Language Schools of MGIMO-University

Abstract

In 1943, when the Department of International Relations at MSU was established to develop one year later into the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), the first task of the faculty was to teach future diplomats of foreign languages, which they for the most part simply did not know. Of course, in the midst of World War II, the most important foreign language seemed to be German. But the question was in providing for language support for the system of world diplomacy of the Soviet state. And pretty soon it became clear that proficiency in two foreign languages was the main advantage of MGIMO graduates over graduates of all other national universities. The language study at MGIMO is of applied nature: while studying languages students at the same time receive other professions - a diplomat, an economist, a lawyer, a journalist. Studying a language of profession became an academic niche of MGIMO. That is why today MGIMO entered the Guinness Book of Records for the number of foreign languages studied: 53 in 2014.