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Not really. I like the sound much better than German, for example
I just think that Russian isn't just very useful language to know, unless one has some family or work ties to it or loves to learn languages.
I agree with grega and herenow 100%!
That's not saying much because even Neonazis will tell you German doesn't sound too special, from what I've encountered people whose first language is English consider French as a god's gift to mankind and there's even a word for it francophone but German is just considered casual like Hungarian, Finish, Dutch or English. This still doesn't explain what's to like about Russian: hard grammar, "e" is "ye" and drunk intonation come on. In fact the only reason why someone from Ukraine will speak it is because they have the same alphabet but the Latin alphabet is simple if you know Cyrillic already, as is the Greek alphabet.
Why is not the Russian language popular among former Soviet Bloc countries? As after all Russia is a neighbour to those former East Bloc countries. Of course, during Soviet Bloc times Russian was taught in the schools there, but since the fall of the Soviet Union it has changed and there is much less people learning Russian.
Russian language is not too difficult for East Europeans like Poles, and other Slavic countries.
As other posters have said, Russia is an economic backwater (I’ve heard it described as a petrol station that pretends to be a country) and Russia oppressed Eastern Europe for 40-70 years. It’s great that you want to learn it but I have no interest in learning the language of people who are murdering Ukrainians.
I am learning Russian and I live in Australia. Russia is very far from Australia. I find the Russian language a beautiful language. I have always been interested in Russian culture and history and that is a real motivator of learning Russian. Plus Russian speakers are found everywhere. An example in my last overseas trip which was Bali, it was common encountering Russian speakers. It was the same when I was in Thailand too. In fact one of the hotels I stayed at most people were from Russia and Ukraine. BTW learning a language such as Russian is equipping yourself with a tool you can use to communicate with others, expand your knowledge of the world, and potentially expand your skillset.
The politics of Russian is not a factor of my desire to learn Russian.
BTW I am also been learning for years another language which I was told was not useful which is Japanese. I could have taken their advice, but I choose not to. BTW there is no such thing as a useless language to learn.
Eastern Europe has masses of Ukranians and the Ukrainians are much more likely to know Russian than English. Communicating in a language they already know does certainly help them.
I agree with you that knowing a language is never useless, however there will be various factors to consider when choosing one. For example, those familiar with French will have an easier time learning Spanish, Portuguese or Italian due to the their shared roots.
The other big factor is “usefulness”. I deliberately put that in brackets as it’s a subjective situation. Russian is interesting for literature and the arts, but there are other exotic languages (speaking from a Western perspective) that have a wider audience, such as Mandarin, Arabic or Bahasa Indonesian.
You bring up Japanese, which is an interesting case, as there are fewer native speakers of that language. The big difference is that Japan excels at soft power, with things like the tech and pop culture enticing people to learn the language. I know a guy who chose to learn Japanese because of his interest in manga/anime.
As other posters have said, Russia is an economic backwater (I’ve heard it described as a petrol station that pretends to be a country) and Russia oppressed Eastern Europe for 40-70 years. It’s great that you want to learn it but I have no interest in learning the language of people who are murdering Ukrainians.
Imagine not learning a language just because that country invaded and committed war crimes. By that logic, no one would study English, Spanish, German and Japanese. An example is someone in the Arab world refusing to learn English because of what the Americans and British did to Iraq.
Anyway, it's important to recognize that people are not their government. Languages represent a culture, not a government. Governments are temporary.
You must also add that all people from ex-soviet countries that lives in major cities HATE RUSSIA. All ex-soviet countries endured decades of suffering by Russia.
Only in the smaller villages that border Russia some people speak Russian and long for the old days of soviet era.
I didn't think it needed to be mentioned. I thought it was understood as part of the #1 reason I gave. In fact, I was surprised the question needed to be asked at all.
The politics of Russian is not a factor of my desire to learn Russian.
BTW I am also been learning for years another language which I was told was not useful which is Japanese. I could have taken their advice, but I choose not to. BTW there is no such thing as a useless language to learn.
Eastern Europe has masses of Ukranians and the Ukrainians are much more likely to know Russian than English. Communicating in a language they already know does certainly help them.
It's not for you to tell people in former eastern bloc countries, that Russian could be useful to them, and that political issues associated with the language aren't relevant. You've never had to live under Soviet domination. Your thread topis is "why is Russian not popular for former East Bloc countries". We told you. You'll never change the perspective of people who had to live with Russian forced on them, and with a socialist economy forced on them. Respect their reasons, or if you can't, just move on. There's no reason to try to convince us that foreign language study is enriching. We know that. We're not the people you think shouldn't reject Russian.
Now that we've answered your topic question, are we done here? The thread has served its purpose.
It's not for you to tell people in former eastern bloc countries, that Russian could be useful to them, and that political issues associated with the language aren't relevant. You've never had to live under Soviet domination. Your thread topis is "why is Russian not popular for former East Bloc countries". We told you. You'll never change the perspective of people who had to live with Russian forced on them, and with a socialist economy forced on them. Respect their reasons, or if you can't, just move on. There's no reason to try to convince us that foreign language study is enriching. We know that. We're not the people you think shouldn't reject Russian.
Now that we've answered your topic question, are we done here? The thread has served its purpose.
I just stating the opinion, but people have gone all political in this thread. I trying to avoid the politics as much as possible, as that can be discussed on other threads. If people don't want to learn Russian in Eastern Europe that is fine. If people in Eastern Europe and have reasons to learn Russian it is fine by them too.
I just stating the opinion, but people have gone all political in this thread. I trying to avoid the politics as much as possible, as that can be discussed on other threads. If people don't want to learn Russian in Eastern Europe that is fine. If people in Eastern Europe and have reasons to learn Russian it is fine by them too.
Well unfortunately there is no avoiding politics with this topic if you want an honest answer. Sorry if I came off strong, I support you in your quest to learn Russian, and I’m pleased that you have an open mind, I wish more people had your mindset.
That being said another way of framing this is, why don’t Russians learn how to speak Polish, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian etc. they are Slavic languages after all it shouldn’t be so difficult? Why does Russian need to be the default Slavic Language?
I just stating the opinion, but people have gone all political in this thread. I trying to avoid the politics as much as possible, as that can be discussed on other threads. If people don't want to learn Russian in Eastern Europe that is fine. If people in Eastern Europe and have reasons to learn Russian it is fine by them too.
Like I said it's not just politics, while it's very subjective I'd say 70% of the population in eastern europe doesn't like the way russian sounds (actually I mean the West and South slavic lands) not Ukraine and Belarus because Ukrainian and Belarusian are too similar to Russian to think otherwise. Other than pure sound you have hard grammar and Poles, Czechs etc don't use cyrillic alphabet. The reason why someone will use English for example is because it's simpler and it's everywhere.
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