"The language and culture in which people educate their young say a lot about the world they expect their kids to grow up in" (Owen Matthews). If this is true, what is the message sent by the people of Georgia and countries in close proximity when they are sending their children to schools that focus on Western languages and cultures such as English and French, instead of taking the traditional path in Eastern European Schooling to master Russian.
As I was reading through the June 9, 2008 Version of NEWSWEEK, I stumbled across what seemed to be an insignificant one-page article entitled "The East Looks West" (http://www.newsweek.com/id/139397) that dealt with this issue of the Western-ization of the cultures and practices of the former members of the USSR such as Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Krygyzstan.
The way it used to be (even a couple of years ago), it was mandatory for the multitude to speak Russian. This was because the countries were part of the U.S.S.R., or more recently, the citizens of these countries could not receive information from Western countries without having it go through Russia and translated into Russian. If you wanted to know of the world beyond your country, it was essential to learn Russian.
But now, with the dawning of the Information Age, the relationship between these countries and Europe can be more direct. Therefore, the youth are losing that connection with Russia and are choosing to take on a different second language. The switch happened quickly and basically without notice. Today, a professor from Tbilisi, Georgia said, that only 1/3 of his students can read Russian. This is a big change and is being helped out by the local universities, who are giving out scholarships to study abroad in the Western World and they are also asking European scholars to teach at major universities in the area to help the locals learn what they themselves call "the universal language" (Tomuna Gamkredze).
Although it is good that these people are finally given an option as to their futures, I somewhat see this as a negative, and as a step back. If more people around the world are Western-izing their culture, we are losing all that makes us unique. If the English language does become a universal language, and everyone begins to adopt a Western culture, we could lose so much diversity. But some might see this as a good thing and a bridge across nations. Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts.
