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Latvian stands firm against Russian. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| tanya b Senior Member United States Joined 4779 days ago 159 posts - 518 votes  Speaks: Russian | Message 33 of 91 20 February 2012 at 6:58am | IP Logged | ||
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My question is, in the Baltic countries do Russians actually become fluent in those languages? Are Estonians and Latvians flattered that some one would learn one of those languages, or is it just expected as a requirement of citizenship?
A Russian who learns Estonian or Latvian to fluency is cool in my book. So is an Englishman who learns Welsh, a Spaniard who learns Basque, a Slovak who learns Hungarian. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5057 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 34 of 91 20 February 2012 at 6:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Are Estonians and Latvians flattered that some one would learn one of those languages,
or is it just expected as a requirement of citizenship? It is expected and required. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chronos Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4663 days ago 9 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Latvian* | Message 35 of 91 20 February 2012 at 7:01am | IP Logged | ||
They were relatively civil before the war as well. As I mentioned before some of the Baltic-Germans did fight alongside Balts against the Russians. The Baltic-Germans were also given quite a bit of autonomy before the War. So I would say the relationship was pretty decent. Perhaps not spectacular. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chronos Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4663 days ago 9 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Latvian* | Message 36 of 91 20 February 2012 at 7:03am | IP Logged | ||
Passing the test is required for citizenship, but I would say that many Latvians (I do not know any Estonians) are extremely happy when Russians learn the language. Even some simple conversational phrases go a long way with Latvians. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5057 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 37 of 91 20 February 2012 at 7:04am | IP Logged | ||
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As I mentioned before some of the Baltic-Germans did fight alongside Balts against the
Russians. Maybe on the opposite, Balts fought alongside Germans against the Soviet troupes? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chronos Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4663 days ago 9 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Latvian* | Message 38 of 91 20 February 2012 at 7:06am | IP Logged | ||
There were Latvians who were drafted into the German army to fight the Soviets (this was when Germany invaded Latvia in 1941). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| viedums Hexaglot Senior Member Thailand Joined 4667 days ago 327 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Latvian, English*, German, Mandarin, Thai, French Studies: Vietnamese | Message 39 of 91 20 February 2012 at 9:11am | IP Logged | ||
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If you are following this issue in the Western press, I recommend the stories by Aleks Tapins of Reuters. He knows the historical background but is still able to take a critical perspective. I think I read on his blog that he's descended from Russians who lived in Latvia before the war.
3 persons have 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 40 of 91 20 February 2012 at 9:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Funny. I just read Tapinsh's article in Reuters and it seems that I had come to the same conclusion as he did on this referendum being nothing more than an exercise in nationalist $#¡†-disturbing on learning that the referendum had pretty much no chance of bringing the desired result for the initiators. It seems that Latvia's economy having gone into the $#¡††er (and only now is starting to show signs of life) has been a more pressing matter than worrying about which language is official. Damn it you fools, get your priorities straight! :-/
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