Quote Originally Posted by Deborski View Post
Here, if you study Russian, they call you a "commie." I can't count the number of times people have made fun of me because of my life-long interest in Russia and it's culture, people, and language.
Quote Originally Posted by kgcole View Post
When one is talking about millions of people, even having met a few thousand doesn't give an accurate cross section of a populace.
I understand that Deborski didn’t mean the whole nation. Nevertheless such a testimony impresses a lot. It will NEVER occur to anyone in Ukraine to disparage a person for their interest in the US and the English language. They are considered as ambitious and potentially more successful people. They may be even envied for that, but never disrespected. It’s been long ago since looking westward meant “родину продал”.