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Литература
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УДК: 81:39 (045)
Kozhevnikova О. V.
Udmurt State University, Izhevsk, Russia
LANGUAGE DIVERSITY AND INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
The paper presents a summary of the author's observations, experiences, interpretations and some facts regarding the language diversity in Latvia (specifically the usage of Latvian and Russian obtained while staying there as an Erasmus Mundus exchange researcher) in connection to the intercultural competence of Latvian students. Intercultural competence is considered to be coupled with three of eight European Union key competencies for life-long learning (communication in the mother tongue, communication in foreign languages and social competence). In addition, the concept of sustainable development is explored and interpreted in a broader way as a durable development on both individual (personal and professional) and societal (social and economical) levels. It is stated that the lack of language competence in a multiethnic society like Latvia leads to the lack of adaptability and professional competitiveness of individuals and the lack of their contribution for social balance and integration and for economical prosperity of the country.
Key words: Latvia, state language, language minorities, language diversity, intercultural competence, sustainable development.
В статье представлены некоторые факты, а также личный опыт, наблюдения и размышления автора относительно языкового разнообразия в Латвии (в особенности употребления латышского и русского языков, сделанные автором во время пребывания в этой стране в качестве участника обменной программы Erasmus Mundus) в связи с интеркультурной компетентностью латвийских студентов. Интеркультурная компетентность соотносится с тремя из восьми ключевых компетенций для обучения в течение жизни, принятых в Европейском Союзе (коммуникация на родном языке, коммуникация на иностранных языках и социальная компетентность). Также анализируется понятие устойчивого развития, рассматриваемое в широком смысле как продолжающееся развитие на индивидуальном (личностное и профессиональное) и социальном (общественное и экономическое) уровнях. Отмечается, что недостаточное развитие языковой компетентности в таком многонациональном обществе как Латвия приводит к низкой адаптивности и низкой профессиональной конкурентоспособности индивидов, отсутствию у них возможности способствовать поддержанию социального баланса и экономического благосостояния.
Ключевые слова: Латвия, государственный язык, язык национального меньшинства, языковое разнообразие, интеркультурная компетентность, устойчивое развитие.
Inroduction. I should say that I never planned to explore this particular topic but since I arrived in Riga in August of 2013, I found myself involved in numerous situations associated with language diversity in this country. I would like to start my paper with some facts regarding Latvia that can be easily obtained through one of the most widely used Internet source which is Wikipedia:
Latvia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe with the population of about 2 million inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km2. The sole official language of Latvia is Latvian. Russian, which was widely spoken during the Soviet period, is still the most widely used minority language by far (about 34% speak it at home, including persons who are not ethnically Russian). While it is now required that all school students learn Latvian, most schools also include English and either German or Russian in their curricula. As of 2014 there are 109 schools for minorities that use Russian as the language of instruction for 40% of subjects (the rest 60% of subjects are taught in Latvian), however the Latvian government is planning to completely abolish Russian as the language of instruction by 2018.
On 18 February 2012, Latvia held a constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language. According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.88% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.11%. However, a large part of Latvia's Russian speaking community (290,660 or 14.1% of Latvia's entire population) could not vote in this referendum because they hold non-citizen status and thus have no right to vote [8].
Up to the time of writing this paper I have spent ten months in Latvia and to make the story more vivid I will describe several «snapshots» of the events, everyday episodes and conversations I observed or participated in.
An old gentleman selling used goods in the local market: «Girl, I am an old Jew though they believe I am Russian; during Soviet times I was a military engineer working for the local industry but lost my job after the independence and you see what I have finally got in this country».
A Russian-speaking young lady recollecting the stories her teacher told her: «When she arrived in Latvia as a young Soviet specialist she was very friendly, open and eager to learn Latvian, but she mispronounced most of the words and made other mistakes in her speech so locals kept on telling her, «Do not spoil our language, speak your Russian.» So she stopped trying».
A middle-aged Latvian companion of mine for a daily trip to Lithuania speaking Russian quite fluently: «I used to have a Russian-speaking friend when I was a kid so I could speak Russian since I was four; then I started watching Russian cartoons and movies and I am still reading books published in Russian».
A Russian-speaking cleaning lady in the dormitory for exchange students: «I can not find any better job as I am not a citizen. If only I could move to Russia...».
An elderly professor in the students' restaurant in the main building of Latvian University where I asked a female food server both in Russian and in English, «What is in the food?» who commented: «Do not torture her, speak normally».
A twenty-something-year-old Russian-speaking female student who burst into tears when I told her that she must speak Latvian as she was born in this country: «I hate being forced to do that».
A high school Latvian-speaking boy who replied in Latvian quite haughtily that he does not speak any Russian when I asked him to let me pass through the door; he disappeared once I offered to communicate in English.
Two Latvian personal coaches in the fitness center, both speaking two languages, one -Latvian and Russian, the other - Latvian and English: «Speaking only Latvian is not enough to get a good job».
March, 16, Latvian Legion Day: Russian-speaking individuals and groups shouting «Shame on you!» along with elderly Latvian ladies cheering Waffen SS soldiers and other participants in the procession with applause and flowers; and police officers protecting another old lady speaking Russian and holding pictures taken in Salaspils concentration camp with the words «Never forget what you did».
Two elderly ladies met at the bus stop, one is Latvian, the other is Russian; Latvian lady asking about the schedule in Latvian, Russian indicating in Russian that «she is very sorry but...», and the rest of communication in Russian: «Come and sit with me, we can talk while riding».
Such short situations, incidental acquaintances, spontaneous conversations occurred again and again and I found myself more and more not only involved but also active in encouraging my interlocutors to reveal their understanding of the current language situation in Latvia.
Research methodology. Something that started as naturalistic covert observation turned into participant disguised observation and in a while into deep interviewing. When I understood that I was actually doing research I began to make notes after having conversations with various people met in various contexts (as a result I have collected about 30 records). Most of them were not aware of the fact that they became participants of such unplanned research but it is almost impossible to identify them so I strongly believe that their privacy is protected. Those who knew that I might use the information they provided for research purposes asked not to reveal their personal data as the topic. So all the names are changed and only very basic personal data is used to describe the respondents. 90% of them are females; all are more or less bilingual and speak at least some Russian. While interviewing I did not use a strict set of questions but the structure was always the same: questions about the respondent's mother tongue (the language of thinking and communication at home), the language currently used in the family, proficiency in other languages, the informant's understanding of the main factors of proficiency or the lack of proficiency in Russian for Latvian speakers and in Latvian for Russian speakers, their children's proficiency in both languages (or their intentions to support bilingualism of their children in the future).
Results and dissemination. I do not plan to analyze quantitatively and publish the results obtained during this research initiated mainly for developing my own cultural awareness and understanding of the issue. I decided to use some of the examples as illustrations of the tendencies in Latvian society that I could observe while staying in the country. My interpretation of those tendencies was presented in a form of a workshop to the participants of the 13th International students' research conference held on May 13-16, 2014 at the Latvian University, Faculty of Pedagogy, Psychology and Art.
As the main theme of the aforementioned conference was internationalization for sustainable development I entitled my workshop, «Intercultural competence for sustainable development» and started by providing the key definitions. In the context of internationalization of education I interpret sustainable development in a broader way as a durable development on both individual [personal (adaptability) and professional (competitiveness)] and societal [social (balance) and economical (prosperity)] levels.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
INDIVIDUAL LEVEL
SOCIETAL LEVEL
PERSONAL (ADAPTABILITY) AND PROFESSIONAL (COMPETITIVENESS) DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL
(BALANCE)
AND ECONOMICAL
(PROSPERITY)
DEVELOPMENT
Figure 1. The author's interpretation of sustainable development
Following Barrett M., et al, (2013) I define intercultural competence as the ability to understand and communicate with each other across all kinds of cultural divisions and distinguish language and social aspects of this ability [1, p. 3]. I believe that those two aspects can be coupled with three of eight European Union key competencies for life-long learning (2006):
1. communication in the mother tongue (the ability to express and interpret concepts, thoughts, feelings, facts and opinions and to interact linguistically in an appropriate and creative way in a full range of societal and cultural contexts),
2. communication in foreign languages (mentioned above plus mediation and intercultural understanding), and,
3. social competence (personal, interpersonal and intercultural competence and all forms of behaviour that equip individuals to participate in an effective and constructive way in social and working life) [6].
After that the participants of the workshop were asked to complete a kind of a simple psychological test. I requested that they should not reveal their personal results as I was going to speak about quite controversial issues and preferred to avoid addressing anyone personally. This «test» included some of the questions I had used to interview the informants. The first question «What is your mother tongue?» had three response options: «Latvian», «other», «Russian» presented in an alphabetical order. As the audience was quite multi-ethnic (Austrian, Chinese and Spanish students along with Latvian Latvians and Latvian Russians), I explained that «others» would have no other test questions as it would be based on the case of Latvia. Then both Latvian and Russian speaking participants were asked if they were proficient in any other language besides their mother tongue (they were as they participated in a workshop provided in English). The last question was about proficiency in Latvian for Russians and proficiency in Russian for Latvians. Based upon individual responses to those three questions, the participants could find themselves in some part of a proposed chart and those whose «position» was in the red circle in the middle could be considered not to be interculturally competent enough in Latvia and, so to speak, in danger in this particular
economy. To support that I used the stories and opinions provided by the informants in my research. Most of those in this category were mono-lingual Latvian-speaking students as I found that almost all Russian-speaking students of the same age were able to speak Latvian.
What is your mother tongue?
a a a
Latvian Other Russian
YES NO NO ^YES
YES YES
Figure 2. A model of «testing» the language proficiency of workshop participants
So, why do I believe that the lack of proficiency in the largest minority language in Latvia affects the development of intercultural competence of young Latvians and thus the possibility of their sustainable development as individuals and society members?
1. The lack of language competence ^ the lack of adaptability
An anonymous female student at the workshop: «It was my choice not to learn Russian as we had so many troubles with Russia in the past».
As J. Hughes (2005) states Russian-speakers in Latvia constitute one of the largest linguistic minorities in Europe [4] and according to the E. Krivtsova (2014) the statistics of 2009 shows that only 8% of the country population does not master the state language and none of them are schoolchildren [10]. That means that due to the educational policy of the Latvian government in the near future almost every Latvian Russian will be proficient in Latvian. At the moment Latvian Latvians (I am using these two definitions to speak about citizenship and ethnic identity at the same time as in Russian there are separate words for them: «россиянин» / «русский»; «латвиец» / «латыш», etc.) have a chance to exclude Russians by means of language and I observed and was personally involved in numerous situations when it was intentionally and obviously demonstrated. So currently those Russians who do not speak Latvian experience the lack of ability to successfully adapt to the social environment, fully participate in some events and feel comfortable. In but a few years, it will be non-Russian-speaking Latvians who may feel really uncomfortable when they are not able to understand what is told about them behind their backs or even openly while their bilingual counterparts will be just fine.
2. The lack of language competence ^ the lack of competitiveness in the labour
market
Indra, 38, a Latvian owner of a beauty salon in the city center of Riga: «I would hire a Latvian who speaks no Russian only if I had absolutely no other option».
I am not an expert in economy so I prefer to stay away from the topics I am not competent enough to comment on. But the fact is that Latvia and Russia are very close partners in terms of economy: as of 2012, Russia was Latvia's main export partner and third most important import partner. In addition, as of 2010, 67.2% of the Latvian labour force was occupied in services [8]. «Services» involve «working with people». I have already mentioned that Russian-speaking minority is quite large (more than 30% of population). Besides, Baltic region is getting more and more popular with tourists from the Russian Federation and other former Soviet Republics who often prefer to speak Russian rather than any other language. According to Latvijas statistika database there were 356,900 non-resident travellers from Russia in 2008 [7]. Unfortunately, no updates since that time but according to the web-site of one of the largest Russian tour companies the amount of Russian tourists visiting Latvia increased by 96% in 2011 compared to the same period of the previous year [9].
At the same time, I am not even able to count how many times I have observed a situation when a Latvian-speaking shop assistant or cashier had to call a bilingual co-worker as he or she was not able to understand the needs of the client. There are still lots of companies where the management is loyal to the ethnic majority but many employers prefer their employees to speak two (Latvian and Russian) or even more languages to make their businesses more attractive for the customers. Currently, the idea that future professionals should speak the languages of neighboring countries is quite strong. For instance, in Austrian Carinthia I had a chance to visit a bilingual vocational school in which they teach in both German and Slovene. And, of course, in English and sometimes in Italian and even Russian as the director Mr. Stefan Schellander seems to be a language addict in the most positive sense of this word. In this school they believe that their graduates will have many more job opportunities in this border region if they speak as many languages as possible [3]. Russia is the largest neighbour of Latvia with the population of more than 140 000 000 people. Even if just one million come and each brings only 100 euros it will have a great impact on the Latvian economy, won't it? Guess who will mainly work with those tourists. Those who are able to communicate with them.
3. The lack of language competence ^ the lack of contribution for social balance and integration
Olga, 35, a Russian married to a Latvian man with an absolutely bilingual kid and lots of Latvian-speaking friends on the events in Ukraine: «If they gave us guns and rifles we would soon easily find an enemy to shoot».
There could be another hundred examples like those mentioned in the introductory section of this paper illustrating that Latvian society is quite diverse and quite disintegrated. Interethnic stereotyping, the legal status of non-citizens, different interpretations of the past events are other very sensitive issues a foreigner can easily notice while staying in Latvia for a more or less long period of time. Those aged 15 to 30 were born or started to socialize in the 1990's which seemed to be an era of hatred and a very strong anti-Soviet / anti-Russian ideology in most of the former Soviet republics. A lot of Russians had to migrate to Russia or to other countries all over the world as they could not adapt to the new post-Soviet realities in their former home countries. Those who chose to stay had to struggle against the attempts to forcibly change their ethnic identity. Many of them are still struggling. The same is true about some Latvians who
intended to eliminate Russian from as many spheres as possible. Trying to prove that the counterpart was «the first to start», was «the guiltiest», etc. does not help to reach intercultural understanding. We should never forget our history but it might be a good idea to be more concentrated on possible cooperation in the future rather than on troubles and misunderstandings from the past. Being able to speak the same language as «the foe» may help to understand another culture from the inside and accept the differences.
4. The lack of language competence ^ the lack of contribution for economical prosperity of the country
Elena, 40, a teacher of Russian as a second language: «For some of my former Latvian students it appeared to be much easier to find a job abroad rather than here in Riga».
I will be short as it is economy-related again. It is quite logical that people who do not fit the requirements of the labour market in their home country have to migrate for better job opportunities. Both Latvian Russians and Latvian Latvians have to use this strategy to provide for themselves and their families so being fluent in English or any other (European) language helps them succeed in the new country. Many of them being really successful never come back or visit Latvia just occasionally to see their relatives or to see the doctors who are as competent as their colleagues in other countries but less expensive. Even though those labour migrants bring some money to the economy when they come to Latvia, they are not tax-payers; their professional skills often obtained through getting a good education in their home country do not contribute to its development. And (though this may be too scholastic), when more and more ethnic Latvians leave the country (according to Latvijas statistika database 25,163 individuals left the country in 2012 and 13,303 immigrate to Latvia which means that only that year the Latvian population decreased by 11,860 inhabitants [7]; no data about the ethnic identity of the emigrants but it is obvious that some of them are Latvian Latvians) it seems to make the nation weaker and weaker. I know that such ideas are supersensitive for the majority representatives especially when the concept of «the dying nation» emerges (I should stress that I am not so pessimistic) but it is worth thinking about the current situation more critically in order to foresee possible troubles in the future.
Conclusions. It was more than predictable that the target audience of the above mentioned workshop was not pleased to hear these observations but I strongly believe that young Latvian Latvians deserve being warned about the possible negative consequences of their decision not to speak any Russian. It is great to feel safe and self-sufficient just because you are at home in your native country. But life is constantly changing and individuals will not always have a chance to stay in their «comfort zone» forever. Anyway, if a person believes that it is absolutely impossible or unnecessary for him or her to learn any Russian it may be a good idea to develop a social component of intercultural competence as learning foreign language is obviously not the only way to improve it [2; 5]. What is more, I am quite positive and believe that young Latvians are still young enough to catch up. Many of them are able to speak some Russian but they may feel shy and lack confidence because of their strong accent and other mistakes in their speech. So it will be important for Russians to support Latvians when they try to speak the other language. And as for the next generation -born in 2000's - I have already heard about the tendency that more and more Latvian parents convince their children to choose Russian as their second language at school so they seem to be more oriented towards future rather than past and prefer to think more economically rather than ideologically.
References
1. Barrett, M. et all (2013) Developing Intercultural Competence through Education [online]. Available at: http://hub.coe.int
2. Bennett, J. (2011). Developing Intercultural Competence. For International Education Faculty and Staff [online]. Available at: http://www.intercultural.org
3. HLW St. Peter / Visja Sola Sentpeter [online]. Available at: http://hlw-stpeter.at/
4. Hughes, J. (2005). "Exit" in deeply divided societies: regimes of discrimination in Estonia and Latvia and the potential for Russophone migration [online]. London: LSE Research Online. Available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/archive/00000643
5. Recognising intercultural competence. (2012) What shows that I am interculturally competent? [online]. Available at: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/pestalozzi/ intercultural/ictool/ICTool%20v.3.0_EN.pdf
6. Key competences for lifelong learning. (2006) [online]. Available at: http://europa.eu/ legislation_summaries/education_training_youth/lifelong_learning/c11090_en.htm
7. Latvijas statistika database [online]. Available at: http://www.csb.gov.lv/en/dati/ statistics-database-30501.html
8. Wikipedia [online]: Available at: https://www.wikipedia.org/
9. Количество российских туристов в Латвии увеличилось на 96% / The amount of Russian tourists in Latvia has increased by 96% (2011) [online]. Available at: http: //www .tourprom.ru/news/14243/
10. Кривцова Е. Выпускник школы должен владеть тремя языками / Krivtsova, E. Any graduate should master three languages [text]. Special issue of the newspaper of the political party «Saskana» (May, 2014)
