In the only school in New York where the Russian language is taught, the 10 competition for the people

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In New York there is a school where absolutely all students read Pushkin’s poems in Russian and watch Russian cartoons. American teenagers seize Russian inclinations and conjugations - and dream of a trip to Russia.

Staten Island Technical High School is the only public school in New York with mandatory Russian language instruction. Teachers call this school the hidden gem of New York's fifth borough - Staten Island.

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There are 1356 students here - and getting in is not easy. Competition - approximately 10 people per place. A program with in-depth study of mathematics. 100% of students then go to higher education institutions. Russian is a compulsory foreign language for everyone.

Since there are no other such schools in the city, 7 Russian language teachers themselves form the basis of the Russian program.

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For young Americans, Pushkin is gradually becoming “our everything.”

“Also, both Shakespeare and Pushkin are the kind of literature that is absorbed into you, even if you do not understand the language. I think that they [the students] were embarrassed to say it, but they understood it,” says Evgenia Mishan, a literature teacher.

The school was opened at the end of the 80 of the last century, when the United States and Russia ceased to be enemies and hoped for a long true friendship.

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“Ronald Lauder and his foundation came to us and said that the Russian language is beginning to lead in engineering. The Cold War is ending. Competitions in space exploration are beginning to bear fruit. Lauder wanted to sponsor free three-month exchange programs between our students and Russian ones if Russian was studied here as the main foreign language. It was a very tempting offer. It made the school a little mysterious and completely unique,” ​​said Noelle Sanguinedo, the school’s head teacher.

Since then, hopes for a great friendship between the United States and Russia have broken on the pitfalls of big politics. In the US, the fashion in Russian has passed. She was driven out by Chinese fashion. However, for adolescents exotic Russian culture remained attractive.

In April of this year, the school signed a contract with the Russian Institute of the Russian language to exchange experience and use its textbook. And what if Russian policy leaks to this school with Russian educational approaches?

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“My goal, my philosophy as a teacher is for the word Russia to be associated not with current political events, but with culture, with history, with the fact that they understand Russians, know Russians, and it seems to me that this is much more important. But politics is one thing today, another tomorrow,” said Russian language teacher Natalya Ushakova.

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