Where do young people in the Soviet Union learn foreign languages?
Both in school and at college, because a foreign language is a compulsory subject in both. We also have special "language" schools where the teaching is in a foreign language. In the colleges, too, the amount of hours spent on a foreign language differs. Technical colleges, naturally, allot less time for foreign language study than colleges training philologists or historians. More than 100 of the teachers' colleges in the USSR have foreign language departments, and there are 12 special foreign language institutes.
Since a secondary education has now become universal and compulsory, everyone not only can but must learn a foreign language. If a pupil does not pass his foreign language course he is not awarded a secondary school certificate.
For those who want to know a foreign language better there is a network of classes they can attend in their free time. Some are free of charge, while others charge a moderate fee (36 roubles for six months). Such classes are held two or three times a week. In addition many factories, offices and educational establishments have special groups where young people can learn a foreign language, or study the literature, history, geography and economics of foreign countries.