European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 18, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse English please the language to learn in Eastern Europe Bojoh Daniszewski associated press sixty american volunteers have come to Torun Poland the City of Copernicus to teach poles the English language they crave. Elsewhere in Eastern Europe too the English language is spreading rapid y As soviet Power and obligatory russian language classes disappear. Despite efforts by France and Germany to promote the use of their languages in the Region English appears Well in the Lead As the second Tongue of Choice. Enrolment in English classes is up sharply in Poland Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Besides asking English speaking countries to Send teachers Europe s new democracies Are running crash training programs at Home and broadcasting British and american radio and television programs in the original language. The thirst for English has contributed to explosive growth in private language schools and is spilling Over to the world of Commerce. At the education ministry Lucyna Tarasiewicz looked puzzled when a reporter asked Why the ministry emphasized the teaching of English Over for instance German or russian. In t your question somewhat rhetorical she asked. Without a doubt the majority of Young people in our schools want to learn this language. Especially recently most contacts on this continent Are held in Grazyna Siedlecka Orzel a Veteran educator helping to train English teachers said for so Many years English was suppressed. Now nobody wants to learn russian because English is the language of the although study of russian was required in the communist years and classes in other languages were scarce few students Learned russian Well because the motivation was extremely Low Tarasiewicz said. Now that russian is treated As just another language parents and students Are flocking to English As the ticket to a better future. German and French Are a Distant second. Barbara Kuprianiuk who has taught for six years at Bialystok in Northeast Poland is certified in russian but recently became her High school s Only teacher of English. She has six classes of 30 students each. How Many of the 500 or so students want into those classes i think everyone she said. Kuprianiuk said the problems were enormous. The school has no English textbooks and even newspapers and magazines Are hard to come by. Peace corps volunteers Are taking cram courses in survival polish at Torun s University before fanning out to cities throughout the country. Most will teach High school students but the More experienced will train other teachers. In a foretaste of what is in store More than 1,700 poles applied for 300 places in practice classes where the volunteers will rehearse teaching techniques. It is going to be a lot of work for us but that s Why we re Here said teacher Mike Kennedy of Meriden Conn. William Lovelace head of the peace corps in Poland said English instruction topped the country s list when the United states offered last year to Send its first volunteers to Eastern Europe. Sixty peace corps teach sri each arrived in Poland and Hungary in june and 22 Are due in Czechoslovakia this fall for a total of 142, and the same number will be added next year Lovelace said. The British voluntary service organization Harvard s world teach and the Canadian government Are offering trainers in English and France and West Germany Are sending teachers of their languages. English is becoming ubiquitous in Eastern Europe. Polish television broadcasts can headline news each morning and Warsaw s radio Solidarity carries the bbl world news. In Hungary the new station radio Bridge beams All English programming largely supplied by the voice of America s Europe network. Czechoslovak television s third Channel which used to carry soviet programs has become a Potpourri of Western fare with English language programs leading the Way. Some grasp of English even appears necessary for Eastern europeans to follow the dramatic economic changes being charted for them. Vaclav Klaus the czechoslovak finance minister peppers television speeches w la terms like standby Loans and n Sarky everyone in Poland understands the term joint ventures by now. On the streets English names add a certain cachet. Warsaw fast food stands advertise hot dogs but usually offer Only an approximation of pizza or Rolls stuffed with stewed mushrooms. In Budapest one can visit the top shop or mix shop even the boutique shop and sip something refreshing at the drink bar. English is a common second language in Europe so when a pole or czech talks business with an italian or greek it often is the language used. Tarasiewicz of the education ministry estimated Poland will need 20,000 teachers of Western languages including 12,000-15,000 for English to meet the minimal requirements of students in grades 7 through 12. She said the ministry eventually would like to extend language training to e Emen tary schools which would require 10,000 More teachers. Polish schools have Only 1,200 English teachers compared with 20,000 teachers of russian most of whom have Little to do these Days. The proportions Are similar in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Few English language majors teach in the Public schools because they can earn three times the National average salary by giving private lessons or using their language skills in business Tarasiewicz said. A special program to retrain russian teachers May provide 2,000 More teachers of English in three years she said but the desirable staffing level May not be reached for 15 years. R with such a dearth of instructors there is Little concern about whether the English being taught is american or British Tarasiewicz said. Lovelace of the peace corps said they would Settle for australian or sri lankan English if they could get it or West Indian. You could have poles with jamaican accents walking he added that american English seemed to be leading the British version. If you listen to the radio Here what Are they playing he said. ". Country music and r & b songs. I be heard More Little Richard Here than i be heard in years. The radio is telling us entrepreneurs have benefited from the passion to learn English. The number of applicants is three to four times greater than what we can admit said Laszlo Simo Flavy manager of the International language school of Budapest Hungary. There is a Boom in demand for English and it is yet to level most students Are aged 16 to 25 and prefer american English he said. Simo Flavy charges $1 for attendance at a 45-minute class. Private tutors can earn up to $10 an hour in a country where the average monthly wage is equal to about $130. Which English will it be by Robert Barr associated press he British take obvious Pride in the spread of English across the Globe but fret that the language of shakespeare., Milton and Barbara Cartland has been hijacked by americans. It s not just a cultural Issue but one of marketing the product that is teaching the language to other nations. We intend to replace russian with English As the second language throughout Eastern Europe foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd said in May. Teaching English or teaching English teachers is a major concern of the British government know How funds established for Eastern Europe. A but whose English will the europeans learn the Independent newspaper editorialized recently that British publishers should Point out that they offer the Superior and european version of the what self respecting lithuanian or ukrainian czech or pole wants to speak English like one of or. Gorbachev s interpreters with a twang picked up from the other superpower the newspaper inquired. In a froth of linguistic jingoism reporter Gerard Evans wrote in the newspaper today that Britain faced being blown out of the booming English language Market in Eastern Europe All Over Romania Bulgaria and the like sidewalks Are full of rambunctious kids slipping sic Pepsi sucking face with their Chicks and dreaming of Gekko ing into the world of business and big Sim leons. When it comes to studying proper English grammar and syntax they la take a rain Check thank Julian Amey executive director of bbl English feels it in t helpful to draw Broad contrasts Between British English and american English. It s a worldwide language and the variants Are not that vital he said in an interview. Amey described English instruction As a huge and growing Market with ample opportunities for All agencies British and american that can provide a report in 1989 by the economist intelligence unit estimated the Market value of the language at 6 billion pounds nearly $11 billion a year. It said Britain controlled about one sixth of the Market mainly through courses and textbooks and the share was twice that. The bbl teaches English by radio television and print. Its English teaching cartoon character Muzzy in Gonsoland appears on soviet television and in France Italy Spain and Mexico Amey said. Moscow radio s medium wave service carries bbl radio classes he said and the bimonthly Magazine bbl English just signed up 700 subscribers in Czechoslovakia. Tom Mcarthur editor of the Learned journal English today said the Competition of British and american English was a contest Between a 19th Century Empire and a 20th Century superpower Between the bbl world service and Hollywood. Britain s old guard resents it he said in an interview. They find it a Little difficult to accept the enormous pressures on British English from american English Mcarthur said. There is much More travelling from you to us than from us to american English May be slightly easier to learn he said because it uses spelling pronunciation " for instance an american has a Secretary while a briton has a secret by. Japanese on the other hand might find British English More attractive because it does t pronounce the troublesome a Mcarthur said which English will be spoken in Bucharest Romania and Warsaw Poland 20 years from now i would expect to hear both he said because the influence of the bbl and British publishers is so Page 14 the stars and stripes East europeans Check out America by Mike Feinsilber associated press he electrical worker from Czechoslovakia says he must have met a Hundred americans in his 2va months in America but everyone was too Busy to become real friends. Whenever he talked to the owner of the Virginia publishing company where he interned i was seeing that the time was running in his the Young lawyer from Poland bemoaned americans Lack of knowledge about Europe or even about America. In an after hours Competition with his fellow summer clerks at a prestigious Washington Law firm he was Able to name 45 states of the Union. The Best any of his new Harvard educated friends could do was 36 or 37. These Young East europeans had been in America since mid May learning the ropes of capitalism and democracy. They worked in Banks bookstores congressional offices and state government chiefly in Washington and North Carolina Side by Side with american counterparts in a program run by the non profit National forum foundation. Recently they spent the morning discussing what they liked what they disliked and what surprised them. Piotr Kochanski 28, a lawyer was the pole who outshine the other clerks at Hogan & Hartson by listing 45 states and All the presidents of the . In the 20th what dismayed him was How Little americans in turn knew about Europe. They know nothing about our country our history our culture he said. I was asked very funny questions Many agreed Mirek Kleber a polish businessman who interned with a Bank do we have television in Poland do we have cars i am from a City one thousand years old said Beata Kalczynski Gasic a civil Engineer from Krakow. In Raleigh n c. Where she worked with the state department of transportation she was shown a picture of the City. What struck her was that no building was More than 40 years old. Americans seem to be running toward the future and Don t look Back she said. But a he asked where is the soul in your cities Kalliope Bakirdgi 31, press Secretary for a new political party in Hungary worked in the office of the lieutenant governor of North Carolina and observed the democratic Senate primary Campaign. She liked the civility of american politics the acceptance of Compromise. Whatever you Are Republican or Democrat you know there will always be republicans and democrats and you have to get along with the other in Hungary she said we hate each other much More than is needed for Normal political she was impressed too that american politicians can spend 80 percent of their Timo talking to meeting dealing with the voters. Our politicians never cared about the people she said but she was puzzled by the fuss Over Flag burning. Recalling a television news report she said she was a Little shocked How they allowed the Kun flux klan to March but they try to ban burning the Flag if you Burn a Flag you Don t Hurt anybody but the Kun flux klan can Hurt people " Dana Golebiowski 22, advertising director for a Warsaw Poland fashion House interned at a Capitol Hill newspaper. Che liked the Way people assumed responsibility without direction. Everybody s working she said describing a newsroom s chaos everything seems to be so Loose. People Are coming in and out and talking on the Telephone and suddenly a newspaper comes out this responsibility for their own work gives people a feeling they Are really important " Andrzej Slaski. 35, a sanitary Engineer from Poland was struck by the friendliness of the people of Raleigh a lot of people in the Street say. Hello Good morning i " he said saturday August 18, 1990 the stars and stripes Page 15
