Unlike the United States, where English dominates both the official sphere and most public ones, Kazakh and Russian live together in Kazakhstan like roommates. There are people here who speak only Kazakh,…
Three Languages and Two Alphabets on One Sign
Take a look! This is a sign in the Almaty metro, that I passed by during one of my excursions in the city. This station, which is directly underneath the Auezov Theater,…
Coming to Life
What do you know about Qazaqstan? Where I’m from, most people know very little. There’s a sense it’s a big, Muslim, post-USSR country in Central Asia, but that’s about it. If you…
The Nomads at Nomad!
Our most recent excursion took us to NOMAD ethnocenter just outside of Almaty! We learned about the evolution of Kazakhstani armor, the traditional Kazakh yurt, and the crafts which are central to…
What it means to be Qazaq in contemporary Kazakhstani literature
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Socialist Republics had to cope with the sudden lack of a literary publication system among the collapse of other institutional infrastructure. Kazakhstan has…
Languages in Almaty, Kazakhstan
How can we define the linguistic environment of modern-day Kazakhstan? Before coming to Kazakhstan I was completely unaware of the environment. Now, having been here for 2 weeks, I am still unaware,…
Transitioning from Kazakh to Qazaq
Just a few months ago, when I first heard that the Kazakh government had decided to revamp their language, specifically, to latinize their alphabet, I was immediately brought back to the early…
Multilingual Almaty
While I came here to study the Russian language, Almaty is more than just a Russian-speaking city. Almost everyone with whom I’ve interacted here speaks Russian, but at the same time it’s…
Дастархан из сундука
Привет всем! Хорошего дня или вечера! Каждый день мы будем показывать вам одну нашу любимую фотографию из Казахстана. Я, наверное, начну. Мою фотографию можно, наверное, назвать “Казахское гостепреимство: дастархан в ресторане “Сандық”….
The City Through Literature (Adrian and Ellis)
“Beloved Mordor” by Pavel Bannikov At first glance, it feels odd to compare the seemingly harmless Esentai riverbank to the realm of a dark lord, and even odder to portray this realm…
