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What’s Russia like? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| Alvinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 6234 days ago 828 posts - 832 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish | Message 57 of 110 24 February 2009 at 9:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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No matter the country those skin heads are acting nowadays, even so if they fear a civil war in their homecountries due to immigrants, why don't they attempt to get rid of the thugs and low lives who are the true threat to any society, no matter if they're foreigners or born in their countries?....instead of beating up random, harmless and hardworking people on the streets.....
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| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6493 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 58 of 110 24 February 2009 at 9:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I had exactly the same idea: why those guys don't start with a foreing criminal authority. Their leaders know well it's really dangerous.
And those workers... These stories are really nasty... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chamberlain Triglot Newbie BelarusRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6030 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes Speaks: Belarusian, Russian*, English | Message 60 of 110 25 February 2009 at 10:34am | IP Logged | ||
Согласен. Виноват. Исправлюсь. Пойду лучше учить инглиш. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5855 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 61 of 110 04 March 2009 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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What a big debate here.But, my question is still not answered. I hope the situation in Russia is the same as the situation in France, where I can travel alone without much problem except that more beggers ask me for money(They do know that China still has a growing economy and large reserves!)
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| jbbar Senior Member Belgium Joined 5800 days ago 192 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English | Message 62 of 110 05 March 2009 at 4:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting topic indeed. I was wondering myself about a few issues. First, how do Russians tend to look at Western European countries? I'd especially like to know how they feel about France and Britain both from a political point of view and on a cultural level.
Also, how about religious views? I once came across a testimony from one Roman Catholic American who said that he faced quite some hostility from Russians due to his religious views. Would you say that there exists a widespread and genuine dislike or mistrust of non-Orthodox Christian denominations in Russia, or is that largely exaggerated? What about Protestantism in Russia? While I know that one has to be careful with generalizations and that the reality is often more complex than it seems, I hope you can give me some insight on these issues. jbbar Edited by jbbar on 05 March 2009 at 4:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pookiebear79 Groupie United States Joined 6030 days ago 76 posts - 142 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Swedish, Italian | Message 63 of 110 05 March 2009 at 7:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I am also curious about religion in today's Russia. (Now, I realize that many of the people from some former soviet republics are actually Muslims, but I am specifically wondering about Russians (as in, traditionally Russian/Eastern orthodox.) I'll explain the reason for my curiosity in a moment, but first I must try to put this as delicately as I can--it's a touchy subject due to where I live, so I'm trying to phrase this as nicely as I can. Among the christian population in Russia, is there a growing trend of religious violence/extremism? Ok, here's why I ask: I live in a city with a HUGE Russian immigrant population (also some Ukrainians and others, but mostly Russian.) While the Russians (and other immigrants from former communist/soviet controlled countries) I used to know/hang out with (this was in my late teens, so it was the mid-late 90's) who were a mixture of coworkers, fellow students at college, friends/acquaintances, etc. were nice/cool people (mostly around my own age at the time), In the past decade the Russian immigrant population here has become a totally different sort of people. I don't know if this is their response to living under years of Soviet rule where they were technically supposed to be athiests or whatever, but most of the current Russian immigrant population here are, there's no nicer way to say it, religious extremists. Most are definitely not Russian orthodox, instead they belong to that oh-so-American institution of born-again/fundamentalist/extremist "christians." I don't know what denomination they actually consider themselves, but by their actions I'd guess it's the church of 'we hate everybody and it's our job to control everyone else's lives, even if it requires harassment and violence.' Of course this is not just a Russian thing, and no, I don't dislike all Russians or anything stupid like that. I just have a problem with this particular sub-group. But it's strange how different the more recent immigrants are from the ones I knew in the '90's. (Or maybe they were just less vocal about it back then?) It's not a pretty situation. Because there is, as I said, a large population, they have considerable power/influence. And they take any opportunity to force these "beliefs" on the rest of the (actual American citizen) population. It can be small actions(like at my brother's old job, the company decided it was suddenly no longer ok for employees to dress for Halloween because the Russian guys who worked there complained it was "offensive to their religion.") I'm sorry, but if they're not even citizens, why do they even get to control what everyone else does? It can also take less harmless forms-certain members of the local Russian immigrant population enjoy committing hate crimes on people who have lived here their whole lives. They are also trying to force their way into local political matters (which wouldn't be so bad, because some of them are, after all, US citizens and theoretically have as much right as anyone else) if it weren't driven by their hateful so-called "religion." I am *not* saying Russians are all bad people so I hope people can keep from getting their undies in a bunch here. But moving into another country, trying to force the citizens of said country to conform to your own "beliefs" and furthermore, committing crimes against citizens of the country that took you in is not ok. (Maybe it was ok to hate/commit violence against x,y or z in your home country, but when you move to someone else's country it is stupid to expect they will adapt their entire way of doing things to fit yours. What if I suddenly moved to Scandinavia and said I was offended by all the snow because it was against my personal beliefs? ;) I mean, really. Whatever! Oops, sorry about going off on that last paragraph--but obviously I'm not just talking about this particular group in this case-almost any country on earth has had a similar type of scenario at least a time or two in their own history, of course including my own. Hardly anybody is completely innocent when it comes to such behavior. Anyway, apologies for taking the loooong route to get back to my point: I am curious if there is this kind of fundamentalist, violent "born-again christian" thing going through Russia right now? (Or, if they're all here because they didn't fit within the religious "norms" in Russia?) :P Anyway, I did try to ask this as delicately as I could, considering this is a very 'close to home' issue, but as they say you can't please everybody. For what it's worth, I've actually got a great interest in Russian History, Culture, and the language. I prefer to think of the "bad eggs" I have to encounter here as a separate entity. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jbbar Senior Member Belgium Joined 5800 days ago 192 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English | Message 64 of 110 05 March 2009 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | ||
Frankly, I'm not sure what to make of those violent born-again Christians as you describe them. Are you talking 'Westboro Baptist Church'-style 'Christians' here or are you just frustrated with conservative American Christians in general and like to refer to the whole of them as violent, extremists, fundamentalists, etc.? If these Russian folks are truly as violent as you say that would make it sound more like some kind of a semi-Christian cult to me than a Christian denomination. jbbar Edited by jbbar on 05 March 2009 at 12:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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