A strategic language, indeed?
Date: 04.12.2009
A strategic language, indeed?
Education and language issues related both to the mother tongue and foreign languages have long ago been ranked high with due regard to their social and state role. Lyudmila Putina used to participate actively in projects concerning Russian language. She even supervised a number of international initiatives launched together with German and Spanish organisations. During her meetings with foreign envoys, Valentina Matviyenko also tackles different tasks connected with education and foreign languages. Last week, it was officially announced that American-British school will be opened in Saint Petersburg in 2010. And how is the language of our strategic partner doing in Russia’s northern capital? What about Finnish?
It seems like things are not so bright taking into consideration the declared status of regional collaboration. Finnish continues to be taken as a rare, exotic language. Only eight state schools in St Petersburg teach Finnish. And only five of them offer advanced language courses. Yet the Consulate General of Finland conspicuously fails to give their numbers correctly at its website.
Ten institutes of higher and specialised secondary education will make the Finnish language your core trade. But only diplomas from Saint Petersburg State University, Herzen State Pedagogical University and Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance assure you a warm welcome in linguistic centers. Meanwhile, Finnish-speaking seniors of Russian Christian State Academy make local niche labour market increasingly overflown.
The market of commercial Finnish courses continues to strive. About 30 per cent of language schools based in Saint Petersburg offer Finnish courses to their students. The trend is followed even by some centers that do not seem to have anything in common with the Finnish language including “The Swiss Centre”, “Big Ben” specialising in English and “Globus International”. The Russian State Hydrometeorological University has added a teacher of Finnish to its staff. The institution is ready for a group of interested students as soon as it will be able to form it (apparently meaning better advertising budgets). In fact, for the majority of language centers such references to Finnish mean only their willingness to find a teacher for eager learners. Moreover, the language policy of certain centers looks like investing in their future as their marketing of language courses is not backed by any Finnish-oriented activity at the moment (Signum, Interface, Best Teach aka Study Best) etc.
Back to the question of the Finnish language, it is interesting to note that in spite of its seeming diversity, the market of Saint Petersburg is formed by few major centers. Moreover, two leading schools are owned by a single business group, thus the monopolistic character of the segment is rather apparent.
Each year fresh forces do arrive. For some it is a natural way into the business with all their linguistic and pedagogical skills available. But true professionals are scarce here. Quite often owners of the linguistic centers happen to be entrepreneurs engaged in a wide variety of businesses (consulting, tourism, trade, and even oils suppliers). The second category comprises people connected with local education authorities.
The origin of Finnish language centers in Saint Petersburg offers an interesting picture of local business principles. Here we find companies established by regional public societies of disabled people. Classes are held in the premises belonging to family members of the founders. “Proper” high-ranking positions of parents appear to be quite helpful in promoting successful business careers for their children. Numerous language-related businesses thrive including tourism, hospitality services, educational services abroad etc.
If branches of Novosibirsk, Murmansk and Vyborg language centers continue to appear in St Petersburg, not mentioning local initiatives from Moscow-based companies, the market is not oversaturated yet. This is a perfect prove one can offer better terms than local heavyweights. And the initial capital is affordable even for recent graduates and university tutors. The admittance fee is so to say quite acceptable. Some language centers here are run efficiently from Scandinavia, so any city of the North West Region of Russia will suit for it, too. So, to teach our people the language of our strategic partner, one will need only some free time, a due business plan, the initial capital, and, certainly, the desire.
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