers from all over the country. On behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, by decision of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, he will take a place in the grid of university subjects from September 1, 2023.

The letter of instruction from the Ministry of Education lay on the desk of the director of the Academy of Basic Training (a division of the Russian University of Transport (MIIT) Alexander Gorbunov, and in our conversation about the importance of this subject, the question arose: where? An extremely tight schedule of classes, and another 54 classroom plus 18 extracurricular hours!

Imagine. The largest technical university in Russia and Europe. Brand. Trains engineers in dozens of countries, our infrastructure rests largely on his pets, special items cannot be touched. It’s like moving a railway bridge to make it more convenient to hang a banner or a flag on it! But the same dead end is education without upbringing. The ideological vacuum of the 1990s and the high demand for MIIT graduates highlighted the danger of a brain drain and work for the transport of the West. This dilemma reminded me of an implicitly collected file, a sense of absurdity, a heritage from who knows what time.

Load (hours of classes), 2022. (Titles of universities – abbreviated everyday)

MIIT. History 40, mathematics 192, physics 128, foreign language 192.

Gubkinsky. Philosophy 50, mathematics 236, physics 254, foreign language 136.

MADI. Philosophy 51, mathematics 310, physics 200, foreign language 170

Baumanka. Philosophy 51, mathematics 493, physics 238, foreign language 204.

Atavism of what times, what great traditions, what centuries is this structure?

By the way, even on the “holy island” they shake up their traditions: the House of Lords (1999): 1330 peers. In 2022: 785. And it is not Lord Byron who sits there now. According to the new tradition, every retired prime minister thanks his employees with a peerage. Now they are waiting for new members of the House of Lords: a list of ridiculous 40-day “tanker” Liz Thrus.

Absurd. Huge funds to allocate (maintenance of the army of English women) and the precious time of a schoolboy or student, which determines their future life, … to be given to subtleties, instilling reverence for the language in which most of the lies and infopoems are now poured? national masochism. Hope for victory in a hypothetical world competition: whose nuclear scientists, chemical engineers would best read a piece from Jane Austen?

Europe canceled Dostoevsky. There is no need for retaliatory measures according to Byron, let interested philologists study. At your own expense. Brodsky, with eight grades, self-taught, grew into an outstanding translator, lecturer at US universities. And the lazy, half-wit, even having absorbed a fair amount of state funds, will only take out a sigh from English studies: “Oh, I was born in the wrong country!”

PS Without provoking the competition “Who has less English?”, I will note the changes regarding my old file. MIIT lesson plan for 2023: foreign language 144 (reduced by 25%), hours of mathematics, physics, history have been increased.