Language Through Culture Program History
Russian Life in 2002 inaugurated its Education Patron Program to underwrite distribution of Russian Life magazine to Russian language students in the United States. Subscribers and friends of the magazine make small donations each year to sponsor this school distribution program. These donations from hundreds of readers bring Russian Life to thousands of students across the country.
- Each other month, participating schools receive free copies of the magazine for distribution to students.
- What participating teachers have said about the program
- The only requirements of participating schools are (1) to keep their contact information up to date, (2) to complete an annual online survey, providing information about enrollment and the program's effectiveness.
- We currently have 341 schools in our Language Through Culture program database.
- To check if your school is already in our database, visit here.
- If you are a teaching Russian at an American elementary, middle, high school or college and your school is not on this list, please contact us by email.
In 2009, this program was radically expanded, thanks to generous sponsorship from the Russkiy Mir Foundation, with the goal of reaching nearly every program teaching Russian in the United States.
In 2010, this program was renamed "Language Through Culture" to more explicitly indicate its mission and action.
Program Data
| Distribution of Issues | |||
| Schools | Classrooms | Students | |
| 2002 | 24 | 105 | 1,500 |
| 2003 | 63 | 287 | 3,700 |
| 2004 | 80 | 398 | 4,700 |
| 2005 | 85 | 423 | 5,200 |
| 2006 | 93 | 442 | 5,700 |
| 2007 | 104 | 463 | 6,100 |
| 2008 | 110 | 500 | 6,500 |
| 2009* | 356 | 750 | 15,000 |
* With Russkiy Mir Sponsorship.
In the fall of 2009, teachers participating in the Russkiy Mir sponsored Education Patrons program responded to an online poll about program effectiveness. Of the 108 teachers who responded:
- 78.0% said the program increased student interest in Russian culture, history or literature
- 79.8% said the program increased student understanding of Russia's relevance
- 77.1% said the program increased student interest in the Russian language
Further:
- 35.8% said the program had a positive effect on student enrollments
- 40.4% said the program had a positive effect on student retention
The Russkiy Mir sponsorship also included the creation of six special language-learning inserts, each one bound in the issue of the magazine with content tied to that issue's content. Teachers loved this addition. Over 50% said they used the supplement in their teaching and found it very useful, 80% really liked the way the supplement was bound into each issue and how the content corresponded with the magazine.
Below are some of the results from our most recent polls of program participants.
| Student Interest in Russian Language Study | ||
| 2007 | 2006 | |
| Declining | 15.3% | 11.7% |
| Stable | 61.1% | 62.7% |
| Growing | 23.6% | 25.4% |
| Status of schools' Russian Language Programs | ||
| 2007 | 2006 | |
| Program Threatened | 35.5% | 29.4% |
| Program Safe | 64.5% | 70.6% |
| Schools evaluated in-class distribution of Russian Life to be | ||
| Extremely valuable | 26.6% | |
| Very valuable | 29.7% | |
| Valuable | 20.3% | |
| Somewhat valuable | 3.1% | |
| Hardly valuable | 12.5% | |
| Did not answer | 7.8% | |
If you would like to donate to the Language Through Culture program, simply follow this link.
