Thread: I was told something that disturbed me...

According to this first generation Russian-american i spoke to, russian is a dying language, to which I replied how can the world's largest country's language be obsolescent? What I didn't have trouble believing was when she said some jewish families no longer teach their children Russian, (i know most speak hebrew or yiddish anyway, so what is one more right?)Granted this is one person and her families' opinions, but i was wondering if there was any validity to that statement. If so, what language would supplement Russian? I guess you can say I am learning to speak Russian (I taught myself cyrillics a few days ago in a matter of hours) and technically i can read russian (nobody said anything about comprehending.) I know I have only begun to crack the surface, and will not have a mastery of the language for quite some time, so is learning the language worth it? I have my mind made up already, and have no intentions on giving up my studies, but does the statement hold any truths? thank you all very much for your opinions on the matter.

I think maybe your friend is silly in the head.

did i say they were my friend?

She probably means it is dying out among Russian Jews. Among Russians it is alive and well. Так что учи, не пожалеешь!

I'd say 'among Russian Jews in America'. AFAIK there is a big worry in Israel - sociologists tend to consider 1 mio Russian Jews there as a new sub-ethnos - they just don't want to be assimilated and it's dangerous for Israeli national unity.

Originally Posted by Pravit

She probably means it is dying out among Russian Jews. Among Russians it is alive and well. Так что учи, не пожалеешь!

It isn't dying out among Russian Jews that live in Russia either. Any statement to the opposite is BS. In fact, it's Yiddish that's dying out. And anyway, everyone who speaks Yiddish in Russia is also fluent in Russian.

P.S. BTW, you will be very lucky if you find someone who can speak Yiddish in Russia. I have known a few old people, but they were kind of semi fluent in Yiddish and of course they were perfectly fluent in Russian. Their children only spoke Russian, some could understand their parent's Yiddish, but most knew only a handful of phrases. (tokhus oifn tisch!, that sort of thing)

Aha! So, as you see, Soroka, you will have nothing to lose by learning Russian. And your friend(EDIT: oops, sorry, acquaintance) is wrong.

russian is the language of the largest country in the world and even if the birth in the ukraine, belarus and russia is a national tragedy (putin said that and he's right), there are still at least 170 or 180 million people in the world whose mother tongue is russian. that's more than german and french, for instance.

still, it would be good for russian to keep a strong position in the whole cis (it's not really in danger in the ukraine but it may be dying in the caucasus states and in central asia).

obviously, russia has lost a lot of power in the last 20 years and the country will never regain this power. some time ago, some youth in western schools were even taught russian as the first foreign language. it's not even a third language now but that's where learning russian becomes interesting:
since nobody in the western world wants to learn it anymore, the few people who do will have a major asset in job seeking.
russia's gdp is going to rise a lot in the next 20 years and even today, the city with most billionaires in the world is moscow (last count: 37 including the mayor and his filthy rich wife).

and of course, russian is a strong language of culture.

i wish russian were having a stronger position but let not be too scared, it is not dying at all!

hopefully, the language of business in the cis will remain russian!!!!

Pravit wrote:

Among Russians it is alive

thank god!!!!