Why Estonia's schools are abandoning teaching in Russian | Focus on Europe
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Why do you think going to school in a language is not a short period of acclimation?
School seems like the perfect time to learn to speak a language. And it's not a particularly long period of life.
What's the alternative? Them not speaking the language of their country at all?
Rather than falling back, I feel like it puts them ahead of the alternative, because they can now speak the language of their country. More opportunities follow that.
Maybe their parents can feel resentment like that, I don't think the children would. If school is a coherent environment, you find your community there. If it enables you to participate into bigger society, that becomes your community too.
You make it sound like they will learn Estonian over night with no issues at all. And the DW video is not so clear if they even get special language classes for it.
The alternative is dual language schools that offer special support to children that do not speak the majority language. This is very common in many parts of the world.
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Great idea. Surely punishing your country's children for the decisions of a foreign government will end the war.
What makes you think they're getting punished?
Providing better education seems like an improvement to me.
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This is not about having Estonian language classes for them, it is about putting them in classrooms for all subjects in a language they don't speak.
I think that's a great way to learn the language though. Exposure drives learning a language.
Learning it as a foreign language is much less efficient than learning it in all areas.
They may need more support given no support at home. Still, seems like a big plus to me.
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I think that's a great way to learn the language though. Exposure drives learning a language.
Learning it as a foreign language is much less efficient than learning it in all areas.
They may need more support given no support at home. Still, seems like a big plus to me.
You are waaaaay too optimistic about this, and honestly given how this is ideologically driven as a knee jerk reaction I have my doubts that the teachers and school administrators will try their best to help these children.
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You make it sound like they will learn Estonian over night with no issues at all. And the DW video is not so clear if they even get special language classes for it.
The alternative is dual language schools that offer special support to children that do not speak the majority language. This is very common in many parts of the world.
Kids, when thrown into a new language environment, will learn it reasonably well in short order and can become perfectly fluent in a year, give or take. It really isn't such a big deal. Mind you, these aren't kids from halfway across the continent, they are kids born and raised in Estonia so it's not like they're starting from scratch.
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And? How is that the fault of the children going to school today?
It's not. It's the fault of their parents who have chosen to not integrate into society and create self-imposed ghettos. There's no segregation, they could've put their children into Estonian kindergarten or school. And most of the Russians actually do put their children into Estonian kindergartens or schools, because they want their children to learn Estonian because they get better education and better career options. There's a minority of a minority who refuses to integrate and their children are now the victims of something they could easily prevented if they just bothered to do it.
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This is not about having Estonian language classes for them, it is about putting them in classrooms for all subjects in a language they don't speak.
Their families have had eighty fucking years to learn Estonian. What makes you think that "further accomodation" in Russian will give them any desire or impetus to learn the language?
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Their families have had eighty fucking years to learn Estonian. What makes you think that "further accomodation" in Russian will give them any desire or impetus to learn the language?
Why punish children for things their parents and grandparents did?
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Estonia's large Russian-speaking minority used to be taught in Russian. The government has responded to Russia's invasion with a reform to end this. Now, lessons will only be taught in Estonian.
fuck yes, finally!
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You make it sound like they will learn Estonian over night with no issues at all. And the DW video is not so clear if they even get special language classes for it.
The alternative is dual language schools that offer special support to children that do not speak the majority language. This is very common in many parts of the world.
I'm starting to think that you are Russian.
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Why punish children for things their parents and grandparents did?
Why punish the rest of Estonian society? Why continue to isolate children who can’t speak the local language?
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Why punish the rest of Estonian society? Why continue to isolate children who can’t speak the local language?
How is the rest of Estonian society punished if children are not forced into classes taught in a language they don't speak? And sure the previous isolation was also bad, but at least they were able to learn something.
Honestly... the amount of people here arguing like the children deserve any of this is very sad. Reminds me of Israelis arguing the Palestinian children deserve what is happening in Gaza. Are you even listening to yourself?
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How is the rest of Estonian society punished if children are not forced into classes taught in a language they don't speak? And sure the previous isolation was also bad, but at least they were able to learn something.
Honestly... the amount of people here arguing like the children deserve any of this is very sad. Reminds me of Israelis arguing the Palestinian children deserve what is happening in Gaza. Are you even listening to yourself?
Society is punished by remaining divided.
I understand your frustration. I don’t think anyone believes that the children deserve this; only that it’s the least harmful way to solve a problem that the Russians created. There’s a big difference between the two.
If there were a better, faster, less disruptive option, we would be in favor of that.
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We should add that it wasn't just ethnic Russians that were moved in. The Soviets would move undesrables, dissidents and poor people from one satellite to another, leaving them cturally isolated with no option but to switch to Russian.
Resentment was fostered via tools such as transfer of property, and schooling, such that the native population and the immigrants always had conflict, and the Russian soviets could resolve conflicts and civilize the total population.
Russian ethnics outnumber native ethnics in many Russian regions that did not leave the union. -
Estonia's large Russian-speaking minority used to be taught in Russian. The government has responded to Russia's invasion with a reform to end this. Now, lessons will only be taught in Estonian.
I believe that Latvia did this a year ago; not sure about Lithuania.
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Estonia's large Russian-speaking minority used to be taught in Russian. The government has responded to Russia's invasion with a reform to end this. Now, lessons will only be taught in Estonian.
In my crystal ball... I see... Orthodox Christian Schools popping up everywhere.
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Society is punished by remaining divided.
I understand your frustration. I don’t think anyone believes that the children deserve this; only that it’s the least harmful way to solve a problem that the Russians created. There’s a big difference between the two.
If there were a better, faster, less disruptive option, we would be in favor of that.
There are better, slower ways.
Introducing this gradually (i.e. all children since a certain birth year), having extra language classes for the older children that need it. It's not a uniquely Estonian problem, all places with migrants deal with children of linguistic minorities.They're children, the ones under 6 will adapt to a different language quite quickly and at 18 there were already no Russian language colleges, so even at its slowest it would only take 12 years.
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With a substantial native Russian speaking minority in Estonia and other baltic countries this is IMHO a very bad idea and will only result in resentment and kids struggling in school due to language issues.
Latvia did it a year ago, and the blowback has been less than expected.
I saw a Documentary on it that interviewed Russian ethnic Latvians, and they seemed to accept it, as long as there were no social restrictions. There were of course Russian nationalists who objected, mainly the older generation. -
Great idea. Surely punishing your country's children for the decisions of a foreign government will end the war.
Estonian is hard, but it is rude to call it a punishment to learn.
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Estonia's large Russian-speaking minority used to be taught in Russian. The government has responded to Russia's invasion with a reform to end this. Now, lessons will only be taught in Estonian.
As a person who started to learn Russian few years ago, it's sad to see, but ultimately it's a good choice for Estonian people or any other nation which is at risk of Russian expansionism .
Vladimir Putin is the worst thing that happened to Russia, Russian culture and Russian language.
