Kazakhs living in Russia are gradually losing ties with their native language and native culture, analyst of the Vestnik Kavkaza information-analytical agency, Artem Sokolov, said during live broadcast of the "Peoples of Russia" program on Vesti.FM.
According to the expert, it's difficult to calculate how many Kazakhs living in Russia can speak their native language, since there are no specific studies on this topic.
"Obviously, not all of them can freely communicate in their native language. it especially concerns the youth, which gradually loses its ties with the Kazakh language, with the Kazakh culture," he said.
According to Sokolov, this trend is also associated with the fact that the number of schools teaching in the Kazakh language is decreasing.
"Nevertheless, the Kazakh language is still taught in the regions where Kazakhs are majority or there's just a huge number of them. More than 50 in the Astrakhan region, about 10 in Omsk," he noted.
"I think it's very difficult to support children's interest in their native language in the current conditions. Although I know that there is an interest in the Kazakh language among students. Even among Russians. But usually those students just plan to work in Central Asia and specialize in Kazakhstan, or they are ethnic Kazakhs themselves. In schools, of course, the situation is even worse," he concluded.
