Thread: Why do you choose to learn Russian?

Artistic-shmartistic. It does not pay the bills.

Well, yeah, but liking a language shouldn't be a monetary issue

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Why on Earth do people like English better than Russian, I can't for the life of me figure it out.

Perhaps it is because of our cool "th" sounds.

Why on Earth do people like English better than Russian, I can't for the life of me figure it out. Is it because it makes it easier to communicate with the world? Or do you actually like the sound, the expressions, etc.?

in Russian you have alot more freedom in expressing yourself, a much bigger vocabulary, a powerhouse of artistic potentiality! Yes, it is harder, but that is what makes it so much more rewarding to know it!

You're absolutely right that the chief reason why so many people like English is because this language makes it easier to communicate with the world. There are, however, other reasons for learning English.
The first one: To get a well-paid job you are usually required to be fluent in a foreign language. Most employers require or badly want their employees to know English.
The second: There are at least five pretty highly developed countires in the world where English is the official language. These are: USA, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zeland. I forgot about Malta. Since Russia is not as developed as the countries mentioned a lot of people want to go to them and understand why life in these countries is better than in Russia .

That's my point

Originally Posted by adoc

Artistic-shmartistic. It does not pay the bills.

Только бил на уме... Культур-мультур никакой.

Originally Posted by N

Только бил на уме... Культур-мультур никакой.

Никакой мультур does not like to be top-educated yet undemanded, humiliated and flat-ass broke . Freedom is the understanding of necessity - remember that? The same goes for likes. I am not going to live 500 years, and I have no time to waste, so I better like what I do. Hopefully I didn't confuse you, because I'd rather not go into details. Artsy-fartsy is nice but it does not concern me nearly as much as science and technology, and this is English-English-English-Japanese, not even German.

Originally Posted by adoc

Originally Posted by N

Только бил на уме... Культур-мультур никакой.

Mультур does not like to be top-educated yet undemanded, humiliated and flat-ass broke. Freedom is the understanding of necessity - remember that? The same goes for likes. I am not going to live 500 years, and I have no time to waste, so I better like what I do. Hopefully I didn't confuse you, because I'd rather not go into details. Artsy-fartsy is nice but it does not concern me nearly as much as science and technology, and this is English-English-English, not even German.

Well it depends on a person. One has no need in knowing a language, the other has this need. Everyone has his own needs (i.e. материальные и духовные потребности ). I think today in the modern society in the eyes of a portion of people languages compete as any other commodity. In Russia many people from minorites don't want to know their mother tongue considering it of no use. There is no that many (if any) science works in Buryat or in Udmurt because few people will be able to read it. So if you wish to be successful you had to know Russian here. Now with globalisation the same thing goes for the whole world with English as the dominant language in advanced areas. So if you wish to be there you must know this language. In Soviet time Russian was in a good position before collapse that affected Russian sciense as well. So for people who don't consider Russia and any other country as a native land it is normal to seek for a better place to live. It's like a job changing

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Why on Earth do people like English better than Russian, I can't for the life of me figure it out. Is it because it makes it easier to communicate with the world? Or do you actually like the sound, the expressions, etc.?

in Russian you have alot more freedom in expressing yourself, a much bigger vocabulary, a powerhouse of artistic potentiality! Yes, it is harder, but that is what makes it so much more rewarding to know it!

Why on Earth? Because it's an earthly language.

Well, if seriously... Deep inside I feel more English. I don't know to what extent... It's a strong feeling. Seems like I have experienced much of the English life, if it can be said like this, and that made a deep imprint in my soul. I can't explain my bent for the language.

Aha! So you don't enjoy the plethora of pronounciation rules, the wonderful articles of Death, the sweet Vogon poetry and the 88 verb tenses?

It is based on a real need. Like-schmike

Now Rtyom is speaking my language! (not only literally) I fully undertstand, since that is the same feeling I have towards Russian...

Hm, I enjoy pronunciation, grammar and wonderful, crazy possibilities of making the same word incorporate so much meanings. Playing with words is sooooooo cute...

Like i said, i have a reason to learn other languages. However, as a native English speaker I can't say that I have any economic reasons to learn anything else. But I think learning new languages/cultures is the coolest thing in the whole world. I'm a scientist, and I love that...but if i had it all to do over again, I would have studied languages. I would learn Russian, and Chinese, and Arabic, and Twi, and .... well, you get the point.

I just think it's fun!

By the way...as we discussed...I went back to Bulgarian this weekend. Let me tell you, I studied like crazy over the weekend. But I was so confused. The only book I have for Bulgarian is "Teach Yourself", which, by the way sucks. I kept getting Russian and Bulgarian mixed up. I kept forgetting to pronounce the ь, which is distinctly pronounced in Bulgarian, and quite common.

I know I just started, but I think I made negative progress this weekend. I'm more messed up than when I started! Maybe I need a better book. Maybe I need a miracle! (sorry, bear with me here, I'm just whining a little bit.)

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

It is based on a real need. Like-schmike

Now Rtyom is speaking my language! (not only literally) I fully undertstand, since that is the same feeling I have towards Russian...

I think everything is based on needs as far as motives of human behavior are concerned. In the case of Rtyom it is spiritual need. (Well, I may be wrong with using this word "need" - what I mean is потребности that could be both materialistic and spiritual).

I speak Polish and sometimes when I hear people Speak Russian, or any other slavic language I can pick out words that sound like Polish and it sparked a interest for me. I picked Russian because cyrillic is really cool and I wanted to learn that. + I've seen a lot of hot Russian chicks

As far as I remember I have already written in this thread about my 'Polish' experience in Britain. Have you read it?

becuz itz kewl!!

What did you mean by kewl? Cool?

Yeah dude, kewl is the kewl way to spell cool. Kapish?

Duuuude - my little sister thought kewl was cool about five years ago...

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Yeah dude, kewl is the kewl way to spell cool. Capisce?