Why Estonia's schools are abandoning teaching in Russian | Focus on Europe
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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.
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Estonian is hard, but it is rude to call it a punishment to learn.
I am not an expert, but while I think Baltic languages are largely incomprehensible to Slavic speakers (I am Polish), a grammar wouldn't be that hard to learn, because both Baltic and Slavic languages developed from single Proto-Balto-Slavic language, and they still have some things in common. I wouldn't be surprised if Estonian was technically easier to learn for a Russian person than English, if you started from scratch.
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Estonian is hard, but it is rude to call it a punishment to learn.
In case you for some reason see my previous comment. Ignore it, Estonian is not a Baltic language, lol. I fucked up.
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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.
Because fuck Russia.
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In case you for some reason see my previous comment. Ignore it, Estonian is not a Baltic language, lol. I fucked up.
Estonian is 100% a baltic language, but not a Slavic language.
Latvian and Lithuanian are also not Slavic. -
Estonian is 100% a baltic language, but not a Slavic language.
Latvian and Lithuanian are also not Slavic.Estonian is actually a Finno-Ugric language. That's why I removed my comment.
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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.So they accepted it except for the ones that didn't?
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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.
Undoubtedly Putin is an evil, horrible dictator. But the worst? I'm not so sure about that. They had Stalin, that's at least a close contender.
