Going Chop Chop with the Natives

No trip to Kazakhstan would be complete without talking about the language, which in this case must be plural because they speak both Russian and Kazakh. I was drawn to this position for many reasons, but among them was the fact that I know Russian. Or so I thought. It’s an ideal language-learning situation because most people here don’t know any English, so if you want to buy, say, a watermelon as I did today (for only $1.50!), you’d better figure out some speech to do it with. That’s why living abroad is so good – it expedites learning by a factor of 10 or more. I’ve had to watch the Olympics with Russian-speaking commentators. So, I picked up a few words without trying very hard. I do put effort into trying to read and understand signs and messages. Someone told me last night that he thought I spoke Russian very well. Of course I blushed at such a preposterous comment – I think he was astounded that a westerner could say anything in Russian. Everyone asks me where I’m from and what I’m doing here. They are pleased I am a professor, and I am accorded a lot of respect. We’ll see how that holds with my students when I start teaching next week.

The other language spoken here is Kazakh. It’s based on Turkish and uses the Cyrillic alphabet. It used to have its own script, but was then transliterated into our Latin alphabet then again into Cyrillic when the Rooskies barged in in 1917. It is a language that is not spoken natively even by many Kazakhs. The Soviets routed out a lot of the indigenous languages (e.g., Kyrghiz, Turkemni, Uighur, etc.) and replaced them with Russian, so many generations have grown up with Russian being the main language, or in most cases the only one. It has made it hard for people to remain literate since many did not have access to additional education that would help them learn the new alphabet. Limiting access to their written word is a classic, time-honored way that governments have controlled the masses. That said, Kazakh is the only language spoken by those in the very small towns. So I guess I’d learn how to say ‘yurt’ in Kazakh if I venture out into the boonies. I'm I'm lucky, it's a Kazakh word and I just have say it with a Russian accent.

I’m told that Kazakh has nine additional letters that represent sounds that do not exist in Russian. But when Kazakh names are transliterated into English, they look very strange indeed, almost as if they’ve taken all the leftover letters from a Scrabble game and dumped them all on the table to make words such as the town Kyzylorda and street names like Qonaev and Rozybakiev. Put one of them babies on a triple score square and you’ve won handily.

The country is trying to go back to using its language. President Nazerbaev, himself a Kazakh, is promoting bilingualism with bilingual signs and Kazakh courses in schools, with the eventual goal of phasing out Russian. We teach Kazakh in our Language Center and I can take courses in it for free, but I feel that my brain is already red and swollen with attempts at reviving my college Russian. I have placed into the intermediate level (they set the bar low here) and will start classes next month. Russian will get me a lot farther in both Kazakhstan and Russia, which I plan to visit soon despite the outrageous prices and uproar over Georgia.

Na zdarovia! (To your health)
Nancy