Living in a country which can’t decide which language to use sure is a difficult thing. In the cities I am expected to speak Russian, in the villages I am expected to speak Kyrgyz.
Speaking Kyrgyz in the cities is futile and mostly met with blank stares which basically say
‘ HeLoo?! Don’t you know this is a city, we are civilized and we speak Russian?’
Speaking Russian in the villages can be met with one of two responses, indifference or patriotic anger. On many occasions I will hear…
‘Why are you speaking to me in Russian? You know Kyrgyz. If you speak to me in Russian you offend me.’
So you have an already small country of 5.5 million people, which has further divided itself into city-village distinctions. In the city the street language is Russian, in the villages (in the North) the street language is Kyrgyz. In the South it is divided even further because of the huge pockets of Uzbeks who live in Jalal-Abad, Osh, and Batken Oblast. (Note: An Oblast is essentially what we would call a state in America, there are 7 in Kyrgyzstan – 4 Northern Oblasts and 3 Southern Oblasts).
It then gets even more complicated – Kyrgyz is a language which does not have an alphabet of its own. It uses the Cyrillic alphabet and adds three of its own letters. However these days many people have decided to write Kyrgyz with the Latin alphabet. This results in extreme confusion with store signs written in Kyrgyz (Latin Letters), Kyrgyz (Cyrillic Letters), Russian, and English. Looking at those signs hurts my eyes and brain.
I will often be at dinner with 3-4 people; one who is speaking to me in Kyrgyz, two in Russian, and one in English. How would it be proper to respond to each person? Instinct tells me that it is most proper to respond the language that they are addressing me in, but it becomes ridiculous and confusing when I am being spoken to in three different languages.
Generally, I feel frustrated with this problem of not being able to decide on an official language. It creates extra divisions amongst the people in this already small and fractionalized country.
As I see it there are two main choices, solidify Russian as the main language or solidify Kyrgyz as the main language. Language is a tool, a tool which should be used to unify groups of people and whichever language better accomplishes that goal of uniting people should be chosen as the national language of this country.
Tricky issue you have raised. Russian is used in business and giving it more prominence (solidifying) would make nationalists unhappy. Solidifying Kyrgyz would stifle business perhaps. In many countries national languages are used and foreigners adopt (use translators etc). CIS countries have gone too far down the track by adopting Russian. I think it would be very difficult to solidify one…the society needs to learn to put their differences aside and live in harmony!
‘In many countries national languages are used and foreigners adopt (use translators etc).’
This is an interesting statement, because in a country like Kyrgyzstan when so many ‘nationals’ (citizens of Kyrgyzstan, who may be Russian, Uzbek, Uyghur) cannot speak the national language (Kyrgyz) this would mean that not only foreigners would have to adapt but that the nationals themselves would have to adapt.
Beloved one of ours………Enjoyed your blogs. We believe you sound like you may be ready to speak English…….so come home!
Papi you could not say it better:
Language is a tool, a tool which should be used to unify groups of people and whichever language better accomplishes that goal of uniting people should be chosen as the national language of this country.
Well, it’s good that you love learning new languages. I can’t image speaking 4 different languages at one table!
They say that people with musical talents learn languages much easier. I think all of those violin lessons paid off for you, your brain can handle so much! Mine would probably short circuit, leaving me in a stupor!