Eesti ülikooliks võõrkeelte abil

Becoming an Estonian Universitywith the Help of Foreign LanguagesTerje LõbuUniversity of Tartu MuseumIn the autumn of 1919, when the Estonian-language University of Tartuopened its doors, the issue of finding lecturers was one of the mosturgent questions besides other problems. The main purpose of the nationaluniversity was to make the transition to Estonian-language instructionand research work, which is why they had to find employeescapable of working in Estonian. Firstly, negotiations were held withpotential researchers of Estonian origin. However, it became clear fromthe start that the few Estonian researchers scattered across Russiacould not fill the positions of all lecturers. The searches turned towardsFinland and Sweden, since Scandinavian lecturers were considered themost suitable candidates. They came from similar cultural backgroundsand it was hoped that they would soon be able to lecture in Estonian.That was how it went indeed – L. Kettunen, A. R. Cederberg, J. G.Granö, A. M. Tallgren, A. Bierre and others proved their suitability.Likewise, many lecturers hired to the Baltic German University alsolearnt Estonian quickly, as they had lived in the language environmentfor years. Nevertheless, the University had to take on lecturers, who atfirst lectured in foreign languages: among them were researchers whoescaped from Russia (mainly in the Faculty of Law) and people whoarrived from Europe – many of whom lectured in German.It was specified in the agreements concluded with the foreignershow long they could lecture in a foreign language. Pursuant to theAct of the University of Tartu passed in 1925, professors had theright to lecture in a foreign language for five years, while associateprofessors had to learn Estonian within a year. Often, the right tohold lectures in a foreign language was extended with the permissionof the Ministry of Education but the rules became stricter asof 1930. In early 1920s, the Estonian students did not struggle withunderstanding lectures in a foreign language since they had studiedin mostly Russian-language schools during the czarist rule and weretaught German as a foreign language – it was the poor level of Estonianthat was a cause for concern. But as years went by, the more itwas complained that students have difficulties with understandinglectures in foreign languages.The instruction remained in a foreign language the longest inthe faculties of law and medicine. Russian dominated in the facultyof law since it employed former researchers of law of the Russianempire as professors, and their studies of Estonian progressed veryslowly indeed. German dominated in the faculty of medicine since itemployed both local Germans as well as foreign researchers, which iswhy the faculty meetings were mainly held in German.While only 49.8% of lectures were in Estonian in 1920, the proportionhad increased to 93.2% by 1938. At the same time, 53.5% ofthe University lecturers were Estonian in 1929, while the respectiveproportion was 84.5% in 1938 – this shows that foreign lecturerssucceeded in learning Estonian. Despite the fact that the state andUniversity were striving towards an Estonian-language study environmentat the University of Tartu, there were no signs of discord betweennationalities, or discrimination. The multicultural atmosphereof the University only enriched Estonian research since the foreignlecturers brought new research methods and instruction forms aswell as helped to establish relations with European research centres