Abstract:

A language represents not only the cultural core of a nation and its speakers but is also an instrument to connect people of third countries as a lingua franca. Being acquired not only as a means of cultural transfer, but as an instrument of communication to reach a more pragmatic purpose, a language becomes a commodity in the economic sense of the term. In this article we will analyze the use of Russian as a commodity within the Italian education system and as a means of business negotiations. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the free market rules started to be implemented in the Russian Federation, new outlooks were possible for Russian language. Those who could not leave the country for tourism or affairs, begun to travel and make investments abroad. As a fact, it created a demand curve for Russian speakers, in order to build mutually beneficial cooperation in business and education. In this article we will analyze the role of Russian as a commodity, building competitive advantages for speakers and firms or institutions which hire them. We made a research on the role of the most spoken slavic language within the Italian university system. At the same time, we talked to influent company managers to prove or disprove the crucial role of Russian language to make business cooperation with Russian speaking countries. We investigate the consistency of Russian as one of the most studied languages in the university system of Italy and as a critical competitive advantage for those firms willing to enter the Russian market.

Keywords:

Commodification of language, Russian language, Italian language, education, business cooperation.