Quote Originally Posted by Basil77
Are you joking? My guess - less than 5%. In big cities maybe 5-7% in the best case. I know English better than most of my aquaitances, but still, when I watch an American movie without subtitles/dubbing I understand less rhan 50% .
Really? But you write it really well! Maybe people think it's just more trouble than it's worth? Or - just lack of opportunity to practice?

Some people on the forum have good/bad days with English.

I am reading a British-American guidebook on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and one of the things they do for every chapter, is make snidy comments about local peoples ability to speak English, the standard of translated menus in various restaurants, museums etc. If they see this as a problem, they should mention it once, and then stop banging on about it. It's rather arrogant and presumptious. There is lots of other irritating things about this book too.

Quote Originally Posted by Basil77
AFAIK Finnish is also related to Hungarian and also to the languages of Finno-Ugric minorities in Russia.
Thanks! I was thinking of one particular people that I heard of in the 1990s but I couldn't remember the name. From your article, it was the Maris. Witch people! There was lots of interest in these Russian "Finno-Ugric" people in Finland while I studied there - lots of TV features and articles about them. I remember watching a really interesting programs on Mari El and the Maris.