Almazbek Atambayev: Kyrgyz language – world heritage and English has to wait

«The Kyrgyz language is a world heritage, and English has to wait," Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, who is on a visit in Moscow, said yesterday at a meeting with his compatriots.

At the meeting, Professor Marklen Konurbayev asked about the possibility of learning English in Kyrgyzstan on a par with Kyrgyz. And he cited Singapore as an example, where Lee Kuan Yew decided to make this language official.

«In Singapore, English became a state language, so that there is no inter-ethnic enmity. And as for us, then let’s first bring our state language to the proper level. I will cite Mongolia as an example, where once they abandoned the Russian language in favor of English. I talked with the leadership of the country. They complained that the Mongols hadn’t learned English, and almost forgot Russian. We must preserve at least what we know," the head of Kyrgyzstan said.

He said that from this autumn all schools of Kyrgyzstan would introduce daily English lessons. So, in fact, Kyrgyzstan will gradually become a trilingual country.

At the same time, Almazbek Atambayev spoke about how he learned English. «I don’t see a problem in learning English. I myself learned it on the Internet, because I had no time for classes with the teacher. There is, for example, a good program «Puzzle English." You can study it. When I retire, I will study the Kyrgyz language, culture, history. There are also questions on religion," the head of state admitted.

«The Kyrgyz language is one of the most ancient languages ​​of the Altai group and the only one that has survived. Everyone says that the Turkish language is the oldest. But if to look closely, then up to 80 percent of the words are borrowed from other languages. And the Kyrgyz language is the oldest, and we must preserve it. At the same time, it is necessary to preserve the knowledge of the Russian language," he added.