[Newmag Summer Fest] Gnel Nalbandyan: Books Create and Shatter Myths (video in Armenian)

More than 773 million adults in the world are illiterate. The main goal of the international literacy day is to remind people about the importance of literacy and the efforts to spread the word. UNESCO defines - “literacy is freedom”. A literate person is one who can, with understanding, both read and write a short, simple statement. 

The literacy rate in Armenia is not low, but the educational system in Armenia is not functional. The editor-in-chief of Newmag Gnel Nalbandyan believes that it is impossible to force a child towards reading. “If you let a person civilize himself, he will not achieve desired results. The mechanisms start at school and before that at the family. Very often the family sends the child to kindergarten, school, university, army and the parents think that they have nothing else to do. This is the wrong approach. The model of education is introduced first of all in the family. The child should look at his parents and learn that reading is a family tradition, a very ordinary human condition.”

Gnel Nalbandyan cites Armenian writer Raffi, who said - “give me a good generation and I will build this country.” The editor-in-chief of Newmag asks a rhetorical question - where should we find that “good generation”? You shouldn’t rely solely on the state’s role. This issue seeks for institutionalized solutions. Starting from family to the community itself, various institutions should be involved. “It is necessary to invest a lot of money in creating a civilized environment. The same is true in the case of Nobel Prizes. If you want to succeed, you have to spend money, develop a strategy, and that strategy should not be changed with each new government.”

During the Soviet era, the world was convinced that Russians are the most literate nation and read the most. You could find pictures or shots in the newspapers and TVs, where people were holding books in their hands at the metro station, in the streets and parks. According to Gnel Nalbandyan, there was another technical reason for all that. The volumes of Lenin, Stalin, Brezhnev were constantly published, for example, Chapaev’s volumes were published more than that of Shakespeare’s. “Books create and shatter myths. Those volumes were published 100 times, each time with 60.000 copies. However, all of that was a myth. We should not read or publish books just to show off the numbers. Through reading we aim to reach world civilization. Books not only enrich personal experience, but also make it easier to make rational decisions by combining the views and experiences of others.”

The rich Armenian vocabulary continues to remain in dictionaries. It is like a box full of gold, the key of which we have lost.“Gold is just a metal as long as we don’t use it. In order to realize its real value, we need to use it. That’s what Narekatsi was claiming. He suggested and used words and phrases, which would otherwise remain in dictionaries.”

Gnel Nalbandyan notes that writing should undoubtedly be developed. It is far more valuable and the responsibility is quite high. You can’t develop a country based on oral speeches and promises. Written material is polished and regulated. Moreover, it has a long-term effect.