Russian on the rise among students

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), May, 2006

Russian language studies are rebounding even as current events attract more students to Arabic and Spanish, says a language professor at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.

"Learning languages, especially Russian, is often motivated by what is happening politically and economically around the world," notes Zinaida Breschinsky, associate professor of Russian, who has been teaching at Purdue for 30 years.

That is why Arabic language programs are seeing their enrollments increase since 9/11, and interest in Spanish continues with the growing native-speaking population in the U.S., she indicates.

"In the 1990s, as the fall of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War, followed by the chaotic years of Pres. Boris Yeltsin, the number of students learning Russian was the lowest I had ever seen," Breschinsky recalls. "In the last eight years, the number has been increasing."

Breschinsky maintains that there are two reasons students today learn the language: fascination with the culture and as a career strategy. Many of her students are from engineering programs. Others are majoring in agriculture, political science, and sociology.

"Russia is geographically the largest country in the world and home to a vast amount of natural resources, such as gas and oil reserves, and minerals, such as diamonds and nickel," Breschinsky points out. "The country may not be dominating the news now, but employers and big businesses see potential in Russia's changing economy and political structure.

"Plus, a student who studies Russian, which has its own alphabet, just stands out in a job interview."