Twitterati Embrace Kazakh Language

Twitter is buzzing this week with the melodies of Kazakh as Kazakhstan’s Twitterati launched a campaign to encourage the use of the language on the social network.

The #kzday campaign got off to a lively start on July 27. The date wasn’t chosen by chance. It was a Wednesday, an auspicious day for Kazakhs on which they like to embark on new enterprises, and organizers say #kzday will take place every Wednesday.

This campaign was proposed by @anatili, a user aiming to assist with learning Kazakh, and @battalov, who identifies himself as Arlan Battalov, a commercial real estate specialist. 

There are already plenty of users tweeting in Kazakh, but this campaign is aimed at promoting more dialogue in Kazakh on Twitter, where discussions of Kazakh affairs often take place in Russian.

The lively first debate featured diverging views on whether it was permissible to make mistakes in Kazakh grammar in the interests of communication. 

@battalov took a relaxed view. “I learned Kazakh in the street and in the village – there might be mistakes,” he tweeted. 

Fortunately, the grammar fascists were outnumbered by those favoring communication, or the debate might not have lasted long.

The discussion was joined by @MuratAbenov, a member of the lower house of parliament, who stands out as unusual among his parliamentary colleagues for his willingness to embrace new media to engage with his electorate.

“GREAT IDEA!” he tweeted – in Russian – when the idea was mooted. 

But he soon got into the swing of things and switched to Kazakh, summing up the mood joyfully as the experimental day drew to a close: “The first #kzday was a success.”

@MuratAbenov was so inspired by this grassroots approach that he suggested Astana, which has long tried to promote Kazakh by throwing money at top-down methods, take a lesson.

“I think the promotion of the language should rely precisely on this sort of #kzday initiative ‘from below’ and not on spending half a billion tenge on a couple of portals,” he tweeted.

Will his words fall on deaf ears? Well, maybe not. Prime Minister @KarimMassimov_E, an avid tweeter, just happens to be one of his followers.