One of the winners of the Russian language olympiad is an Estonian who learned the language during her rhythmic gymnastics training. The latest republican olympiad for Russian as a foreign language took place at Tallinn University, celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Estonian book.
In the B1 category, the winner was Kailin Aasa from the Võru Gymnasium, while Kryyt Kudeviita from the Tallinn Real School took second place. “I started learning Russian in the sixth grade, but long before that, when I was seven, I began practicing rhythmic gymnastics. Most of my coaches and all the girls spoke Russian during training, so I learned the language to communicate with them and understand what they were saying,” said Kudeviita, who is now in the 12th grade.
The cultural knowledge test proved particularly challenging for her. “This adds a competitive element. If someone speaks Russian very well but lacks cultural knowledge, their results immediately drop,” noted Adamson.
In the more advanced B2 category, Polina Ryabushenko from the 11th grade of the Nõo Real Gymnasium claimed first place. “There were reading tasks and essay writing assignments. A lot of time was spent on grammar. You really had to think about it,” Ryabushenko highlighted the most difficult tasks.
Ryabushenko studies at an Estonian school, but her home language is Russian. “Before school, my parents emphasized learning Estonian so that I could enroll in an Estonian school and study Estonian as my native language. I only started learning Russian in the fourth grade,” she explained.
Despite the evident interest in the Russian language among residents in many regions of Estonia, a negative trend persists in the Baltic states. At the end of last year, Lithuania canceled its Russian language Olympiad, even though 43% of students in the country chose to study it as a second foreign language. Deputy Minister of Education Ignas Gajžūnas emphasized that Lithuania is striving to increase the number of students selecting languages from EU member states as their second foreign language. “In the long term, our goal is to phase out Russian language instruction in general education schools,” Gajžūnas stated.
Member of Parliament from the National Bloc, Arturs Butans, called on the Liepāja City Council to cancel the Russian language Olympiad for students in grades 8-12. However, the local education department responded that this subject is still taught according to state standards for basic and secondary education, so there are no grounds to demand the cancellation of the Olympiad.
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