Russian language classes popular in Poland!

Poles want to learn Russian freely now and both universities and language schools as well as private tutors are flooded with students greedy for knowledge. Where does this fad come from?

There were times when Poles eagerly spoke French, as the rest of Europe did. There were times in history when they were compelled to speak German or Russian, too. So, when the communist era finished in 1989, most students passionately gave up Russian until…now.

A decade and a half later it’s not a big thing to speak English or German in Poland, therefore, to be competitive on the labour market, Poles of different ages take extra courses in Russian. The demand is really growing, explains Agnieszka Ślązak of a Centre for Eastern Europe and Central Asian Languages:

We have a lot of students and business clients as we organize not only standard stationary courses but also business courses in Russian for journalists, business people, lawyers, etc. First of all our students want to learn Russian as they had these lessons in e.g. secondary school followed by a long break – sometimes 10-12 years, and now they need the language again for the job.

Universities across Poland open Russian courses where students of different profiles acquire the skills of writing job applications and having a job interview in the language, since its popularity is increased mainly by businesses. Polish companies have mushroomed on the Russian market and now they seek workers fluent in the so far unfriendly language, confirms Przemyslaw Gacek of Pracuj.pl, an on-line job agency:

There are people who find Russian as an additional important language, because now in Poland English is a standard, German is also quite popular, so if you want to show something different on the market and be more unique, then Russian is just an option. Keeping in mind how fast Russia[‘s business] is growing on one hand, and on the other hand so many Polish companies are investing in e.g. Ukraine, my guess is that the importance of Russian will be growing from year to year. At this moment we have about a hundred offers addressed just to those who speak Russian language.

Russian seems easy to most Polish people, the languages sound very similar. Several years ago every Pole would admit they had a working knowledge of the language, at least that’s what they thought… Now the developing business between Poland and its eastern neighbors encourages everybody to start their tuition all anew right from the Cyrillic alphabet.
Source:By Eliza Mickiewicz, polskieradio.pl