A Web site sponsored by a foundation that promotes the Kazakh culture and language is helping both locals and foreigners become more adept at speaking, reading and writing Kazakh.
The site, www.abyroi.kz, is an initiative of the Abyroi Foundation for the Development of the Kazakh Culture and Language.
Foundation Director Bibigul Zheksenbai said the site is for “Kazakh language and Kazakh culture enthusiasts and guardians.” A
“The Web site is especially useful for foreigners coming to Kazakhstan,” she said in an interview with the Astana Times. “It operates in three languages — Kazakh, Russian and English.”
Kazakh culture and language experts’ participation in the site have added “to the high prestige of abyroi.kz,” she said.
The site offers a range of materials to help those wanting to learn Kazakh.
It also features news about Kazakhstan, plus articles on its history and culture. And it introduces readers to some of the most important figures from the country’s past.
A unique interactive service is a portal that allows site visitors to ask questions about the Kazakh language – and get answers from experts.
The number of international visitors to www.abyroi.kz is “increasing every day,” Zheksenbai said.
The Abyroi Foundation – which in English means Honours Foundation – also has developed five Kazakh-language textbooks.
The approach the textbooks use will be familiar to many Westerners because it is used in much of Europe.
The author of the books is a prominent educator, Iraida Kubayeva, who contends that if a student is diligent, he can obtain a good grasp of Kazakh in 102 hours.
“The project’s main objectives are to teach the Kazakh language to the Kazakhstan public” and to spark an interest in the language among non-Kazakhs, Zheksenbai said.
Kazakhstan’s post-independence quest to revive its language is a reversal of a century-long trend toward many Kazakhs embracing Russian.
The trend began in the late 1800s when Russia established control over much of Central Asia, and it continued under the Soviets.
One of Kazakhstan’s top intellectuals, the 19th Century poet, composer and philosopher Abai Qunanbayuly, was one of those who asked Kazakhs to also learn Russian.
He did so because, at the time, Russia was a global power that was interacting routinely with the world’s other dominant countries.
Abai understood that if Kazakhs learned Russian, they “would obtain an opportunity to study world cultures,” Zheksenbai said.
It’s a different world today, she noted.
Countries these days are making efforts to preserve their language as a way of maintaining their cultural identity.
They’re also learning English because it’s become a global language, particularly in the cultural and technology arenas.
The dominance of the English language means that it makes sense “to promote Kazakh history, culture and language with the help of the English language,” Zheksenbai said.
It’s also important to use Kazakh as a means of teaching English, she said.
For decades, teachers in Kazakhstan used Russian as the language of instruction for teaching English.
Even in schools where Kazakh was the main medium of instruction in almost all of the children’s courses, Russian was the language of instruction for English. This applied both to city and rural Kazakh-language-based schools.
An overarching goal of the Abyroi Foundation is “to increase the competitiveness of our language and culture” because only languages that are in demand can remain important, Zheksenbai said.
That doesn’t mean Kazakhstan is turning its back on other languages. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has said he wants Kazakhs to become trilingual, speaking Kazakh, Russian and English.
“We want the Kazakh language as the state language, Russian as the inter-ethnic-communication language, and English as the facilitator of global economic integration,” Zheksenbai said.
William Fierman, director of Seattle University’s Research Centre on Central Asia and Kazakhstan, said the Abyroi Foundation’s texts are a great learning tool for Kazakhs and foreigners.
“Although Kazakhstan’s Constitution stipulates that the Kazakh language is the official state language, nowadays the Russian language is the predominant one,” he noted.
Kazakh has always dominated in rural areas, but not in cities, he said. And there has long been a regional split, with Kazakh used more often in the south than in the north and east.
Kazakh needs to become important not just in pockets but nationwide, he contended.
Zhensenbai said Kazakhstan’s rising importance in the world gives it an important reason to continue reviving its language.
“Kazakhstan has joined the ranks of respected world nations and interest in our country is growing,” she said. “This means that interest in our language, culture and history will grow, too.”
With Kazakhstan’s increasing global stature, it’s a good time to devote additional resources to promoting the country’s language and culture overseas, she said. “Our history is rich and the language is not difficult to learn,” she said.

By Leila Yedilkyzy, ASTANA

The  Astana Times

Saturday, 2 April 2011