The popularity of the Russian language in Africa is on the rise

The pilot project was a distance course of the Russian language for Zimbabweans. It was launched in the African region in 2021. Students were 50 employees of the Ministry of Education; the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage; the Office of the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe; the media; members of the African Youth Union; students; and schoolchildren. There was also a special group for those who had already studied Russian in the Soviet Union.

Before opening courses in Africa, St Petersburg University had experience in distance courses. Before the pandemic, the University offered online courses for those who began to study Russian from scratch in Greece and Latvia.

In October 2021, 246 Zimbabwean students successfully completed the course, and a year later there were already 443 learners. As part of the grant, in January 2022, 100 Zimbabwean citizens completed the Test of Russian as a Foreign Language (A1 level). Today, 217 residents of Zimbabwe are pursuing the University’s distance courses.

In November last year, the testers from the St Petersburg University Language Testing Centre visited in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. They conducted face-to-face testing for 50 students and held career guidance events and lectures on Russian culture.

The project was implemented with the support of the Russian Embassy in Zimbabwe and the grant from the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation. St Petersburg University offers distance courses in the Russian language for residents of African countries free of charge.

‘We got to know what our students from African countries were engaged in. Many of them are potential applicants. For example, several people started our courses to study Russian, entered Russian universities and went to study in Russia. Yet, they also continued to study with our teachers,’ said Dmitry Ptyushkin, Director of the St Petersburg University Language Testing Centre.

TORFL is a Test of Russian as a Foreign Language. The Language Testing Centre at St Petersburg University has been conducting TORFL since 1997. Since 2020, you can take the test remotely.

The geography of the courses of the Russian as a foreign language is constantly expanding. For example, with the support of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of South Africa, a remote course for 50 students from South Africa began in September 2022, which ends in May this year. About 900 applications were submitted for the next training stream, with only 250 being accepted. ‘The grant for the project from the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation lasted up to the end of 2022. The later projects were implemented at the expense of extra-budgetary funds of the University,’ said Dmitry Ptyushkin. ‘However, the unexpectedly high demand for learning the Russian language from the South Africans during the period of accepting the applications in February 2023 changed this situation. Since April in 2023, students from African countries have been taking Russian language courses at St Petersburg University with the financial support of the Russkiy Mir Foundation.’

Among the learners of the University’s courses are not only schoolchildren and students, but also people of various professions: teachers; scientists; IT specialists; military personnel; doctors; businessmen; journalists; translators; and even farmers.