Attitude toward Russian in Europe (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Attitude toward Russian in Europe
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Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages

128 messages over 16 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 4 ... 15 16 Next >>

Ari
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 6573 days ago
2314 posts - 5695 votes

Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese
Studies: Czech, Latin, German

Message 25 of 128

01 December 2011 at 6:58am | IP Logged

First of all, very few people in Sweden study a third language. I know nobody besides myself who have studied one without actually living for a long time in the country where it's spoken. Swedes are bilingual, very rarely trilingual.

Second, Russia's image in Sweden isn't very rosy. It's percieved as cold and grey, the people as unfriendly and there are still many memories of the USSR. Heck, Germany's popularity is also still quite low, and nazism was a much longer time ago. Compare this to our images of coutries like France and Italy, which are all about sophisticated culture, nice climate and wine. My parents travel a lot and they've been all over Europe and a few trips to other parts of the world, mainly in Africa and Asia, and I don't think going to Russia ever even crossed their mind. The only reason people seem to go to Russia is to ride the Trans-Sibirian railroad.
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Марк
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 5047 days ago
2096 posts - 2972 votes

Speaks: Russian*

Message 26 of 128

01 December 2011 at 7:32am | IP Logged

"Interesting fact - many Russians from Russia laugh at Latvia's Russians that they speak
crippled Russian."
I've heard a Russian from Latvia. There was like a slight accent (not bigger than from
people from the Southern Russia) and nothing else: normal Russian. Actually Russian is
the biggest language in Europe and it is rather close to other Slavic languages.
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Марк
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 5047 days ago
2096 posts - 2972 votes

Speaks: Russian*

Message 27 of 128

01 December 2011 at 7:41am | IP Logged

.

Edited by Марк on 01 December 2011 at 9:11am
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Марк
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 5047 days ago
2096 posts - 2972 votes

Speaks: Russian*

Message 28 of 128

01 December 2011 at 7:59am | IP Logged

Volte wrote:

The Russian visa situation has dissuaded me from visiting Russia, as of yet. I've gone
to Esperanto conferences around Europe; I've avoided the ones in Russia, despite
hearing positive things about them. I've been to Ukraine, and it's an interesting
country - but it's not Russia. I spend some time with Russians - but it's not the same
as spending time in Russia.

I wonder what were the problems? I know that many European countries and especially the
USA have established a very tough visa policy towards Russians. People have to bring a
lot of proofs that they won't stay there (the information about the job, family and so
on) and even after that they often get refusals without any cause. If you have
relatives
in America, you are not likely to get a visa! I know a woman whose father lives in the
USA, she couldn't get a visa because he had invited her!
The difference is well seen in comparison with other countries, where there is no need
for visa for tourists or it is made on arrival or at least there are no problems to get
it.
I think nearly all the books, films or anything else in the internet and there are
plenty of such things in Russian.
Very few people in Russia learn Tajik although we do not have to get visa to Tajikistan
and one can get visa on arrival in Iran (Farsi is a close language to Tajik).

Edited by Марк on 01 December 2011 at 4:28pm
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Марк
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 5047 days ago
2096 posts - 2972 votes

Speaks: Russian*

Message 29 of 128

01 December 2011 at 8:01am | IP Logged

It would be better to unite all my posts. If moderators can, please do it.
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Марк
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 5047 days ago
2096 posts - 2972 votes

Speaks: Russian*

Message 30 of 128

01 December 2011 at 8:02am | IP Logged

Марк wrote:

Ari wrote:

Second, Russia's image in Sweden isn't very rosy. It's percieved as cold and grey, the
people as unfriendly and there are still many memories of the USSR. The only reason
people seem to go to Russia is to ride the Trans-Sibirian railroad.

What MEMORIES of the USSR can Swedes have?! They have never lived there or even been
there (most of them). The USSR did nothing bad to Sweden.

1 person has voted this message useful

Ari
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 6573 days ago
2314 posts - 5695 votes

Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese
Studies: Czech, Latin, German

Message 31 of 128

01 December 2011 at 9:00am | IP Logged

Марк wrote:

What MEMORIES of the USSR can Swedes have?! They have never lived there or even been there (most of them). The USSR did nothing bad to Sweden. I've never noticed the unfriendliness of Russians in comparison to other people. So these are results of anti-Russian propaganda.
There are a lot of interesting and beautiful places in Russia.

Whoah, take it easy. I was just speaking of the general image Sweden has of Russia, not my personal view. Sweden did have some contact with the USSR during the Cold War (a Swedish spy plane being shot down was pretty big news at the time), but what I was talking about was memories of news reporting during that time. The USSR did bad stuff to people. These people were not Swedes, but they were still people. And Sweden, with our strong socialist tradition, tried to paint a very rosy picture of Soviet in the beginning, and when the realities of what was going on dawned on the country, a lot of people were heartbroken.

As to the unfriendlyness, I personally have no idea, as I've never met a Russian in my life. I'm sure you're a very friendly people. I'm just reporting on the general view over here, and Russia has a reputation of bad service in hotels and restaurants. Actually, come to think of it, I did have a stopover in Moscow when flying to China, and the service was terrible, but I'm not going to stereotype your entire people based on that one experience.

To be honest, most of what most Swedes know about Russia comes from American movies, and as you might guess, they don't paint an entirely unbiased picture ...
3 persons have voted this message useful

Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6430 days ago
4474 posts - 6726 votes

Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

Message 32 of 128

01 December 2011 at 11:19am | IP Logged

Марк wrote:

Volte wrote:

I wonder what were the problems? I know that many European countries and especially the
USA have established a very tough visa policy towards Russians. People have to bring a
lot of proofs that they won't stay there (the information about the job, family and so
on) and even after that they often get refuses without any cause. If you have relatives
in America, you are not likely to get a visa! I know a woman whose father lives in the
USA, she couldn't get a visa because he had invited her!
The difference is well seen in comparison with other countries, where there is no need
for visa for tourists or it is made on arrival or at least there are no problems to get
it.
I think nearly all the books, films or anything else in the internet and there are
plenty of such things in Russian.
Very few people in Russia learn Tajik although we do not have to get visa to Tajikistan
and one can get visa on arrival in Iran (Farsi is a close language to Tajik).

I doubt it would be a particular problem for me to get a visa to go to Russia. It's simply that I can go almost anywhere else I'd care to without one, and I don't want the stress and hassle - so I've never applied, and I've never casually stopped by Russia, despite often being in train stations with direct trains to Moscow, and despite wanting to see it. I've seen far too many people have far too much time wasted over visa issues (with lots of countries).

I've done things like taken a casual day trip to Serbia when I happened to be in Hungary. With Russia, that's just not an option.

Ari wrote:

As to the unfriendlyness, I personally have no idea, as I've never met a Russian in my life. I'm sure you're a very friendly people. I'm just reporting on the general view over here, and Russia has a reputation of bad service in hotels and restaurants. Actually, come to think of it, I did have a stopover in Moscow when flying to China, and the service was terrible, but I'm not going to stereotype your entire people based on that one experience.

I find Russians to generally be relatively friendly. Service tends to be poor, but that's hardly unique (and it extends to Russian stores in other parts of Europe - don't ask me about worm-infested chocolate). However, I also find that a Russian accent and non-verbal communication patterns can frequently be wrongly interpreted by English speakers as quite brusque or even rude.

Ari wrote:

To be honest, most of what most Swedes know about Russia comes from American movies, and as you might guess, they don't paint an entirely unbiased picture ...

Quite.

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