Municipio de Mitontic: pareja presidencial

For a long time, the use of foreign languages in Estonia was influenced by different reigning powers and the relations between these powers (Tender 2010: 25). Allegedly, Estonians had the first contacts with a language different from their own already in the 13th _{century when Low German was imported to}

Estonian territories by Teutonic knights during the Northern Crusades (Ariste 1981: 26). 16th _{century Tallinn was already a multilingual town and advancing}

in one’s career required knowing all relevant local languages, which in those times were German, Swedish and Estonian (Talve 2004: 58–62). However, the situation in the countryside was different from that of the town: Estonian peasants were not expected to speak German or any other foreign language in that respect. German manor lords and the clergy either spoke Estonian them- selves or used the help of translators (Tender 2010: 25, Talve 2004: 58–62).

Until the 19th _{century, the educational system for Estonian peasants con-}

centrated on teaching reading and writing their native tongue. Access to any higher education institution was denied as studying in a town school required a working knowledge of German, which was the language of commerce and communication (Talve 2004: 327–330). Nevertheless, in the mid-19th _century

more and more Estonians received secondary education. Secondary school students learned classical languages, such as Latin, which was a prerequisite for being admitted to a university, Greek and Hebrew, and modern languages, such as Russian, French and English (ibid.). By the mid-19th _{century, many}

Estonians living in towns and earning their living in the service industry were able to communicate at least in three languages: German, Russian and Estonian (Ariste 1981: 34; Tender 2010: 26).

During the National Awakening (1860–1880), peasant schools started developing. Those who studied in a peasant school at a higher level learned also German and Russian (Talve 2004: 407–409). The peasant school system (and later also the town school system for the Baltic Germans) suffered a drawback at the end of the 19th _{century with the Russification: all education}

(except religious studies) was given in Russian (ibid.). However, Russification in the Baltic provinces was undertaken mainly against the Baltic Germans and remained largely a limited endeavour because of the strong national identity of Estonian and Latvian cultural activists (Brüggemann, 2010: 360–372). It came to its end with the revolution of 1905 in Russia. (Karjahärm 2012: 116)

The beginning of the 20th _{century saw the rise of the Estonian cultural scene.}

Young Estonian intellectuals recognised the need to break free from German and Russian cultural influences. They took interest in Finnish and French culture and therefore also in the respective languages. (Laur et al. 1997: 33) Knowledge of foreign languages was valued as this indicated a higher education and thus also a higher status in society (Tender 2010: 26).

Before the Soviet Occupation, Estonia’s (1918–1940) national curriculum for schools required learning two foreign languages in elementary school and another two in secondary school. In basic school, Russian was taught as the first foreign language and German or English as the second. Those who wanted a complete secondary education learned German or French as their third foreign language and Latin as their fourth. In the second half of the 1930s Estonian language policy changed and instead of German, English became the first foreign language taught at schools. (Tender 2010: 26–27)

During the Soviet Occupation of Estonia (1944–1991), Russian gained importance in all walks of life, especially in those sectors that were under the central control of Moscow (Keelehariduspoliitika ülevaade 2007). A Soviet citizen was not expected to know any other languages than Russian. However, in Estonian schools at least one other foreign language was taught, which was German or English. People used their knowledge of foreign languages to get information from behind the Iron Curtain that otherwise would have been unreachable. (Tender 2010: 27)

In the 1970s and 1980s in Northern Estonia, Finnish television became an important media which provided a different outlook to the world and culture (ibid.), thus creating an oppositional identity (Verschik 2005). This helped a good part of Northern Estonians acquire elementary communication skills in Finnish (Finnish Institute 2006). Knowing several foreign languages was considered as something desirable; it also had a symbolic meaning celebrating the contact with and knowledge about the free world in the circumstances of the Soviet Occupation (Tender 2010: 28).

Graph 1 depicts knowledge of foreign languages in different age groups today, according to the Population and Housing Census 2011 (henceforth Census 2011) (the graph concerns both Estonian- and Russian-speakers as it is not possible to extract data separately for both groups).

Graph 1. Knowledge of foreign languages

0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 0-14 15-29 30-49 50-64 65 and older Russian English Estonian Finnish German Other

Out of a little less than 1.3 million people counted during Census 2011, appro- ximately 370,000 said that they speak one foreign language. Approximately 290,000 people said that they speak two and 150,000 said that they speak three foreign languages. (Census 2011)

Graph 1 shows that the most popular foreign languages in today’s Estonia are English, Russian and Finnish. Due to the significant number of Russian- speakers (approximately 30%), Estonian figures in the graph as a foreign lan- guage as well. German is the least popular of the five most prevalent foreign languages used in Estonia today.

The graph shows a stark difference between the foreign language know- ledge of the younger and older generations. The number of people speaking English is the highest among the younger generation, peaking at the age group of 15–29, and starts to decline among 50 years old. Knowledge of Russian is rather modest in the younger generation. English is spoken hardly at all by the 65 years old and over; Russian is still prevalent among the older generation.

The graph reflects the language policy of the Soviet Union, the citizens of which were expected to speak only Russian. After the end of the Soviet Occupation, Estonia turned towards the West and with that English gained importance. English is the most relevant language in present-day Estonia while Russian has lost its former position in society.