Язык и культура современных бурят

Buryat School in Irkutsk

Information about the School

АЯН (A-YA-N), which was formerly called Nuytag (Pikhunova, 2018), was opened in February 2017 in Irkutsk (Spasova, 2018). It is located in the same building that serves as a cultural center on Kasyanova street. The school was founded by Sergei Batlayev and Alexander Khantayev, two young Buryat entrepreneurs who wanted to create a place for people to learn their “native” language (Batlayev & Khantayev, 2018). The school is not funded by donations, and students pay to study there (Batlayev & Khantayev, 2018). The tuition that students pay goes towards the teachers’ salaries, and there are currently two teachers at the school in Irkutsk (Batlayev & Khantayev, 2018). A second school was opened in Ulan-Ude in 2018 (Spasova, 2018) and there is currently only one teacher at that location (Batlayev & Khantayev, 2018).

About the Founders
Information in this section comes from an interview with the founders of the school - (Batlayev & Khantayev, 2018)

Sergei Batlayev is 25 years old and graduated from Irkutsk State University in 2015. He currently organizes Buryat weddings, birthdays, and other events. Alexander Khantayev is around the same age as Sergei and helps conduct Buryat weddings. Both of them are entrepreneurs whose past plans have included the opening of a photo studio among other things. They came to the conclusion that a Buryat language school should be opened after seeing a video about the endangered state of the Buryat language. Their plan was to create an environment where people with no knowledge of the language could come and learn how to speak their culturally native language.

Sergei and Alexander have also tried to develop online spaces for the language and culture, as they would like to encourage young students to learn it. Currently, young Buryats do not find their mother tongue appealing, which means that many young people do not speak it. The founders themselves understand the language, but they do not speak it quite as well, which they find a bit embarrassing. Thus, they wanted the school to be a safe space for people to make mistakes and become more confident in speaking their language.

About the Courses

All levels, from introductory to advanced, are taught at the school (Spasova, 2018). The courses are currently two-months long and include sixteen classes that are each an hour and a half (Spasova, 2018). However, starting in September of 2018 they would like to start offering courses that are three-months long (Spasova, 2018). The two-month course cost 4,000 rubles ($64.39), and there are some discounts available (Spasova, 2018).

The classes strive to teach students the basics of grammar, syntax, and morphology while also helping them establish a basic vocabulary (Spasova, 2018). They try to teach using games, but sometimes the adults are not interested in learning that way (Spasova, 2018). They also use small translation exercises, have the students read texts, give out assignments, and prepare small tests (Spasova, 2018). Since there are many dialects of the Buryat language, they tend to teach using the literary dialect (Spasova, 2018); however a former student recalled that her teacher made sure that everyone knew how to say things in their own dialect (Pikhunova, 2018).

The course structure was inspired by a program called Poliglot, in which a man made a chart of how to effectively study a language (Batlayev & Khantayev, 2018). The teachers adapted this chart to Buryat and also made a manual, pictured below (Batlayev & Khantayev, 2018). Half a year’s material can be learned in two months using this manual (Batlayev & Khantayev, 2018). Also, there are occasional master classes on topics such as national costume, food, and genealogy (Batlayev & Khantayev, 2018).

Impressions from a Former Student 
(Pikhunova, 2018)

We interviewed  a student who successfully completed a course at the school. We learned about her use of the language, why she decided to attend the school, her impressions of the school, and a description of her teacher and the other students that she studied with. We also asked her about her relationship with the Buryat language, how different populations in Irkutsk relate to the language, and what she hopes the future holds for the language. 

Impressions from a Current Teacher
(Spasova, 2018)

We interviewed one of the two teachers who currently work at АЯН in Irkutsk. We learned a little bit about her background, and asked her how and why she became a teacher at the school. Also, we got her impressions of the students at the school and she told us about their goals and struggles. Finally, we spoke with her about the opening of the school and its goals.

Goals of the School

According to a teacher at the school, the school was created to help people learn how to speak their mother tongue, and furthermore, to speak it without being embarrassed or afraid (Spasova, 2018). The founders echoed these sentiments (see the subsection on the founders) and added that besides teaching students grammar and conversational skills they want students to gain an understanding of their culture (Batlayev & Khantayev, 2018). They also want to specifically help people who are around 22-30 years old, as they will eventually be parents who can teach their kids how to speak Buryat (Batlayev & Khantayev, 2018). In the future, it would be nice to open more locations along with offering classes for children and possibly even opening a kindergarten (Batlayev & Khantayev, 2018).
 

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