English, everyone must learn
Olympics 2014, Sochi News March 4th, 2010
I’m sorry, this picture is probably a little aggressive. But that’s what jumped into my head when I read new Sochi mayor’s initiative: all waiters and cab drivers will have to learn English or loose their jobs.
I recognize that it’s extremely important for services to be available in English by the time Olympics hits the city. And it’s really great that there will be free opportunities for everyone to learn it. But the ultimative tone of the mayor with which it was announced during his press conference irritates me a great deal. Let’s look at this straight – it’s really hard to learn a foreign language, and it’s harder yet to keep what you’ve learned if you don’t use it. Along the fine improvements promised, which should improve live in the city, come real problems to many when their lives come across anything related to the Olympics – people loose great living locations, property, businesses, or will be relocated quite far from where they lived all their lives. And now you intimidate them with possibility to loose their jobs? That’s just not right.
Well, this is the the twist in the news of the day, which is apparently, soon, English language courses will be available to all Sochi residents – free. No dates have been mentioned, it just been revealed that the money for this are allocated for in the target-program «Sochi — hospitable city».
And this is the good news!
Because stuff like this is embarrassing:
Menu in one of Sochi cafe’s (and this is just one example)
3. Sandwich with sausage; 5. Sandwich with salmon; 6. beef jerky; 7. smoked meat, smoked sausage
20. Mineral water «Aqua», assorted; 22. Ice tea «Lipton»; 23. «Rafaello» candies
34-35. Gin; 37. French vines, assorted; 38. Gin-tonic
35. Dried calamari; 47. Assorted ice-cream.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:03
Wow. I’ve seen some mutilations of English before, but …wow. I think it’s a good idea to offer English for free to anyone who wants it (knowing that if they don’t learn, they will earn less during the Olympics in Sochi). To force them to do it though, is very Soviet of them.
January 20th, 2011 at 8:24
Wow, thats brutal. Learn English or loose your jobs? Like Wendy said, that’s very Soviet of them. I do think it is fantastic though that the Olympics are coming to Russia. good for them. Looking forward to an awesome Olympics.
June 30th, 2011 at 9:11
I can rescue the cab drivers and waiting staff if Mayor of Sochi assigns us the role to teach English in Sochi. I would recommend the mayor to visit http://www.childrenseducationassociation.com to get a glympse of how its taught and how easily Sochi residents could learn English.
June 30th, 2011 at 9:14
I can rescue the cab drivers and waiting staff if the Mayor of Sochi assigns us the role to teach English in Sochi. I would recommend the mayor to visit http://www.childrenseducationassociation.com to get a glympse of how its taught and how easily Sochi residents could learn English.
January 11th, 2012 at 18:51
Or maybe the people who enter a foreign country should learn the language in the first place… Foreigners complain about English-speaking people ranting about how everybody should know English, when in reality they’re the ones who set foot on foreign soil knowing the language is different from their own.
Even just learning how to read Cyrillic (which isn’t too hard) and memorizing phrases is helpful. I hope those people don’t lose their jobs… I understand that Sochi is trying to become more international, and a huge vacation/resort location, but that’s kind of harsh…
February 12th, 2014 at 20:30
If I were traveling to Sochi for the Olympics, I would prepare by learning some basic Russian (and its alphabet) and then eagerly await one of my favorite foreign travel passtimes, Trying to Communicate With the Locals. Seriously, it is more fun if they don’t speak English!