Sakha-Yakutia....

The republic of Sakha-Yakutia is approximately as big as 1/3 of continental USA (S -N: 2500 km, E-W: 2000 km) and is a huge part of the North-Eastern part of Siberia. Althought the republic is really big, the population is only about 1 Mio. people. The endless expanse of the landscape and the extreme climate contribute to the fact that it is not so densely populated. One of the most famous writers of the Republic, Mr. Kulakovsky, mentioned that the republic is simply not very rich in habitable area. The over 800,000 differently shaped lakes and the 20 large and small rivers give the landscape its own characteristic. The largest river Lena winds with a length of 4.310 km through the huge republic. There are also numerous high mountains and rock formations. However, about 120 different nations are represented among the approximately 1 million inhabitants. The largest nation (about 50% of the population) represents the people of Sakha (also called Yakut). Other nations like Russians, Ukrainien, Even, Evenk, Dulgane, Yukagir, Inuits and others are also represented.

The Republic is very rich in mineral resources like precious metals, oil, coal and diamonds. In part, this is also a reason for the variety of migrant workers, as many came and are still coming to Yakutsk to earn their livelihood. The most famous feature of the Republic is the extreme cold and the sign of the mammoth. In winter the temperatures in the capital Yakutsk reach about 55°C minus! In the summer however it is almost 40 ° C plus!

 A dictionary for the Sakha people

Our employee was involved in creating a dictionary, that is a huge help to the Sakha people for learning foreign languages. Until now all dictionaries were given with Russian as a source, this new dictionary has the Sakha language as the basis. The people group in the far-east of Siberia are very intelligent people and are eager to learn English and German. So the dictionary is a powerful tool for them. It contains the basic vocabulary in 4 languages Sakha-Russian-English-German.  The dictionary is now used in different schools, at the university and for private study.

Language-Camps

Different language-camps are taking place during the short but hot summers in Yakutia. Provide personal gets involved in teaching German or English and the students count it as a great privilege to have native speakers to talk to and to learn from. Its also very good for cultural exchange and the schoolkids learn a lot about different cultures, schools in the west and are well-prepared when they plan to study overseas.

Translator for foreign specialists

Quite often Russian organizations invite specialists from the West for an exchange or a seminar in different ares. For example: because of the extreme climate the roads in Siberia are often in bad shape. So the government decided to invest into a new Asphalt-construction-system. The hope was to improve the road-quality. Since the whole mashinery was constructed in the West, a specialist was invited to intruduce it and to help the local workers to get started. Our employee was asked to translate for this specialist.