Russian Language Ten-day Festival in Ulan-Bator - 12 March, 2003 - News

A Russian Language Ten-Day Festival opened in Ulan Bator on Wednesday.

According to the staffers of the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Ulan Bator which organised this event, the main purpose of the ten-day festival is to familiarise the teachers of Russian at Mongolian schools and higher educational establishments with the methods of teaching Russian, as well as with the latest works of Russian philologists on teaching Russian to foreigners.

The Russian Language Ten-Day Festival will open with a scientific-practical conference, The Problems and Prospects of Teaching Russian in Mongolia in the 21st Century. More than fifty reports with practical recommendations will be presented at it.

Days of Open Lessons of Russian will be held at the secondary school of the Embassy of Russia and at joint Mongolian-Russian secondary school No.3 in Ulan Bator within the framework of the Festival.

According to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of Mongolia, 386,000 people are learning Russian at Mongolian educational establishments this year, specifically more than 1,000 teachers are teaching Russian to over 296,000 children at 570 Mongolian secondary schools, and 350 teachers are teaching Russian to over 90,000 students at 41 state and 130 private schools of higher education.

By the Ministry's information, the interest in learning Russian is high. By way of comparison, about 210,000 people in Mongolia are learning English.

As Mongolia is an Asian country and is energetically cooperating with its neighbours in the region, about 39,000 people here are also learning the Japanese, Chinese and Korean languages.