Hovhannes Saroyan is former Head of the Department for Administrative Legal Violations at the State Language Inspectorate, but he is still interested in issues concerning the sphere and gives his personal evaluations.

The former department head gave all the answers to questions starting from language on television and in the presses up to the opening of foreign language schools.

“It is an emphasized expression of altruism which has crossed all boundaries,” this is how the speaker labeled the opening of foreign language schools.

Instead, Hovhannes Saroyan suggested increasing the level of language instruction in public schools. “What is standing in our way to teach languages in tens of the 1,400 schools of Armenia? I am not even against teaching Turkish. That will only benefit us because we will know our enemy’s language,” says Mr. Saroyan.

Hovhannes Saroyan also doubted that the opening of foreign language schools is dictated from “abroad” and Armenia is tempted by the large sums of money. The distinguished philologist is concerned about the level of knowledge of Armenian today.

“Nobody should boast that he or she is proficient in Armenian. They need to have perfect knowledge of grabar, Western Armenian, Eastern Armenian and numerous dialects and that requires phenomenal knowledge,” says the speaker.

Speaking about his former office, Hovhannes Saroyan stated that the State Language Inspectorate didn't and still doesn’t have sufficient levers at its disposal.

“True, the inspectorate has increased fines for violations by 200 times, but that doesn’t solve the issue either.”

So, we must rely on the love and respect toward the mother language which, in their turn, are instilled within the family.

Juliet Arushanyan