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Russian : why so popular ? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| aodhanc Diglot Groupie Iceland Joined 6261 days ago 92 posts - 130 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish | Message 33 of 107 26 February 2012 at 3:42pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nway is correct. Language importance has got everything to do with GDP and economic
influence. Why does English dominate the world today? Because of the huge economic weight of the English-speaking countries, particularly the US. Aided by the UK, Canada, Australia etc. It doesn't necessarily have the most speakers (Hindi/Urdu and Spanish both have more). Why doesn't Spanish dominate the world? Because the countries where it is spoken are much less economically developed.. i.e. Central / South America. Even Spain has traditionally been poorer than other Northern European countries. German is an important and much-studied language, despite it having relatively few speakers, because of its very large economic size (Germany, Switzerland, Austria - all wealthy countries). 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Itikar Groupie Italy Joined 4670 days ago 94 posts - 158 votes Speaks: Italian* | Message 34 of 107 26 February 2012 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
I can agree that some aspects of Bulgarian can allow an Italian native speaker to read the language comfortably and to reach some basic proficiency to use the language. But in this Russian is really so different? Relatively free grammar + free word order, to me, doesn't mean easy language, but maybe even harder. Moreover I believe that to speak Bulgarian in the PROPER way would not be such a piece of cake, except, maybe, for a Greek native speaker. And I think, provided I were not worried about interference, I would not learn Bulgarian without the aim of at least trying to speak it in the proper manner. I don't figure out how I could get my mind to actively and instinctively understand when it would be right to employ an aorist, and to feel comfortable using a language that doesn't contemplate infinitives. Mix in also the verbal aspects of the Slavic languages and tell me how Bulgarian could be considered easier. Regarding Russian a thing I utterly love of this language is that its morphology allows to spare a lot of words, and therefore a lot of errors. So I can be understood even if I lack vocabulary here or there. What does it matter if a language has an articulated morphology, if you can express a concept with few (right) words? I think there are practical reasons if in Eastern Europe Russian was used, and despite all, is STILL used as a lingua franca. Regarding German, I studied it at school and I loved it, but I sadly saw that while Germany is acquiring an important economical role, its language definitely isn't. Once ago in my area many people used to study German in schools, especially those who wanted to work as employees and office personnel (or as waiters on the Garda lake :P). German knowledge was even required to get some jobs. Now this is not anymore, because most of Germans speak or write in English. And also in other countries where German was used as lingua franca they now prefer English, and they even feel at unease if they are addressed in that language. And this also if German was better than English for speaking of technical issues and in many other fields. :/ The same luckily cannot be said for Russian, since in many countries there are still many people who prefer speaking Russian and using Russian as a tool of communication. :) Edited by Itikar on 26 February 2012 at 5:11pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5057 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 35 of 107 26 February 2012 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
No. English is the world language because of American dominance in the World. Japan has a huge economy, yet Japanese plays a small role outside Japan. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 36 of 107 26 February 2012 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
What?! Chemistry is studied by most students because you'd be hard pressed to find a subject of study that is more useful and practical in a wide range of careers, not to mention in everyday life. It's ridiculous to compare it with Latin and piano?!?!! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5067 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 37 of 107 26 February 2012 at 5:50pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
What does being a native Greek speaker have to do with speaking Bulgarian properly? Granted there are Greek influences in the language but they're not immediately apparent nor are they all that prevalent to give you any real benefit. Every language has its peculiarities. The aorist isn't that difficult; it's essentially a completed past action. The infinitive is compensated for with да+conjugated verb construction (essentially like the English infinitive (to+verb) but with a bit of extra information in the conjugation). The aspect of the verb is simply yet another level of information that determines the completeness of an action but it can't be used in just any way; the main clause requires the imperfective aspect while the subordinate clause can use the imperfective or perfective aspect. I'm not saying that it's easier, but for someone coming from a language like Italian, you might have an easier time getting used to the flow of Bulgarian verbs than to Russian declension. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5416 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 38 of 107 26 February 2012 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Yes, and why do you think this is? Is it because Russian is a superior language to Polish and Georgian? Is it because Russians are superior to Poles and Georgians? Is it because Russian cuisine is better than Polish and Georgian cuisine? No, it's because Russia is a big country, and big countries have big economies.
Thank you for saying that. I've been waiting to use these: 
Yes, and the French-speaking and German-speaking regions have always constituted a massive chunk of continental Europe's economy. Thank you!
Again, I repeat:
poor economy = weak music industry poor economy = less desire to immigrate there As for it being a matter of choosing between French and German, why do you think it's even this choice in the first place? Europe has dozens of languages—why aren't students studying Slovene or Luxembourgish? Do you really need me to answer this? The most popular foreign languages in the EU: 1. English 2. German & French 4. Spanish & Russian 5. Italian The EU languages with the largest economies: 1. English 2. Spanish 3. German & French 4. Russian 5. Italian Where is Catalan? Where is Slovak? Where is Hungarian? Is it just a coincidence that some languages make both lists while other languages make neither list?
First off, America doesn't "dominate" the world, in any holistic sense. But it is the most dominant power. And how do you think it maintains that power? With beef jerky? No, with money. It's not just a coincidence that the U.S. also happens to have the largest economy in the world. Likewise, the Anglosphere has by far the largest economy of any linguistic community in the world. Nor is it a coincidence that people keep talking about China "ruling the world" or "becoming the world's new superpower" as its economy transitions from ranking second to first. In this world, where does one derive power, if not from money?
I think you'll find that many more people study Japanese than Indonesian, Thai, Lao, Khmer, Tagalog, or Cantonese. Compared to the thousands of other languages that exist in the world today, Japanese is pretty damn popular. And guess what's the third-most studied language in the region? Korean. And what is the third-largest economy in the region? South Korea, of course. And as for this:
I'm talking about high school students. The students who take AP Latin are the same ones who take AP Chem and private piano lessons. Please calm down. Edited by nway on 26 February 2012 at 6:01pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 39 of 107 26 February 2012 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Luxembourg is very prosperous though? It's just very small plus everyone speaks the "big" languages there.
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| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5416 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 40 of 107 26 February 2012 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Exactly. Meaning it has a small economy.
And what distinguishes those "big languages" from Luxembourgish? The size of their economies. To be honest, I'm quite surprised that people are taking so much issue with me pointing out the correlation between economic scale and linguistic popularity. I realize many of you might like to idealize your language learning as a purely romanticized endeavor, but I don't think there's any reason to be upset about this. It doesn't detract from the virtues of any popular language like Portuguese or Russian. It just explains why those are popular, and why Dari and Maltese are not. Edited by nway on 26 February 2012 at 6:22pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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