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Attitude toward Russian in Europe | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Mad Max Tetraglot Groupie Spain Joined 5042 days ago 79 posts - 146 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, Russian Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 10 of 128 30 November 2011 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Well, I am pro-Russian, but in my country is a minority point of view.
There are 6 international languages in Europe: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Russian, and we should know at least 2 or 3 of them. My point of view is that we need to use in Europe at least 3 key languages: 1 Germanic (obviously English), 1 Romance (Spanish and/or French) and 1 Slavic (probably Russian). I think that English (Western Europe, North America, etc), Spanish (USA, Mexico, South America, Spain, Portugal, Italy and in a lesser degree France) and Russian (Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia) are strategic languages to understand half of the World. My knowledge of Russian was useful in Eastern Europe (when I couldn't use English, Spanish or French). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4763 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 11 of 128 30 November 2011 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
If by "international languages in Europe" you mean "official in more than one European country", then you should also include Dutch, Swedish, Greek, Turkish and arguably Romanian, Albanian and some form of Serbo-Croat. If you mean "official in countries outside of Europe", then German and Italian don't really qualify, while Portuguese, Dutch and arguably Danish do. Edited by vonPeterhof on 30 November 2011 at 3:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7147 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 12 of 128 30 November 2011 at 5:16pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'm not from Northern Europe, but I've spent a fair bit of time in Finland, and some of the reasons mentioned by Solfrid Cristin as they apply to Norway apply just as well to Finland (e.g. relatively low need to use Russian for business reasons outside tourism, travel visa required for Finns - except for the "partying/ferry" visa that restricts visitors to 24 hrs. in St. Petersburg).
So are Japan, China, Israel, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Mozambique, etc.
To be honest, knowing at least one of Arabic, French, German, Spanish or Mandarin in addition to Finnish and/or Swedish isn't very useful in Finland. Yet I count among my Finnish friends those who speak languages other than Russian and it doesn't bother them one iota or hinder their lives. There's also the added factor of Finno-Russian relations being complicated. The Russians did help the Finns separate from Sweden but the resultant Grand Duchy of Finland wasn't really independent being ultimately under the Czar's control (Finland as an independent nation-state was founded in 1917 as the Russian Revolution basically made the Bolsheviks turn inward for a while to settle things down). There're also the matters of the Red Army's invasion in 1939, the "Continuation War", Finland's partial ceding of Karelia and some territory further north, and Finlandization. Finns on average are not Russophiles and Russians have not been a noticeable part of Finnish history until around the 17th century when Russia and Sweden began fighting over territory. The Finns gleaned their model of "civilization" via Swedish (or even earlier Norse) intermediation. The bottom line is that a lot of people (Finns included) feel that they can be citizens of the world without knowing Russian. If the goal were to be a world citizen, I've become convinced over the last few years that interacting with locals while travelling widely/regularly is the way to do it. Learning relevant foreign languages provides a big boost but let's face it we can read all the books/travelogues that we want or teach ourselves what we believe are the "important/cultured/worldly" languages but that doesn't change the fact that exploring the world to become a "citizen of the world" is an active exercise. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5444 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 13 of 128 30 November 2011 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It's not that common in Norway to speak a lot of languages anyway. Most people speak Norwegian and English and
maybe a little bit German, French or Spanish that they learnt at school. Traditionally, English, German and French have been the "big three" (German being more common than French). Spanish has grown in popularity over the last twenty years, at the expense of both German and French. I'm not sure, but I believe it's more or less the same in Sweden and Denmark. In addition to what Cristina has already mentioned, Russian is perceived as a difficult language. Besides, there are people who regard Russia a backwards country (along with the rest of Eastern Europe), but this notion is gradually changing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Mad Max Tetraglot Groupie Spain Joined 5042 days ago 79 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, Russian Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 14 of 128 30 November 2011 at 5:52pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Well, it is true.
I need to say "the six languages spoken by over 50 million people in Europe, considering Turkish an Asian language". By the way, this is also the point of view of OSCE. In the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe the official languages are English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Russian. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5047 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 15 of 128 30 November 2011 at 5:57pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I don't think visa is a real obstackle to learn Russian. Is it really difficult to get it? Ukraine has visa free regime for EU citizens, Belarus has very liberal visa policy. There is one more plus for travelling especially to Belorussia: it is very cheap (there are few tourists and they are wellcomed). Russian language is not popular because there is no real need for it, no tradition to learn it, no fashion. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4763 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 16 of 128 30 November 2011 at 6:10pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
1 person has voted this message useful |
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