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Rima Gražienė, director of the Vilnius Central Library, asked on her Facebook: why do Lithuanian citizens who have graduated not from a Lithuanian school, but have long-term work experience, have to retake the exam?
Before that, he told the LRT that he would rather pay fines than tell his employees to take the Lithuanian state language test. 15 minutes R. Gražienė said he does not change his position: “Currently, most of the employees are on vacation, have not seen it and do not know it. Only two or three know it [žmonės]. I promise to invite you in September, so you can decide for yourselves <...>. It would be my will not to send them because it is redundant information, in no way is it necessary. After all, this is the 2003 resolution. “
According to the interlocutor, the library staff also voted and paid taxes, and they could not have gotten a job without knowing the Lithuanian language.
“What is too absurd here? She asked. – I understand that these are laws <...>I stay with them, and even very. Still they are [įstatymai] and resolutions are outdated and need to be changed <...>“
15 minutes After contacting the Chief of the Language Inspection Audrius Valotka and asking why this instruction was issued at this time, he replied: “Because a scheduled inspection has now been carried out.”
Valotka was also asked if the Language Inspectorate relies on library manager selection methods for its work. Do you think people who have already been hired may not know Lithuanian?
“They must speak Lithuanian. Regardless of whether it is a library or any other place where there is a sphere of service, communication with stakeholders, clients or patients,” he replied.
Photo by Edgar Kurauskas / dr. Audrius Valotka
Is an exam required? How should it be?
15 minutes He asked if a language test was required to work at a cultural institution. How should it be?
When asked how the examination of languages anticipates this examination, A. Valotka answers: “We did not imagine the examination. It is prepared by the municipality and is the responsibility and responsibility of the municipality. “
However, is the exam really a means of demonstrating competence in the Lithuanian language? According to the interviewee, the exam “testifies” to this payment. He later offers an “analogy to the behavior of the library director now.”
Imagine that the head of a transportation company, say what a taxi organization says, says, “Why do you require our drivers to have a driver’s license? After all, they have been driving successfully for 30 years without a license! See how they drive successfully! ”
He sees no humiliation.
Regarding passing the exam, the interviewer sees no humiliation: “Many people who are forced to pass driving tests to obtain a driver’s license experience the same humiliation.”
Linguist L.Vaicekauskienė thinks differently: “If it were non-Lithuanian immigrants, I imagine that you can take a language test before working in state institutions. But this does not require costly language control authorities. If a person is employed and their skills are appropriate for the job, employees themselves can easily assess their language skills. I have taught many Lithuanians Danish, and when they came to Denmark they were reviewed (often by interviews) by future employers. I don’t think state intervention is needed here. In this case, I understand that the library was well managed and that language officials carried out incredibly bureaucratic discrimination. ”
15 minutes By contacting the researcher V. Vukotičius, whose mother tongue is not Lithuanian, he remembers the moment when he had to take the exam himself.
According to the scientist, his situation was different: “I was lucky to get a job at a scientific institution. There is a special law here that foreigners working here are exempt from the requirements to obtain a work permit. This means that academic institutions are free to hire famous foreign researchers. <...>. In 2014, I started working at the Lithuanian Language Institute, then I understood the language perfectly, but I would not have spoken to you like now. Sometime after my employment, there was a line where all non-Lithuanian speakers should have a good command of the state language. I don’t know what that means, but I didn’t like introducing an unnecessary rule. After all, everyone there still speaks Lithuanian. This is a scientific institution and why people who do not speak or speak poorly come here to work. [lietuviškai]Or maybe they are Baltic and speak Latvian?
V.Vukotičius assesses the existing Lithuanian language exam, which you took “for personal reasons” and the desire to assess knowledge as being of high quality.
The problem is with what forces you to keep it.
“It just came to our attention then. I’ll tell you a situation. When I went to take the exam, I met a programming teacher who worked at a vocational school in Vilnius. Along with the other guardians (I am a Serb, there was still a woman from Sacartwell), we asked him where he came from. He replied that he was from Vilnius and that he had been working at the school for a long time, but the school received a letter. It was the year that Audrys Antanaitis became the president of VLKK. I suspect that with his arrival, the principles of the work changed and stopped correcting the language and punishing ethnic Lithuanians, but began to focus on non-native speakers. This current decision by A. Valotka to attack the minority only confirms my hypotheses “, said.
Some experts see discrimination
V.Vukotičius was not surprised by the news, “because the new inspection with the new president will start looking for a job and will begin to interpret the laws in a way that is favorable to them. However, this interpretation is limited to direct discrimination. “V. Vukotičius considers this resolution a” purely discriminatory minority issue “.
15 minutes He asked him if he had to face language discrimination while working in Lithuania. He replies that little has been done in Lithuania on locals and foreigners. “There are very few services here in other languages, and even on the Migration Board there may be very few people who speak Russian, but there are very few who speak English, but it is improving.” In principle, it is believed that the Lithuanian language is not only the state language and can be used by people, but is interpreted as a ban on using other languages. At this time, it is extremely detrimental to Lithuania. “
At this time, it is extremely detrimental to Lithuania.
V. Vukotičius has faced an unpleasant situation at the Migration Board: “They made a mistake in my case. Nothing like that, because everyone makes mistakes. But I had to speak, write a complaint, understand the laws, which was very difficult for me at the time. I can’t even imagine what it should have been like for people who don’t speak Lithuanian at all and have nothing to help them. “
“The Language Commission and the Language Inspectorate are two bodies that advocate for language problems. <...>. There are many laws, but they are based only on laws that are favorable to you, ”said V. Vukotičius.
V.Vukotičius 15 minutes He said that people who graduated from a non-Lithuanian school in Lithuania actually participated in the Lithuanian language classes and passed the exam: “There was a lot of discussion about whether the exam should be the same or facilitated, but it is not important. It is simply the distrust of non-Lithuanian schools, the contempt for their importance and the good work they do. “
It is simply the distrust of non-Lithuanian schools, the contempt for their importance and the good work they do.
“I worked at the Lithuanian Language Institute without knowing the Lithuanian language perfectly, but this did not stop me from reporting, writing scientific articles and raising the scientific level of the institute,” said the interlocutor.
According to V. Vukotičius, the Language Inspectorate is “looking for a job” as follows:
“Why do I say so harshly? A year ago, the inspection stopped working, and before that, the media was one of the main orientations to correct the language, write letters, verify the quality of the journalists’ language and impose a fine on the company in the That works. When you can no longer be punished for that, you really have nothing to do. They cannot participate in work encouraged or beneficial to the Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian language community. They only know how to punish and find something. “
Speaking of people who graduated from a non-Lithuanian school before 1991, work in Lithuanian institutions and are citizens, V. Vukotičius says it is strange. “Now 2020, if they started working in 1991, those people are already going into retirement. I don’t understand what this is about. I think this is purely populism. <...>“
I think this is purely populism.
Linguist L. Vaicekauskienė negatively evaluates this specific instruction, “as a manifestation of a systematic attack, perhaps previously planned, that will not be limited to this particular case.”
“It will apply to many because controllers now need to demonstrate their power, to demonstrate that they have something to do,” he said. – This is a political decision, the president of VLKK is appointed by the Seimas and this appointment was related from the beginning to the problems of writing non-Lithuanian last names in passports. The VLKK has not withstood mounting criticism in recent years as it had to run its own list of the major language errors, according to which the inspection punished people. The list is no longer there, so you should look for other activities. Audrys Antanaitis once mentioned that it would send an inspector to inspect national minorities. I think it is systematic discrimination with political support. “
The interviewee also considers that such intensification of inadequate controls may be “linked to any behind-the-scenes agreement to obtain European subsidies”.
“It is great that the library has responded. The information will go to the media, more discussions will start, “said L. Vaicekauskienė. In his opinion, the language issue is used particularly for political manipulation.” The Lithuanian language is constantly associated with some threats that do not exist. And people accept it with confidence. Basically a fictional problem is created here. As I understand it, people handle themselves perfectly in the library itself, there is no reason to doubt their competencies, “he continued.
There can be many things here: institutional power, money, the desire to survive, it has practically nothing to do with language.
According to L.Vaicekauskienė, this resolution may also be related to the upcoming elections. “There can be a lot of things here: institutional power, money, the desire to survive, it has practically nothing to do with language.”
Vidmantas Balkūnas photo / 15min / Loreta Vaicekauskienė
For those who miss the exam, it offers the profession of a charger
In an interview, LRT A.Valotka statedthat the failure of this exam “will have to find another job, such as a charger or the like, where there is no need to interact with clients.”
15 minutes When A. Valotka is asked if he does not believe this is discrimination, he replies that he does not. “It is respectful of the law,” he said.
When asked by R. Gražienė how he evaluates this statement, he replied that he considers this statement as discrimination: “Of course, there is disrespect here, discrimination. And does Valotka know that there is still a Labor Code? On what basis is it? [šiuos žmones] send to? On what basis did they work until then? The absurd is complete and I highly value this phrase. “
L. Vaicekauskienė says that such “rude and in the name of the state” speech of the language normators was very pronounced at the beginning of Independence. “It just came to our attention then. And the attention of people outraged by such discrimination that support the library, as well as journalists, shows that the state has changed. Only one segment in our state has not changed: language drivers “
She believes that in Lithuania it is often forgotten that people can understand and decide for themselves, active and critical people can act, without government control.
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