Multilinguism becoming a norm in private and business circles in Russia
As globalization deepens its roots further in national and world affairs and the interconnections between countries of different cultures and languages becoming stronger than ever, more and more people are feeling the increasingly negative impacts of the inadequacy of one language as monolinguism gradually, but steadily gives way to bi- and multilinguism in daily life activities.
This trend is particularly evident in nations, which are historically more or less ethnically homogenous in their demographical structures. Russia falls unequivocally into this category, despite the fact that it boasts over 100 ethnicities and nationalities, commonly collectively known as “Rossiyane,” as the overwhelming majority — or to be more precise, over 80% — of its local population are ethnically Russians, thus making Russian the default official ‘lingua franca’ in the country.
While multilinguism might be a norm in countries like Switzerland, thanks to a special state policy designed to secure appropriate representation of the Alpine nation’s four linguistic communities — German, French, Italian and Romansh — at all levels of society life, the same cannot be said of most other nations, where major global foreign languages, notably English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Chinese, etc., are offered on a ‘facultative basis’ in primary and secondary school curriculums.
It, therefore, goes, without saying, that the quality of such education, in terms of proficiency in both oral and written usage, leaves much to be desired for. Consequently, in most cases, it is totally inadequate, even for causal interactions with native speakers, and completely useless for professional usage in an office or other more formal business environments.
Today’s state of the Russian language services market
The problem of the inability of language schools to produce proficient foreign language speakers in particular, and the current state of the Russian language services industry in general, were aptly illustrated by Viktor Votinov, the CEO of Sliding, a language center offering a unique language curriculum, when he noted the increasingly significant role of foreign languages in modern business world, and the complete failure of the system to produce professional language experts.
"The inability of secondary school and university curriculums to give a quality level of basic knowledge of major foreign languages in Russia is fueling the soaring demand for external sources of learning foreign languages, either from ‘scratch’ or to improve one’s current level.”
“But lots of people are suffering from the fact that 10 years of studying foreign languages in high schools and 2-3 more years in the universities had practically yielded ‘zero’ results for them,” the academician, who has authored several unique teaching language techniques, said. “And, judging from this point of view, one can unambiguously say that the Russian language courses industry does not currently meet people’s linguistic needs today,” he added. “This is why it is irrelevant to debate which language schools in Russia are better or worse, because there are no principal differences between them, as they are all incapable of turning students into fluent professional speakers in their foreign languages of choice, even after 10-12 years of tutorials.”
The same view is shared by Tamara Reshetnikova, the CEO of Tehnologii Rosta, a leading Russian company that specializes, amongst others, in market researches. “Unfortunately, it is not only our high schools’ foreign language curriculums, but also university programs offering specialization courses in foreign languages that are totally incapable of producing graduates proficient in foreign languages,” she added. “This is because Russia’s current system of foreign language training courses does not measure up to the international standards. For instance, according to the European standards, about 240-300 academic hours of tutorials are enough for students to attain the required ‘linguistic threshold’ that will be sufficient for practical use in all life conditions, both professional and private,” she noted. In our schools, 300-500 hours are set aside in school curriculum for studying English and German, and additional 300 hours in non-language higher institutions. Theoretically, graduates of Russian higher institutions are supposed to be proficient in foreign languages, but in practice, the opposite is the case, as an overwhelming majority cannot even interact, ask elementary questions or receive information via oral or written speech.”
This inability of the primary and secondary school curriculums and even university language programs to give a quality level of basic knowledge of major foreign languages in Russia — and, indeed, in most other nations, where local languages are nowadays not enough to fully meet today’s linguistic needs in contemporary international politics, economy, business and social issues — has fueled the soaring demand for external sources of learning foreign languages, either from ‘scratch’ or to improve one’s current level, linguistics experts said. Leading the curriculum of foreign language courses, for obvious reasons, is English, often seen as the default ‘global lingua franca’ for international businesses, global politics and cross-border interactions among nations. According to various data, English is used to satisfy up to 70-80% of all communication needs on the international arena.
Usually, the cost of language training depends, amongst others, on the type of language chosen by clients, the length of training, intensity and frequency of lessons, specificity or uniqueness of programs, the language schools offering the programs and their locations, as well as the clients’ ages and educational profiles. For instance, the cost of teaching high-school students, for obvious reasons, are on average cheaper by 10-20%, while pre-school kids attract fees that are about 20-30% higher than the average rates for standard courses. In the same vein, the tuition cost for the so-called ‘corporate clients’ also differ from the average market by a wide range of percentage points, depending on the companies, their market positions and the specialties of the employees undergoing language courses, and finally on the schools offering the training.
Key growth factors in the industry
Trying to maximally capitalize on this rising demand for foreign languages, language schools are offering highly diversified and comprehensive language training courses and programs for all purposes, budgets and ages by boosting their standard educational curriculums with special training/teaching programs aimed at meeting specific demands of concrete clients. Thus, some ‘express courses’ such as the so-called ‘Business English’ are often specially introduced for corporate clients preparing for special business degrees such as the MBAs in foreign universities or other ‘crash programs’ for specific goals, such as tourists going to exotic countries. Other objectives include the need to be able to personally conduct negotiations with foreign business partners abroad, etc.
Depending on the goals set by clients, language schools can offer a tailored, individual format (so-called ‘tete-a-tete’ approach, often used by corporate clients, or the group format, which ranges from a mini-group that usually comprises 2-5 students to a large group, where up to 10 and even more people are taught simultaneously. Expectedly, language companies are also doing everything to broaden their client bases by offering special programs, developing unique projects and/or extending their existing product lines, such as special children’s programs or so-called corporate clients’ curriculums. Indeed, the corporate clients segment is seen by most linguistic services providers as one of the most prospective directions of their operations, given that most companies are ready to continue to finance such projects, despite the crunching effects of the current crisis.
Commenting on these trends, Anna Osina, the director for corporate clients at ÂÊÑ-International House, said this diversity of linguistic services in Russia means that everyone, beginning from kids, their parents and, even specialists in certain fields, such as law and finances, can get the courses that exactly suits his/her objective. “Besides, language schools also offer different varieties of lessons according to days and times, and also according to teaching methodologies. So, the range of choices for clients is really very broad,” she added, noting that clients are becoming more demanding in their requirements and have become more professional in issues relating to language training, which underscores the maturity of the Russian linguistic services market.”
Besides, this demand is also being fueled by the increasing globalization trends in the business sector, as more and more companies are moving their operations and services abroad, closer to cheaper sources of labor forces, raw materials, more developed markets, where potential consumers have higher purchasing capabilities, highly technologically advanced countries and/or where a mix of these factors exists. Usually, this trend necessitates the local residents seeking employments in such companies to learn the official languages used in the multinationals, while the expatriate staffs are also similarly forced by their new job environments to learn the local ‘lingua francas’ to facilitate communications with the local staffs and the official local regulators of the industries, where they operate.
This trend is reflected by results of different several researches that have shown that the escalating demand for studying foreign languages is being increasingly motivated, first and foremost, by professional necessities, especially among companies’ employees. Thus, according to the results of a nationwide survey conducted by SuperJob.ru on March 31, 2009, almost 46% of the 500 companies polled on the subject of foreign language requirements in their employment policies, said they need potential employees with professional knowledge of one foreign language on their resumes, while 2% of the respondents even went further in their job conditions, saying such jobseekers should know, at least, two major foreign languages at a very high proficiency level, both in oral and written form.
Summed up, this means that almost 50% of potential employers are seeking job applicants with excellent bi- and/or multilingual capabilities. For a country like Russia, while proficient foreign languages speakers are a negligible minority, this means that the few that have the required level of knowledge of foreign languages are enjoying a high demand on the local employment market. In practical terms, this, according to SuperJob.ru, often translates into about a 20-30% increase in the salary levels for bi- and multi-lingual secretaries, lawyers, accountants, engineers and other technical staffs, etc., compared to their monolingual colleagues in the same company and/or across the industry.
On the other hand, apart from professional necessities, students and other categories of ‘foreign languages enthusiasts’ are usually enticed by the benefits that come from knowing foreign ‘tongues.’ These usually include the ability to watch movies, read literature or other print materials in their original languages, interact with native speakers and other foreigners while in foreign countries as well as other numerous advantages that traditionally derive from bi- and/or multilinguisim.
Market size and growth forecasts
The contemporary Russian language services market received a huge growth impulse after the implosion of the Soviet Union and collapse of the Iron Curtain in the 1990s fast-tracked the full-fledged integration of post-communist Russia into global economic and political activities. According to Reshetnikova, the resultant positive changes such as the establishment of international ties, exit of Russian businesses onto the international markets, active inflows of foreign investments into the Russian economy, increasing demand for international tourism have all boosted the need for foreign ‘tongues’ in the society. “Besides, the increase in life standards of Russian consumers and stabilization of incomes among the middle class have made extra cash available for footing the bills on language courses for both parents and children.”
“Today, lots of people in Russia are suffering from the fact that 10 years of studying foreign languages in high schools and 2-3 more years in the universities had practically yielded ‘zero’ results for them.”
Further developments led to the appearance of a new format of commercial schools offering modern and Western-style methods or specific author methodologies for learning languages. These include branches of international language schools, which, apart from experience and time-tested expertise, can, at the detriment of the local schools, also boast of investment capital, robust advertisement support and lobbyist efforts in winning contracts from foreign companies in Russia. It is, therefore, not surprising that these new language schools started pushing Soviet-era language schools with years of experience to the fringes of the market. “However, the accumulated experience, strong teaching staff and time-tested teaching tools have allowed the older format schools to remain afloat in the industry today,” Reshetnikova said.
It, therefore, goes without saying, that all these positive changes have long translated into strong market growth, evident in the fact the size of the local foreign languages training courses market was valued at about 24.2bln rubles in 2008, a sum that was about 30-35% higher than the 2007’s figures, according to Technologii Rosta’s data released earlier this year. “The successful existence of different formats of language schools in Russia in general, and in Moscow in particular today, stems from the increasing ‘consumer demand’ for billable courses in foreign languages and the expansion of the target audience to include new market segments,” the company’s CEO said.
Besides, the market is also being fueled by the rising number of private teachers, pushing the average annual industry growth rate by 20-25%, a trend, which experts have said will continue unabated this and coming comings, despite the current negative effects of the ongoing economic crisis. Consequently, most market analysts are expecting the current high rates of market growth to continue with little or no marked changes for the next 4-5 years. “The successful existence of different formats of language schools in Russia in general, and in Moscow in particular today, stems from the increasing ‘consumer demand’ for billable courses in foreign languages and the expansion of the target audience to include new market segments,” Reshetnikova added.
Increasing trend – transition to e-learning programs
Nowadays, there is a rapidly increasing need — especially among those seeking professional career growth or soon to sit for foreign examinations, for instance, to secure admissions into Russian higher institutions requiring foreign languages or overseas universities, to master foreign languages in a much quicker way and with little or no interruptions to their normal life activities. This trend, according to linguistics experts, has led language services providers to engage in the improvement of their traditional teaching tools as well as the search for, and adoption of, a raft of innovative training methodologies to meet the yearnings of this new generation of language services consumers.
With the demand for foreign languages rising exponentially across the globe, and Russia not being an exception, and those seeking to know such languages being tied down either by work requirements or located in areas, where most traditional methods of foreign language training are not applicable, linguistic services providers are using the latest teaching technologies — either as an exclusive method or as complementary instruments to the traditional ones. These include different variations of the so-called ‘e-learning’ language programs, such as distant coaching technologies and other professional teachers-led online training techniques, linguistics experts said. Indeed, most education experts say that over 50% of teaching in general, and linguistic studies in particular, will be conducted via these Internet-based teaching techniques in the non-too-distant future.
Such prognosis is based on the fact that the attractiveness of the new technologies, compared to the traditional methodologies, is becoming increasingly obvious, both to the services providers and their targeted consumers. This includes their relative cheapness, compared to the traditional methods, and secondly, the ability of both teachers and students to be in constant ‘virtual contact’ round-the-clock anywhere in the world, thus eliminating the need for teachers’ traditional ‘physical contacts’ with their students. These advantages are especially helpful to companies, especially in times crisis, when optimization of budgets has become the norm, rather than an exception. However, one of the obvious limitations of these new techniques, according to linguistics experts, is when potential students have audio defects, eye problems or other physiological inadequacies. Others include the lack of and/or poor state of the most basic forms of telecommunication facilities, which make Internet-based and/or other distant-learning techniques ineffective as teaching tools.
Commenting on these issues in an exclusive interview to TRCW, Micael Timonen, an account manager at EF Corporate Language Training, said the current global trend is to shift the largest part of training from in-company training to teacher-led online training. “Companies have realized that the largest cost for training is absence in combination with internal administration of language training,” he said. “The advantages of online training is flexibility, 24/7 access to teachers, cost advantages and increased control of performance.” Speaking specifically about Russia, Timonen noted that in-company training is still dominant in the country, unlike in most parts of the globe, where about 90% of training is effectuated online. “It is really important to stress that online training is a service that really offers language training with teachers. In other words, the training is conducted by real teachers, just at a different location – via the Internet, instead of at the office.”
“Among the key advantages of ‘e-learning methods’ are their relative cheapness, compared to the traditional approaches, and the unprecedented ability of both teachers and students to be in constant ‘virtual contacts’ round-the-clock anywhere in the world.”
Timonen says he foresees a second wave in increase of e-learning in Russia as the current crisis and other market phenomena cleanse the industry of e-products of questionable quality. “Many companies have had bad experience of using poor or non-working solutions, such as CD-ROM, Internet courses with very low or no contact with real teachers at all,” he said. “Having been on the language market for over 40 years, EF knows that teachers are crucial for learning languages. Without the teacher-led training, language students cannot make any progress, but with teachers online, students make just as good, and most often, even better results than with teachers in the office,” he added. “The reason for this is very simple – there is no absence problems since one can study 24/7 with teachers. Also, students can study at their own tempo and can focus only on what they need to improve as individuals, not as participants in a group.”
Speaking on the main benefit for our e-learning techniques clients, Timonen noted such students enjoy a superior return on their investments in the language training and 100% control over their overall performances and final results. “They are able to reduce costs for training by 30-50% and costs for administration of training by at least 80%. The company finds it easier to achieve the training goals and faster.” However, Osina, from ÂÊÑ-International House, does not entirely share this upbeat view on e-learning and other IT-based methodologies, which she said are only currently taking ‘roots’ on the Russian market. “Most services providers, in my opinion, are offering questionable innovative products. However, in language training, personal contact between the teacher and the student is very important to obtain the maximum effect,” she noted. “In this context, I’m fully in support of the traditional ‘direct communicative’ method, which has been working successfully for over the past 50 years.”
Main-crisis-related changes on the market
Most linguistic experts say that Russia is right now in a very interesting situation regarding foreign language training, compared to the pre-crisis era. “Up until the crisis, there was some sort of “Wild West” on the local market, both on the supply and demand sides. The number of language training providers was innumerable and the quality of the providers covered the full scale,” EF’s Timonen said. “Also, the clients were fine with just ordering teachers to the office without any regard 
for results or the real costs for training. The difference now in comparison with one year ago, is that now we have a quality element, and most importantly, a return-on-investment thinking among both providers and clients, i.e., clients are looking at the results and how much the progress actually costs,” he added. “It is no longer enough to send a teacher to the office; this teacher also has to deliver actual proficiency level increase.”
Agreeing with this view, Osina noted that the current crisis has simply eliminated all non-quality and questionable services from the market, leaving behind only language training schools that are capable of producing maximum results.” However, with regard to the general impacts of the crisis, she says that the current global financial meltdown, drastic though it is, has not diminished the ongoing robust globalization trends in general and the increasing need for interactions among local and foreign business partners in particular. “In this regard, I need to stress that most Russian companies have never viewed foreign language training for their employees as a form of a recreational activity. This is because studying of foreign languages is a necessity, without which most companies cannot gain access to international markets.”
And, finally, both local and foreign linguistic experts in this industry noted the increasing scope of training, globalization of the existing training standards and consolidation of linguistic service providers among some of the most obvious changes in the sector since the global financial crunch took the whole world hostage a year ago. The end result will be that small and ineffective players will disappear from the market, thus leaving behind in the industry only highly experienced linguistic services providers, capable of giving clients access to global training standards and the best returns on capital invested in language courses, all the experts, polled for this special report, said.
* All photos from foreign language classes are properties of the Foreign Languages School affiliated with the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry.
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