Thread: Why did you choose to learn Russian?

Originally Posted by allaspbny

I live in NY and teach Russian to so called "heritage Russian speakers" ...

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Originally Posted by allaspbny

I live in NY and teach Russian to so called "heritage Russian speakers" - kids born to Russian-speaking parents. You may be surprised but the number of parents who want their kids to study Russian is very small. The overwhelming majority does not care about keeping the language. They themselves speak Runglish - a mixture of two languages, when people have not leanerd one but have already forgotten the other. (Например, в русском магазине в Бруклине продащицы предлагают сыр "слайсиками и писиком". Когда я однажды попросила нарезать лосося, мне гордо заявили, "мы лаксы не слайсаем". Я, конечно, тут же спросила: "А что вы с ними делаете?", коварно ожидая, что продащица их "писает", но она - какая жалость! - ушла от ответа).
So what can you expect from their kids? They understand when their grannies call them to eat. If they answer in Russian, it is without gender, cases, agreement, etc. The majority of kids watch Russian animated cartoons, but what they get out of them is a big question. Between themselves and with their parents the kids speak only in English. Then, in colleges, some of the kids think that they may get an easy credit for the language that they have heard from their grandmas and choose Russian. They start struggling with letter, cases, gender, and all other features of Russian grammar and finish hating it.

Спасибо за ответ. Очень грустно, что некоторые люди решают не знать родной язык своих родителей. Впрочем, они сами отказываются от преимущества, так как знание нескольких языков означает более широкий круг общения и кругозор. Подразумевает другую степень свободы, наконец. Раз эти люди так не любят свое отечество, так может, это и к лучшему, что они не владеют русским.

Originally Posted by allaspbny

I live in NY and teach Russian to so called "heritage Russian speakers" - kids born to Russian-speaking parents. You may be surprised but the number of parents who want their kids to study Russian is very small. The overwhelming majority does not care about keeping the language. They themselves speak Runglish - a mixture of two languages, when people have not leanerd one but have already forgotten the other. (Например, в русском магазине в Бруклине продащицы предлагают сыр "слайсиками и писиком". Когда я однажды попросила нарезать лосося, мне гордо заявили, "мы лаксы не слайсаем". Я, конечно, тут же спросила: "А что вы с ними делаете?", коварно ожидая, что продащица их "писает", но она - какая жалость! - ушла от ответа).
So what can you expect from their kids? They understand when their grannies call them to eat. If they answer in Russian, it is without gender, cases, agreement, etc. The majority of kids watch Russian animated cartoons, but what they get out of them is a big question. Between themselves and with their parents the kids speak only in English. Then, in colleges, some of the kids think that they may get an easy credit for the language that they have heard from their grandmas and choose Russian. They start struggling with letter, cases, gender, and all other features of Russian grammar and finish hating it.

I knew a Thai lady like this. She would come home from work and try to speak Thai to the kid but the kid would always respond in English, it's just natural to use the language that he hears in school and all around him. It's unreasonable to expect little islands of foreign language to survive
in the big sea of the native tongue. Also American kids feel a great pressure to conform and to not seem different so they will be hesitant to use their parents' native tongue; when they get older some kids regret this. I know a Chinese who never learned Mandarin at home and now he's studying it in college.

In the past 5 years of my life i'v met a handful of Russian friends in Canada and i find them very intriguing. So I became compelled to learn Russian and study Russian history and I must say I am having fun doing it.

Originally Posted by dogchasingcars

... I am having fun doing it.

Like chasing cars? :P

Originally Posted by Rtyom

Like chasing cars? :P

Yes! You should try it sometime. Huge adrenaline rush !

You may be surprised but the number of parents who want their kids to study Russian is very small. The overwhelming majority does not care about keeping the language. They themselves speak Runglish - a mixture of two languages, when people have not leanerd one but have already forgotten the other.

Слыхали о таком...
А тяжело или легко будет сохранить у ребенка русский, от многого зависит.

I sort of fell into it. I dropped a class in college...my roommate was taking Russian as her foreign language and decided to join her. However, I've always been interested in Russian history. So it worked out for me, I guess

i've been in love with the country for 30 years, first from the pictures i saw in school. my teacher had visited once.

i want to go and visit someday, and how better to travel than as a person who can communicate in the language of the place you are seeing?

german is also a bit of a difficult language. but i taught myself a little and then went to visit, alone. that is way to have a real adventure.

I am trying to learn Russian for several reasons, none of them reasonable.
Because I'm tired of English.
Because I don't like Spanish, French, or German. (not the people, the language)
Because the thought of being fluent in a language(s) that's not my mother tongue is attractive to me.
Because Russian sounds very musical and unique. To me, it sounds like a mix between Greek, Arabic, and German.
Because Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский was a great Russian composer to whom I can only aspire as a musician.
Other than that, Russian is awesome.

I decided to learn Russian because it seemed like a fun language to learn. Since I live in SoCal, Spanish would seem like a much wiser choice so I'm learning that one too. But I'm not too far in either one. If learning Spanish is like climbing a mountain, I've only taken my first steps. As for Russian, I'm still packing my bags. I seem to be getting a leg up on learning other (I almost wrote 'foreign' but considering where I'm from, Spanish isn't exactly foreign ) languages because since my mom is involved in the military she has access to the Rosetta Stone language programs. She has access, ergo, I have access. (Don't tell the government ) At this point, I'm heavily reliant on Google Translate for whatever Russian you throw at me (or Spanish for that matter). I've been coming here every once and a while and finally decided to sign-up. I like to help people with their English and explain idioms so fire away! Wait, that's a idiom right there!

Well anyway, nice to introduce myself and happy to meet you!

Hi, Hadley!

I almost wrote 'foreign' but considering where I'm from

If you meant San Diego it is Сан-Диего in Russian. And what you have written is hard to pronounce. (:
If I were you I would even write Сан-Диего, Калифорния.

Yes, I did mean Сан-Диего. Thank you. I tried to build letter by letter using this site. Oh well, I came close though!

Originally Posted by Hadley

Yes, I did mean Сан-Диего. Thank you. Oh well, I came close though!

You are welcome!
Not very close but close enough for me to recognise it. ))

I tried to build letter by letter using this site.

Don't do it with names of geographical locations, there are many nuances in translating them. ))) You don't need to reinvent the wheel. (: Use dictionaries, for example, this one:
http://lingvo.yandex.ru/en?text=San%20D ... anslate=on

By the way, what do you think about the topic's title? How would you change it?

Why have you decided to learn Russian?
Why have you decided to learn the Russian language?

Are these variants correct?

Originally Posted by Zaya

By the way, what do you think about the topic's title? How would you change it?

Why have you decided to learn Russian?
Why have you decided to learn the Russian language?

Are these variants correct?

They are both just fine. Other variants could be:

"What made you decide to learn Russian?"
"Why did you decide to learn Russian?"
"Why did you choose to learn Russian?

The possibilities are endless.

The current title: "Why are you deciding to learn Russian languages?" has a ing at the end of decide which makes it sound like you are still in the possess of deciding. Also, I think that there is only one Russian language. Unless it's referring to Slavic languages in general. The Chinese language has many subdivisions such as Mandarin and Cantonese. But that's not what it's like in Russia I don't think.

Code:

http://lingvo.yandex.ru/en?text=San%20Diego&st_translate=on

Thanks!

Thank you for your help, Hadley! (:

I started to learn Russian by accident. Before I knew anything about the language I bought an old Russian-English dictionary from a second hand bookstore for no obvious reason. A few years later in a similar shop I came across a teach yourself Russian manual written in Spanish, my other language, and decided to go for it. At first my motivation was to see how Russian was related to English since the question of relationships between languages has always interested me. I like to learn a language by seeing correspondences between my mother tongue and the target language rather than just memorising A means B, eventhough some of that is unavoidable.
My other reasons are similar to the ones already mentioned: the challenge, the exercise of the mind, the opportunity of seeing the world the way other people do. Also, since I like to follow current events, I enjoy being able to get information via the internet about things happening in the former Soviet Union. The web is a great resource for language learning.

Originally Posted by Martin Miles

.... The web is a great resource for language learning.

You are right and we are happy to have you here.

Bol'shoye spasibo Lampada. Ya rad bit' zdyes' c drougimi slavofilami.

I've been tired/bored with only knowing one language (english), the alphabet has always fascinated me, i have a healthy obsession with old communist bloc countries and there is a sizable russian population in the city i work in (plenty of native speakers).. Plus i want to do a good amount of traveling in russian speaking countries within the next year or two. So far learning has been a blast.