From: 2020211@SAPHIR.ULAVAL.CA (Sylvain Chamberland)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet,soc.culture.europe,talk.politics.soviet
Subject: Re: Bilingualism - a good cause!
Date: 3 Jan 93 02:43:41 GMT
Reply-To: 2020211@SAPHIR.ULAVAL.CA
Organization: CTI, Universite Laval

In article <1993Jan2.130625.1@cc.helsinki.fi>, thietaniemi@cc.helsinki.fi writes:
>In article <1992Dec31.161143.11815@cs.chalmers.se>, tammet@cs.chalmers.se 
>(Tanel Tammet) writes:
>
><much has been deleted>
>
>
>> The other problem you have to consider is that it is necessary to
>> gradually integrate the Russian-speaking population in
>> Estonian state and politics without creating political time
>> bombs. Now I claim that total bilingualism (official) would
>> mean that Russian-speaking population will NEVER learn
>> Estonian and will stick together as one Russian block. 
>> The existing separation of Estonian and Russian communities
>> and politics will gain momentum, in contrast to our
>> will to integrate these communities.
>
>
>This is something I do not totally understand. A bilingualism in Helsinki
>means that you teach yourself hundreds of Swedish/Finnish words when
>you are just strolling through the town. Every child in Helsinki that
>can read does know that Helsinki has two names: Helsinki/Helsingfors.
>Filling forms that are printed in two languages in educating. Ask
>any resident of any bilingual country.

But Estonia is not Finland. "Ask any resident of any bilingual country"...

Well I am from Canada, from the French-speaking minority. I just got back from
Ontario, an English-speaking province (the most populated and richest), and was
dismayed to discover that only one person in my department (of biology) could
speak French, and even so, only a couple of expressions. The only non-French
Canadian person in the department I could speak French with was European
(a Spanish researcher speaking Spanish, French, English, German and Italian).
(There were 3 other persons from my province of origin in a department of
around 100 graduate students)
And this IS a bilingual country...

My own province, Quebec, has about 6.5 million inhabitants, of which 80% are
French speaking - very few speak English although the education system was
changed in the '60s so that we start learning English at 8 years-old, and
English starts to have the same weight on the curriculum as French at grade 7
(when we are 12 years-old) - and 20% are non-French speaking: the
English-speaking of old British stock, and non-French-speaking immigrants. Most
of them live in Montreal (the second biggest city in the country, not far
behind Toronto, at 3 million people). Most of them don't speak a single word of
French...

I don't know much about Estonia, but if most Estonian speak Russians, you can
bet Russian-Estonians won't learn Estonian. Russians in Uzbekistan (sp.?),
although they form the minority (30-40%?), don't speak Uzbekh (a form of arab;
I had a Russian-Uzbekh French who emigrated to Canada).

But of course, we cannot really compare the ethnic equation in Estonia with
Canada or Uzbekistan. Every problem is unique and people too easily forget
that.

I did not quote the rest of the message - which was rather long - but  will add
a little comment.

Although I don't know much about the situation in Estonia, I rather tend to
think like Tanel. I don't think Russians will lose completely their ideas of
conquest - I don't quite trust Boris Yeltsin - at least, in the long run (I'm
quite concerned of the possibility that the communists return in power). For
Estonia to be bilingual would indeed, in my humble opinion, be like "a foot in
the door" for the Russians, to summarize very briefly Tanel's point of view.
But indeed, they cannot overlook the articles of the law Tapani quoted about
language.

What I'm sure of is, there WILL be problems, whatever the way things will go.
It's the sad legacy of the former Soviet empire. I'm sure there are some 
tensions in the relations between the two main ethnic groups in Estonia
inherited from its sad past of buffer-state, and I don't think they will go
away tomorrow morning, as we say in my province.

We, in Canada, are still dealing with the legacy of the British conquest.
And my people's situation since the beginning of the century was in no way 
similar to the Estonians'...

All I can say to them is "zhelayu udatchi" or something like that...
(Sorry, I don't know Estonian...   :(   )
 
>Tapani Hietaniemi, Universitas Helsingiensis
>                   urbs fennorum

Sylvain Chamberland
2020211@saphir.ulaval.ca