TALLINN - Statistics currently indicate that only 19% of non-Estonians declare their mother tongue to be Russian. Recent ”Eurobarometer” surveys show that the number of residents of Estonia who state Russian to be their mother tongue has decreased by 14%.
Canada has pro-actively supported the training of primary and secondary school teachers (many of whom are ethnically Russian) to teach Estonian to non-Estonian children using language immersion programs. Language immersion techniques and skills have a long and successful history in Canada.
Although it would be unsubstantiated speculation that this trend in the increasing use of Estonian as the mother tongue is directly and primarily related to Canada’s foreign aid program, the Canadian International Development Agency’s targeted efforts in this area have undoubtedly complemented and and bolstered existing trends. The program has definitely improved the self confidence of teachers in their expertise.
As a comparison, in Latvia 29% of the residents declare their mother tongue to be Russian. This is a decrease of 9%.
The “Eurobarometer” study showed that Estonia and Latvia have the highest percentage of residents whose mother tongue is something else than the state language; that is 19% and 29% respectively – a situation that has spurred controversy in the past. The trends towards a wider use of the language of the indigenous population would maybe be related to the prevailing pro Estonian and pro-Latvian language laws. But in view of the constant accusations from Moscow, observers state that Québec language laws are more stringent.
Fully 87% of the Estonian population can speak more than one language. In comparison only 50% of the population of the European Union are conversant in a language other than their mother tongue.
In the European Union the most used language is English which only 13% of the EU consider as their mother tongue. Fully 34% of the people of the EU can speak English, 30% German, 23% French and 15% Italian.
The Estonian Central Council in Canada sees as one of the crucial essentials for Estonia`s cultural survival to be the vitality of its language of heritage. The present trend indicated by the “Eurobarometer” study is certainly an encouraging indicator of future possibilities.
Has Canada’s language immersion assistance finally produced concrete results in Estonia? (8)
Archived Articles | 30 Sep 2005 | Estonian Central Council in CanadaEWR
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Sounds like the Canadian immersion program is beginning to take effect. Perhaps you should ask yourselves this question; if it works in Estonia, why on earth has multiculturalism in Canada been the subject of such widespread social problems?
All that EKN has to do is research the "Eurobarometer" opinion surveys on the internet. They would find the following on the official web site for the language survey performed this summer. I quote, " The results of this survey are compared with a number of previous Eurobarometer reports. It should be noted here, that questions have been modified and the total population varies between the studies. Thus, the trends should be interpreted with care." By the way, there were 1001 respondants to the survey. All but 2 were Estonian citizens. With another words no "halli passi" respondants. How can this reflect the true conditions under which Estonians are currently living. All the questions asked in the Eurobarometer survey(s) are available for viewing on the net . I would love to hear what the EKN has to say.
There is obviously a mistake here and its arrogant of the EKN to ignore it.
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