Language Centre Set Up To Promote Macedonian, Slavic Languages, Cultures

The desire to enhance the promotion of the Macedonian and the Slavic languages and cultures has given rise to the idea of opening the first Macedonian and Slavic Language Centre, founder Gjoko Nikolovski says. The centre, which is a private venture, teaches Macedonian as a foreign language, Slovene, Polish, Russian, and Czech.

There is a genuine need for courses in these languages, as a host of young Macedonians have lately been choosing to further their education in the countries where these languages are spoken. They therefore need to be familiar with these languages to a certain extent. Another reason is those countries' investment projects in Macedonia, which creates opportunities for offering our language services to Slavic-speaking companies, Nikolovski says.

According to Nikolovski, our orientation towards Europe and west European languages does not exclude the Slavic languages, since, as he says, Europe should not be identified only with English, French, German, and Spanish.  The EU enlargement makes room also for the promotion of the Slavic languages, which should earn their place on the European language map.

In order to elevate the Macedonian native speakers' language culture, the centre has included a course in speech culture, as well.

The state of the language spoken in public, especially in the electronic media, is not at a satisfactory level. This course focuses not only on the spoken language, but also on the written language, which is applied in print media, literature, and translations, where intervention is needed, too. The course will deal with correct diction and speech, orthography, and expression, Nikolovski says.

Author: Vesna Damcevska
Source: Vreme