As a first-generation American in my family, it is seemingly inevitable that I would exist in a multicultural, bilingual household. With English as my second language, I spoke solely Russian until age five. However as I was introduced to an American way of living, my grip on my Russian heritage has slipped. Moreover, as I began high school, I had a chance to embark on learning a third language.
Starting in my freshman year, I chose to enroll in Hebrew as my language class out of the seven other choices available at CHS, which are American Sign Language (ASL), Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Latin from regular to IB and AP levels.
While that list is impressive, I was surprised CHS offered Hebrew, a rather obscure language today and disappointed Russian was neglected. Moreover, with the Indianapolis Russian School finding its new home at CHS this year and the seemingly endless list of languages offered at this school, I began to wonder why Russian was still not offered as a course here.
Interestingly, according to worldatlas.com, Russian is the seventh most widely spoken language worldwide with 275 million total speakers, ahead of German and Japanese. In comparison, according to statisticalatlas.com, there are around 2,000 Russian-speaking residents in Carmel, making up about 2.3 percent of the Carmel community. While this may not seem like a wide circle of CHS students coming from Russian-speaking households, offering Russian as a language would be a great opportunity for those who already speak Russian to maintain and expand their skills.
Furthermore, it would provide students with the opportunity to learn a valuable language that is spoken worldwide. Integrating Russian as a language course option, starting with freshman year , will not only project a positive cultural and diverse accommodation for students at CHS but will also give another relevant language option for students.