Three decades after gaining its independence from the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan is now seeing a boom in Kazakh language classes, with a younger generation preferring the native language over Russian, once the lingua franca of the Soviet Union . "Historically, the Russian language was everywhere in [the city] Karaganda," explains Kazakh learner Lidiya Khan. "The Kazakh language was practically not used... [It] has started to revive." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES