Alexey Arzamazov: ‘Tatar language teachers cannot speak Tatar’

“Tatar is an incredibly warm world”

The holiday was held with the support of the Commission under the Tatarstan governor on the preservation and development of the Tatar language and native languages of representatives of the peoples living in Tatarstan. Arzamazov is a universal person in this regard, he can speak with representatives of most of these ethnic groups. He delivered his speech at Almash mainly in Tatar, sometimes switching to Russian.

“Tatar is an incredibly warm world,” the speaker noted. “There should be such a feeling in the family, so that children want to speak Tatar. Family is an important social factor.”

One of the ways to get a child to talk is to send him to the village. Arzamazov called this “the grandparents factor.”

“But you need to talk to grandparents so that they communicate with their grandchildren in Tatar,” he pointed out. “Unfortunately, even in Tatar villages they switch to Russian. I like to travel around Tatarstan. And in Tatar regions I listen to what language children and adults speak. There are different cases. Often they mix languages, sometimes not in Tatar and not in Russian. Why mix if there is a basic vocabulary? For example, in Saba District, I hear: “I am berenche, you are ikenche, he is ochenche.” Where does such rule breaking come from? Okay, these are people who do not know the Tatar language. But I often come to the Tatar faculty, meet with colleagues. And I hear how future Tatar teachers communicate. This makes me sad. Tatar language teachers cannot speak Tatar.”

“It seems to me that if you speak Tatar, you need to think, pay attention to the words so that the language is pure and beautiful,” Arzamazov pointed out.

The factor of the educator

Another problem is the language space of the kindergarten, where there is often an intensive loss of language, even if the family tries to speak it. The selection of educators and nannies is important here, the linguist pointed out:

“There is an interesting example in Kukmor District when a Tatar educator taught Udmurt children Tatar in a kindergarten in an Udmurt village in a short time. Because they are interested, because the educator shares her emotions with them. And the children retain their native Udmurt.”

Arzamazov recalled the theory of linguistic personality, which was developed at RUDN by academician Yuri Karaulov:

“Parents should help the child become a Tatar personality. Including through creativity.”

You can start with something complex

Another problem is communication, when a person understands the language but does not speak.

“This is typical for many, not only for the Tatar people, the same is true for the Mari and Udmurts. Here, motivation for the transition to communication based on understanding is needed. So that the teenager at least strives to talk. This is a difficult task. Everything related to language is a certain cognitive load. But it is worth it.”

As Arzamazov admitted, he himself likes to start learning with complex words: “This is my strong point — I know a lot of words like mɵkatdəs, alpat. I read fiction and understand it without dictionaries.” In the Tatar language, the topic of verbs is important, in particular the “adverbial participle plus verb” links: samolet tɵshep utırdı, əytep kuydım.

“For a native Russian speaker, this is a mysterious thing,” Arzamazov noted. “Another interesting thing is dialects. I have already begun to distinguish how people speak in Aktanysh, Buinsk. All this makes the Tatar language richer.

RUDN University is preparing a platform

RUDN University, where Arzamasov teaches, is currently developing a digital interactive platform for teaching the Tatar language.

“I think the methods should be different,” he explained. “Each person has their own characteristics, abilities. Some can learn the language through video, some through audio. I have a friend, Dmitry Petrov. A linguist, he came to Kazan, spoke, he had a course here. But we argue with him. Because I have a complaint: “Dmitry, you don’t know Tatar!” Of course, when projects are underway, he takes a certain vocabulary minimum. When I started learning Tatar, I spent a lot of time. You can master conversational language in 3-4 months to speak on simple topics. But speaking beautifully is a long process.”

Arzamazov was asked at the end about his interest in Tatar. Maybe his wife is Tatar?

“No, there are no Tatars among my relatives, I don't have Tatar in my blood,” answered Arzamazov. “I was lucky that I studied at a language school — English, French, then Italian. You start learning languages, one, two. It's a fascinating activity. And eventually you just start to get sick with it.”