There is a language barrier at Phystech

The Student Council of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology announced the collection of signatures under a petition to the university administration with a protest “against the policy of compulsory learning of the Chinese language.” On the eve it became known that from September 2023, MIPT students will study English and Chinese, and German, French and Spanish will be excluded from the curriculum. The leadership of the university explains the reform by the fact that 27% of the scientific literature on the subject of the physics and technical department is published in Chinese. The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation called the decision of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology “a bold step towards strengthening cooperation between Russia and China.” They have been trying to promote the Chinese language in Russian schools and universities since 2014, the expert says, but it is difficult to learn: the departure of MIPT students to this language will rather limit than open new opportunities for Russian science.

A petition addressed to Rector Dmitry Livanov “against changes in the teaching of foreign languages ​​at MIPT”, in particular “the policy of compulsory learning of the Chinese language”, was published on the page “In contact with” Youth Committee of the Institute (MKI; exists since 2007).

The initiators of the petition called the emergence of the very possibility of learning Chinese a “great innovation”, but were “categorically against” depriving students of the right to choose between studying other languages, in particular, Spanish and German.

Ilya Zakharov, the head of the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages, is perplexed as to why “an urgent approach is needed in organizing such grandiose changes”, calling for ensuring “quality in teaching foreign languages” and discussing innovations with students and teachers. The text of the petition, according to Mr. Zakharov, has been approved by six MIPT schools, including the Phystech School of High Technology Business (FBVT) and the Phystech School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics (FPMI).

The news was announced the day before. Telegram channel “Caution, Moscow” published the text of a letter from the head of the MIPT department of foreign languages, Elena Bazanova, to one of the vice-rectors of the university, in which it was said that from the fall of 2023, English and Chinese will become the “main languages” for university students. Ms. Bazanova made it clear that students who started learning Spanish in the 2022-2023 academic year will continue to do so, but other foreign languages ​​will no longer be taught at MIPT.

The MIPT press service reported that the university “carefully monitors the quality of teaching”, “based on the most advanced level of science and technology.”

The study by students of Chinese as a second compulsory language in response to a request from Kommersant at the university was associated with the fact that up to 27% of scientific articles “in areas specialized for MIPT” are written in Chinese.

“According to the researchers’ forecast, by 2030, up to half of all technical and engineering documentation will be published in the language of our eastern neighbor,” MIPT added, promising to employ twelve teachers, including eight native Chinese speakers, for the new program.

The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation made it clear to Kommersant that the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology made its own decision (to choose Chinese as the second compulsory language), promising “a unique program for studying a technical language for future scientists and engineers”, which has no analogues in Russia. “The actions of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology are in the legal field,” the ministry assured, calling the decisions of the university’s leadership “a bold step towards strengthening international cooperation between Russia and China” and an opportunity to “seriously strengthen the scientific and technological development of the two scientific powers.” “But first of all, the decision was made in the interests of the students,” assured the Ministry of Education and Science, emphasizing that they had not received any complaints about the new curriculum.

Aleksey Firsov, founder of the Platforma social design center, recalls that attempts to intensify the study of the Chinese language in Russia have been made since at least 2014, but there has been no fashion for it “due to the complexity of learning, the shortage of teachers and the lack of obvious practical motivation.”

At the same time, Mr. Firsov says that Chinese scientists themselves are actively studying European languages, in particular English. “When China does not abandon scientific globalization, and we strive to refuse, it looks strange. In addition, science as a whole lives on a global agenda. Leaving for the Chinese language will rather limit than open new scientific opportunities, ”he argues.

“The psychological barrier to learning Chinese in the country is large, there are few teaching staff, and in the context of the development of machine translation technologies, the need for efforts to learn the language will not be obvious to most students,” political scientist Mikhail Vinogradov believes. He considers the exception to be citizens who are focused on “face-to-face communication with the Chinese side”: “Doing business in China without knowing the language is really unproductive.” “The chances of integrating into Chinese science among Russian students are minimal, while the chances of integrating into Western European science will remain higher despite all the geopolitical faults,” Aleksey Firsov believes, emphasizing that Russian citizens “still remain Europeans in terms of their structure of thinking and value platform.”

Alexander Voronov, Anna Vasilyeva