KZBlog

I do agree with that journalists that in schools Kazakh teachers only would like to bring attention to the grammar and not language itself. Especially in Russian schools (where I studied) Kazakh teachers were very strict about grammar mistakes and did not care whether you have a wide or narrow vocabulary. It was a big problem for me when it was a time to write an essay, though I am Kazakh but I can not speak fluently, only conversational, due to some factors. Those factors are first of all my birthplace, I was born in a town very close to Russia, where a lot of Russians live and you can feel a strong Russian influence. I was born at the end of 80’s and when I went to school in the mid of 90’s if you wanted to have a best education there was one option – go to the Russian school. It was a huge problem for Kazakh schools that were just established and for children who attended them because there were no books in Kazakh at that time. And those pupils were obliged to study Russian books but present the material on Kazakh (actually it is still the same, even in the universities kazakh groups who study only in kazakh have all the material in Russian and waste part of their ttime to translate it into Kazakh and then learn from it).
Another factor all my family member speak Russian even though some know Kazakh (still it is not a high level). Why do they speak Russian even though we are Kazakh family? Simple, they were bron in USSR where all Kazakh people were obliged to know Russian, it had a status of a mother tongue. Even if you wanted to know Kazakh, you had to live somehwere out of a city, in a small village where they speak only kazakh. It took about 5 years for my parents to remember Kazakh again when we got independence in 1991.
The other thing is that it is true everywhere and everyone speaks Russian in KAzakhstan. And if you want to earn more than average you better know Russian and English but no Kazakh really required. Only if it is work at the government institute. However, there are some parts in Kazakhstan where people kept Kazakh language in their minds, most of such places are in the South like Shymkent and Kyzylorda. There everyone speaks Kazakh even Russians. My friend works in PwC Audit and she deals with a lot of Kazakhstan companies. Sometimes she faces people who speak only Kazakh and because she is Kazakh they would like to do business in Kazakh. So right now it is a problem for Kazakh not to know your language as it will be a shame if during the business you would not be able to make yourself clear in Kazakh.
There is a big pressure on people like me, young Kazakhs who can not speak Kazakh fluently. But partly it is not our fault. I do not blame myself or my family cause I understand under what circumstances I was growing and I was forced to learn and accept Russian as my mother tongue as it will open more doors to me in the future than my real native language.
And going back to schools. I do not agree that the class should be split in the groups of non-Kazakh and Kazakh pupils. The reason why they do so in Russian schools because they think tha Kazakh children already know the basics and can write and speak Kazakh. Well, from my experience I’d better stay in non-Kazakh group and start with the basics than learn my native language with a teacher that says I already have it in me and just need to release it.
Totally disagree with the government that forces us to learn Kazakh but does not support it in the business and does not provide any educational support in learning the language.