Russians' English

From the Moscow Times:

"English Improving but Teachers Scarce"

Visitors will still need to pack their phrasebooks for some time to come as Russia ranked last among European countries in terms of English-language skills, according to the English Proficiency Index that EF Education First released Thursday.  Globally, Russia placed 29th out of 54 countries where inhabitants were tested on their ability to read and write in English and understand spoken text. "The older generations that didn't have the same opportunities to learn English are determined not to repeat those mistakes by investing a substantial part of their household budget into their child's English education," Shearer said.  The second edition of the English Proficiency Index, which was created in 2011, was compiled by testing 1.7 million adults in 54 countries for their knowledge of English. Respondents answered free online tests that measured their proficiency and this data was used to compile the index.  Scandinavian countries dominate the top spots in the ranking while the worst results are seen in Central and South America. Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk showed the best index scores among Russian cities with Muscovite participants exceeding Hungarians and Germans in English proficiency.  Experts are optimistic that Russia will continue to rise in the ranking because younger generations are more determined to study languages. Young Russians, ages 18 to 22, are the most proficient group, whereas in other European countries this title goes to professionals who are 30 to 40 years old.  Russian Railways launched the initiative to train over 1,000 employees, including managers and Sapsan train conductors, two years ago. This initiative aligns with the company's rules that none of its managers can be promoted without knowing the language, said Eduard Baldakov, English First's corporate training manager for Russia and CIS.  Russia needs to improve the language education offered in public schools in order to improve its ranking, experts said. The Education Ministry is considering making foreign language study a mandatory part of the school program and requiring students to take a national exam. Private companies are happy to fill the void where the public sector falters, but recruiting good teachers can be tricky. The lineup of international sporting events here is expected to help raise English proficiency in the country. There is a language training project underway in Sochi that aims to give volunteers minimal English skills and medium-level proficiency for people in more responsible roles. The Education Ministry of Tatarstan has also commissioned EF English First to improve the quality of the republic's English teachers. This is part of the broader efforts to make Tatarstan more attractive internationally ahead of the 2013 Universiade students sporting competition.

^ This study doesn't surprise me at all. I met many Russians (from kids to the elderly) in both the US and in Russia and most didn't speak English. The main exception was at the overnight summer camp for the mentally and physically disabled that I worked at for 4 summers in New York. Every summer they hired lots of counselors from Russia (along with Belarus and Kazakhstan) and they all spoke English well - mostly because they had to in order to get a visa for the program. I remember when I lived in Yaroslavl and one of my Russian teachers took me to the public elementary school she also worked at to speak with the students. They were young (around 10 years old) so you wouldn't expect them to know much English, but I was introduced to an old woman who was the English teacher at the school and she had the worst accent (not British and not American) and her grammar was very bad. I had to ask my Russian teacher to translate what the woman said from English to Russian so I could understand it. It's clear that having a teacher like this - who barely spoke English - teaching the language to others only hurts the students. I also went to Moscow numerous times and thought that being the capital I would find lots of people who spoke English - especially in places like the airport, train station, restaurants, museums, etc, but the majority did not. I wouldn't have minded if they tried to speak English and just weren't that fluent in it, but the ones I dealt with couldn't speak it. I had the same problem in Kiev (I know that's the Ukraine and not Russia) where no one -  not even the English-speaking driver I requested - spoke English. Unlike Russia, Kiev had English menus, but no one who could understand your order so I had to use Russian there. Georgia started a program to get a native English speaker at every public school in the country. Countries around the world -  including Russia - should follow Georgia's example. English has been the main international language for over 60 years. It is the language that brings all the different cultures and countries together so businessmen, pilots, government officials and tourists can travel the world and speak to other people in a common language English. The only way that will continue to make the world smaller is to have good English teachers teaching English to everyone. ^

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/english-improving-but-teachers-scarce/470886.html