LupCenușiu wrote:As I said, things are more specific than one would like to consider. Idealistic feet will blister in the boots of reality, on long roads... So, probably is for the greater good to stick mostly to linguistic aspects.
It's an established fact in linguistics that children should get an education in their mother tongue.
When you are in a country which is de facto bilingual, the rational approach is to accept that and make life easier for the citizens, irrespective for their mother tongue.
The idealistic position is to ban the language of the minority because the grandfather of a person who speaks the same language as my neighbor called my grandfather names a few decades ago.
rdearman wrote:You'll need to explain the economic value to me here. I'm saying that in order to provide these services, the government would need to increase taxes by X amount. Let's just for argument’s sake pick a number out of the air and say the tax increase required is 25% increase in taxes across the board to provide these services. Please detail for me how this will provide a +25% growth in GDP?
Because another aspect of human nature is WIIIFM (What is in it for me?) Why would the majority accept a huge tax increase with no immediate and perceivable benefit? How would this idealistic government sell this idea to the masses?
There are economic and societal benefits.
Let's start with economic benefits with a quote from a Russian-speaking Estonian: "teaching Russian-speaking children in a non-native language will provide them with sufficient knowledge and skills for their further education or successful employment." (Source:
Estonian court upholds ban on teaching in Russian at municipal schools.)
Acquiring a skill is hard. In a foreign language, it's harder. When you prevent 20-25% of your population from acquiring skills in their mother tongue, you are actually reducing their overall skillset and your own government revenues. Instead of thinking how to construct a while-loop, an eighth-grader will probably spend half his time thinking what's a while-loop in Estonian. An economist can quantify the growth that you can get by adding 20-25% more people to your workforce.
As to WIIIFM, you get a country where everyone feels belonged instead of a country where the majority oppresses the minority and both hate each other. If a quarter of the population can neither study in its mother tongue nor access government services in their language, then it's a recipe for disaster.
Svanderov wrote:We have treated the Russians with plenty of respect in the past and given them plenty of leeway. There are NUMEROUS schools here where students can get an education in Russian, for example.
Russians who were born in Estonia have as much of a right to live in their country as Estonians. One of those rights includes the ability to use one's mother tongue in schools. But it seems Estonia has other plans. "Our understanding definitely is that in the future we will undoubtedly reach the point where there are no Russian-language schools in Estonia," Estonian member of parliament Urmas Reinsalu. (Source:
Estonia Moves to End Russian-Medium Schools).
The life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears. — Monte(s)quieu