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Polish or Russian? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Tupiniquim Senior Member Brazil Joined 6084 days ago 184 posts - 217 votes  Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, Russian | Message 9 of 37 18 May 2009 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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. Edited by Tupiniquim on 31 July 2009 at 11:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5839 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 10 of 37 18 May 2009 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ashiro - I don't think you alienate the Eastern Europeans with Russian. The ones I meet through work are ususally bragging about knowing Russian, if anything. They know it's an unusual language for people in Western Europe to know. I don't know about people below thirty though. However, Russian may have become less popular as a foreign language, not all study it. I imagine people who study only one foreign language go for English, particularly since these countries joined the EU. Perhaps somebody from Eastern Europe can clarify what the situation is. I am interested to know too, since I study Russian.
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| Wojtek Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5671 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Polish*, English | Message 11 of 37 18 May 2009 at 9:11pm | IP Logged | ||
well done @Anthox, this is the proper form of 'writers', great :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Wojtek Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5671 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Polish*, English | Message 12 of 37 18 May 2009 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | ||
I think I can try....You are definitely right, English is much more popular in Eastern Europe than Russian nowadays (though it is still not as popular as in Western Europe).People below 30 usually don't know Russian at all since it's no more obligatory taught at school as it was years ago.From the same reason people over 30 usually understand Russian and can say something in this language. The funny thing is I am always surprised my daughter cannot understand a single word, when I sometimes, just for fun, say something in Russian.This is because I have the feeling Russian is similar to Polish - which is probably not true as you can see The most popular languages taught at school nowadays are English, German and French and I suppose those will be the most popular languages in close future btw sorry for my English, I'm over 30 :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 13 of 37 18 May 2009 at 11:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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This thread from a year and a half ago tackles the same question of choosing between Polish and Russian.
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=7898&PN=24 I'd say that you should go with whatever interests you more. There is more than enough material in either language if you just want to teach yourself. You usually won't alienate anyone nowadays in most of Eastern Europe if you launch into Russian (especially if you're in a "touristy" part of the region). Unfortunately the negative association with Russian still exists in places which suffered keenly from Russian occupation or have had tense relations with Russia. Among natives of the Baltic states and sometimes Poles, launching into Russian at the beginning of an exchange or conversation can occasionally earn you a blank stare or cold shoulder from the other person, but that's often as bad as it gets. (However if you really want to get on a non-Russian Eastern European's nerves, then brag to that person how anything Russian (language, culture, food, whatever) is better or more glorious than that of the local counterpart. I suspect though that bragging in this way is bound to get on ANYONE'S nerves and is not unique to pushing an overtly Russocentric attitude. :-P) Edited by Chung on 18 May 2009 at 11:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5839 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 14 of 37 19 May 2009 at 12:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Russian will make a comeback, mark my words!
There are almost as many native Russian speakers as there is population in the whole EU, the majority of whom can't speak English AT ALL to any useful level. It's right on our doorstep in Europe - particularly Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. It's full of really good technical people that are motivated to work hard. It's packed with natural resources that the rest of Europe need. Some parts of Russia are still under developed and will need plenty of investment and possibly European involvement as they get up to scratch. ---- and these are only the very pragmatic reasons, I am not even mentioning litterature, culture cool and unpretentious people, plus rather beautiful language. I too still remember the Cold War and lived in a semi-socialist country. Not everything about socialism was bad - some very good things were lost. Some Germans for example are practically nostalgic about the 'good old days' in the DDR! Not joking! I sympathise that Eastern Europeans felt that they were surpressed, but the communist regimes were run by local people. It's simply not fair to blame regular Russians our age for the faults of the regimes in Eastern Europe, or mix up a language with an ideology. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 15 of 37 19 May 2009 at 1:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I've been hearing that cry about Russian making a comeback for years - usually from Russian nationalists or people who are studying Russian. It may happen, it may not. In my view it doesn't matter in the long run which language makes a "comeback" and which one fades into oblivion. A language doesn't need to make a "comeback" to be important or useful for people.
The nostalgia that Eastern Europeans feel toward the communist era is usually associated with the relative economic stability of things (i.e. the bulk of the population was equally poor, and everyone had access to the same minimal but dreary living standard). Nevertheless, socialism in Eastern Europe was not as economically pleasant (to say nothing about free speech) as socialism in Western Europe despite the sharing of the word "socialism" (Yugoslavia was an interesting case but even then many Yugoslavs made shopping trips to Italy or Austria because the locally-made goods didn't often hold up as well with ones made in capitalist countries). Things like the domestic secret police, the favoritism allotted to people who were "good" members of the Communist Party and blatant acquiescence to the Soviet Union and Russia in general were things that many Eastern Europeans were glad to eliminate. The various regimes of the Warsaw Pact were indeed run by local people but the ones who lasted for any significant period of time were approved by Moscow and had to adhere to Russian direction. Imre Nagy of Hungary and Alexander Dubcek of Czechoslovakia were popular communist/socialist leaders but were removed from power very quickly because their push for reform within the communist system was viewed by the Russians as a sign of weakness and pointing out the faults within the communist doctrine. They weren't removed because they renounced socialism or communism but because they didn't dot their Is and cross their Ts the way that the Kremlin liked it. It indeed is not fair to blame young Russians today for the faults of past regimes. At the same time, it doesn't mean that people who don't whitewash that era or who still harbour less-than-kind memories of the era are therefore engaging in mindless bashing of Russia. Edited by Chung on 19 May 2009 at 1:07am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Russianbear Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6776 days ago 358 posts - 422 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, Ukrainian Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 37 19 May 2009 at 4:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Chung, a lot of the aspects of the US occupation and domination of the Western Europe weren't/aren't too different from the Soviet domination in the Eastern Europe. I don't think someone who speaks Russian is likely to get a more negative reaction in the Eastern Europe than someone who speaks English in the Western Europe. A blank stare or cold shoulder , you say? Well, you can get that if you speak English in Paris just like you could get it speaking Russian in Warsaw. Eastern Europe may have had somewhat lower living standards than Western Europe, but then again, Western Europe wasn't nearly as devastated by the WWII as Eastern Europe. The Eastern Europe was basically reduced to ruins by the time the war was over.
Edited by Russianbear on 19 May 2009 at 5:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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