Why You Should Take the Russian Intensive Course | Ikumi Waragai, Assistant to the Dean / Professor, Faculty of Policy Management
October 21, 2022
Fall 2022. The new semester has begun. This semester, a new course, "Russian Intensive 1," has been established at SFC. The "Intensive" courses, which meet four times a week, include German, French, Chinese, Malay-Indonesian, Korean, Spanish, and Arabic. This semester, "Russian Intensive" has been added to this list. Moreover, three native Russian-speaking instructors have newly joined the Russian language team. This is also a first since the founding of SFC. They come from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, respectively, and all have outstanding track records in Russian language education. 1
I believe this is a momentous event for SFC, but since many people may not be aware of it, I would like to take this opportunity to write about it here.
It has been 32 years since the founding of SFC. Multilingual education and language policy have been cherished as core principles by founding campus members like Professor Ichiro Sekiguchi and Professor Takao Suzuki. When considering the cultivation of human resources who can contribute to Japan's relationships with key foreign countries, the Russian-speaking world is clearly one of the important language spheres. The message that Russian is important as a strategic language has been passed down through successive administrations, and this fall, it has finally come to fruition.
Learning a foreign language not only involves acquiring the language as a skill but also builds a valuable foundation for understanding the perspectives of the respective linguistic and cultural spheres. It makes one aware of the surprising differences in how things are viewed. This time, the launch of the Russian Intensive course has coincided with the unexpected situation of the conflict in Ukraine. I am often asked, "Why Russian now?" However, it is precisely for this reason that I feel it is urgent to cultivate people who can understand other languages and other people, people who can see the world through a different window than their own. I sincerely hope that multilingual education will foster plurilingual and pluricultural perspectives within each individual, leading to the development of students who can see things from diverse viewpoints.
Note 1) Currently, "Russian Intensive 1," "Russian Basic 1," and "Russian Basic 2" are being offered. Russian language credits can be included in the 124 credits required for graduation. However, they cannot currently be counted toward the eight credits in Language and Communication Courses required for promotion to the third year.
Reference Link: Curriculum: Keio University Student Website