Malaysian astronauts won Russian hearts
THERE are many kinds of motivation to learn Russian. Russian tsarina Ekaterina The Great (1729-1796) was a German and learnt Russian to rule Russia. Later, two Malaysian astronauts learnt Russian to fly into space.
April 12, 1961 — the world for the first time heard a human voice from outer space. The voice was in Russian. Since then, more than 100 Russians have spoken from outer space. It has been 60 years since the Russian language has been heard from spacecraft or from the space station.
Yuri Gagarin’s flight on that day and the launch of sputniks resulted in great interest in the Russian language.
Head of the Russian Federation’s Space Agency, Anatoli Perminov, used to say: “The last two centuries, Russian was considered a literary language and many Russian writers won the Nobel Prize, but in the middle of the last century, the word poekhali (let’s take off ) uttered by the first astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, changed the situation radically.
“The reality today is that in our world, in line with English as the language of business and French as the language of diplomacy, Russian is called the language of space.”
Today, everyone who participates in the international space programme learns Russian.
The legendary Russian astronaut Alexey Leonov (a two-time Russian Hero and the first who came into open space in 1965) was convinced that “language knowledge determines 30 per cent of success”.
The use of Russian in addition to English as well as language elements used by astronauts from other countries will be a means of communication that guarantees compatibility in International Space Station (ISS) crews for the long term.
According to Russian astronaut Pavel Vinogradov, “it is something unique and one of the special features of the space programme on the ISS. We began to integrate not only in the technical field, but at the language level too. That is an example of how people must live on Earth”.
Foreign astronauts should know Russian for a number of reasons. For example, enough to say that all nameplates, signs and inscriptions on the spacecraft are in Russian. Communication during training and rest is also facilitated when programme participants learn Russian.
In addition, the opportunity to read materials on space published in Russia, including the journal Novosti Kosmonavtiki (Space Science Journal). In the journal, one can find answers to important questions, including main events of space exploration, as well as training, activities and psychological aspects of an astronaut.
Head of the department of the Astronaut Training Centre, M.M. Kharlamov, concluded: “The safety of astronauts depends a lot on the mastery of the Russian language. The deeper the knowledge of the language, the safer the flight.”
Although almost everyone on the ISS knows English, there can be a situation when all commands from Earth will be given in Russian.
Among the beneficiaries are Malaysian astronauts, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar SHukor and Dr Faiz Khaleed. Dr Sheikh Muszaphar in an interview once said that in addition to official lessons, he used to spend weekends with Russian astronauts to improve his Russian. According to him, “most Russians are very friendly, especially when we can master their language”.
In turn, the two friendly Malaysian astronauts won Russian hearts.
The Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda even described Dr Sheikh Muszaphar as popular among Russian women.
The necessity of learning Russian was understood well also by Dr Nawar Ariffin from Universiti Malaya, who was among 10 candidates who studied Russian with me when I was lecturing there.
“I must warn that learning Russian is quite difficult in fact,” said Dr Sheikh Muszaphar. But, they managed to master the language satisfactorily.
The proof is that after successfully completing training as astronauts and expressing readiness to perform missions into space, they delivered their speeches to the Russian Space Agency Astronaut Selection Committee in Russian.
The experience of both Malaysian astronauts shows that if there is strong motivation, then language learning can always be successful. They have set a good example to others in Malaysia to also study Russian.