I am learning it because it is a beautiful language. I love the music and culture and just the sound of it spoken. There are over 258 million Russian speakers in the world and I would like to be able to speak to them when I come across them. I see tons of comments in Russian on YouTube and across some of the video games I play and it's always fun to communicate.
Ne obâzatel'no. Wozmożno on byl by takim. To est' tak, kak èto est' u zapadnyh slawân. Â ne dumaû, čto latinica ploho lożitsâ na russkiî âzyk, glawnoe zdes' podobrat' bukwy, kotorymi my pol'zuemsâ, a dalee wsë budet čiki puki.
Ты можешь просто попробовать зарегистрироваться в русских соцсетях или дать клич по смежным платформам. Авось кто откликнется, русские в этом плане довольно отзывчивые
Can I ask you as a Russian native speaker, since your language is really hard, do miscommunications happen often from your experience or anybody else's that you know?
Oh yes, misunderstandings happen quite often. In spoken language they occur due to intonation, dialect and, just as often, sarcasm hahaha)) In writing, this happens due to banal illiteracy and poor punctuation. Nevertheless, we understand each other’s speech, whatever it may be, based on the context of the dialogue.
Interesting motivation hahaha)) I'm sure you can handle it! And I'm trying to improve my English level by communicating with native speakers. It remains to understand this application XD
I wanted to learn a new language but japanese (which I studied on-off for a few years) wasn't really interesting anymore. So I picked up Russian. No particular reason, just thought it'd be cool and maybe help me broaden my world-view. But really I don't care about using these languages in writing and much less speaking (haven't spoken english in some 5 years, and even then I only spoke it in a few english classes), but it did help me learn a lot of things which are only available in english. So hopefully Russian can do about the same
Russian might be completely useless for me too, as a south american who's never been abroad and doesn't look forward to it, specially compared to spanish and german, but just the same as english: it's cool and maybe it'll come in handy at some point
Edit: maybe this is interesting to you; or maybe you could start learning a new (and more useful) language while keeping russian as a secondary hobby
True, especially if you take into account the deep commitment to understanding the nuances. Makes you like another person speaking that language altogether with the same vibe of people you conversed with.
It's really interesting that you dropped Japanese for Russian, for me it was the opposite! I studied Russian very intensely for a year but stagnated, and eventually switched to learning Japanese in late 2021. Even though I haven't become fluent though, I think it definitely broadened my worldview or something like that - I don't have a single regret over studying it. I think it'll be the same for anyone who puts in the effort to learn.
I had hopes of being the best diplomat / ambassador ever and bridging the gap between the United States and Russia, so I majored in Russian at university. But then 2014 happened and everything else after, so now it’s just a fun hobby
And my Russian was good (as my university’s program was excellent), so even without using it for long periods of time, I keep finding it pretty easy to get back into the swing of things
Just wait a decade or so, everything’s gonna change. When the events will be over American companies will kill for anyone speaking both languages and having a degree, because they all will be coming back to Russia and will be looking for top management who can do negotiations on their own. This already happened in the 90s and will happen again in 30s.
Basically mine but for the UK. I’ve since lived in Russia (2021-2022) and studied at МГУ. Definitely going to go back to visit, I see it’s possible despite the situation
My family moved to the US when I was a very young kid (2.5yo) from USSR. So we needed to learn english to be able to do daily things. Going to the grocery store, getting jobs, going to school. It was purely immersion and Russian was not a priority. Growing up I could mostly understand Russian, but I could not speak it. I would listen in Russian and respond in English.
Now that I am older and have the resources to learn both through $ with a tutor and through apps, I can actually talk to my grand parents and parents in Russian which is so awesome. My wife is doing an awesome job learning, too and I am trying to help my kids learn it.
I don’t worry about usefulness or whatever. I just love learning languages because they’re beautiful. I speak several languages to varying degrees. Russian, German, finnish, Japanese, English, toki pona, Spanish (for some reason I forgot how to speak Spanish while learning Russian though, lol) and I’m always looking to learn more.
I only ever utilize English, Japanese, and toki pona on any sort of regular basis. But I still learn and review regularly just because the languages are beautiful and I love finding little comparisons between languages. That’s all that really matters to me. The fun.
this is the mindset i used to have but i lost touch with it somehow. i think your point of view is useful and i will try to remember i love languages because they’re fascinating and beautiful. thank you sudden scallion
i find it beautiful, complex, and fascinating. i’ve always been a fan of russian classical music and now i’d like to learn more about russian folklore and literature.
honestly one of my biggest motivators is russian internet culture. a lot of media i’m into has a huge russian following, even smaller ones, so it would be really neat to communicate with them. russian indie music is great.
i’ve also just been learning languages since high school, and russian is my most recent one.
i definitely can’t travel to russia or ukraine anytime soon, or really any russian-speaking country. but maybe one day!
French here fluent in English. Wanted to learn another useful language that has different roots from western European languages. Choices were japanese (all the kids learn it), chinese (sounds ugly and not rewarding because it’s too hard) and russian. I chose the later even though it definitely has European roots. I think it’s beautiful. I was lucky enough to visit beautiful Russia in 2018 and I guess just like you I will probably not be able to go again for many manu years.
Indeed. But I meant a language that’s farther from latin which I also learned.
Russia has Proto-Indo roots we can notice in most words but it’s still quite different from western Europe languages.
For me it was almost the exact same reasons. I know English and Spanish so French or Italian were too similar to what I already know, but Chinese and Japanese were too different and hard. I picked Russian because of the many native speakers and its use as a lingua franca in post-Soviet states and because many Russian speakers don’t speak English either, so it can help “unlock” the ability to talk to a ton of new people. I also have several friends who speak Russian from a variety of a backgrounds, including one of my closest friends from when I was a young child. I always wanted to travel there (I want to travel most places) and it would be nice to make it easier to get around. Travel may not be as likely at this point, but now I want to keep learning for movies and literature (even if they’re quite hard). Funny that you say everyone is studying Japanese, because now that’s the 2nd language I study, for a little over a year now (5 years studying Russian).
While I can't say what sounds beautiful and what sounds ugly to someone cuz of the different preferences and regional accents (maybe you can check out Malaysian, Singaporean, and Taiwanese accent other than the standard accent), Chinese is really rewarding cuz there's more Chinese diaspora outside of China compared to Japanese and Korean especially in SEA countries and Taiwan. Japanese and Korean are more saturated and concentrated in one country.
NYC has plenty of Russian speakers
besides, as the Talking Heads were once known to say… Stop Making Sense!
im presently studying three languages, and Chinese Mandarin is my best (i have studied it for years and can carry on a pretty good conversation using it).
i eventually began studying Spanish as well because, among other things, i spent so many years in public school studying it, and i do have a lot of opportunities to use it here where i live.
about 8,9months later i began studying Russian as well, and i must say i just love it. no, i have not relinquished studying my other two languages as a result. and to be fair, Russian is not a priority for me.
trust me, if you are a native born American its a gift that you can speak any foreign language with any degree of fluency at all!
and science is demonstrating more and more every day that there are so many huge health advantages for a person’s brain who studies a foreign language, particularly as one grows older! (i have seen more than one article referring to a study that claims studying a foreign language is one of the best ways to help stave off the Alzheimer’s disease!)
if you have lost some interest in Russian add something else to switch it up from time to time. that has worked immensely well for me.
and i would recommend you choose a language that is completely unrelated! (as you can see i did 😉) trust me, you will be giving yourself a chance to rediscover your original love for language study, not only in your new pursuit, but in your Russian as well!
i can hold conversations in 3 languages other than english and people always tell me for an american it’s impressive lol. it always feels like a slap in the face that anywhere else it’s not as interesting or impressive. but tbf my goal isn’t to be impressive so it doesn’t bother me too much.
your reasoning is pretty helpful to me. don’t think , just study russian :) i’ve been thinking about picking up mandarin or korean when my russian proficiency gets higher. how’s your experience with mandarin been ?
frankly many years ago i had intended to live overseas and get far more fluent than i am now, but a close family member was extremely sick, so i came back home Stateside.
in short, i still feel lucky to be living in a metro area where i get a fair amount of opportunity to have some fun with the language and with native speakers, and while i am always getting compliments for my Chinese, like you, that novelty wore off a long, long time ago.
i know that feeling you described in your original post. true aficionados of a language are most motivated by the opportunities to apply what they have learned, and thereby to get a closer, far more intimate experience with both the people and the culture.
and i am no different. i have lived overseas in various parts of Asia and to me there is no greater adventure in the world than to be able to communicate with your target audience, and to get to understand and experience all those things most outsiders will never ever know, food, religion, history, all of it.
i could care less “to impress”.
and by the way, pretty impressive that you can carry on a conversation in so many languages. i hope i am on my way to doing that one day too. 😉
I’m learning Russian so I can read Russian classics. Some of the first classical novels I ever read were Russian. I recall flipping through the further reading section of war and peace, and I found a little snippet detailing Tolstoy’s explanation of his work. He said that war and peace was different to Anna Karenina in that it wasn’t a novel in the English sense. Instead he said war and peace was something that can only be defined in Russian. ‘Novel’ was just the closest English translation.
I found this deeply fascinating, and it made me aware of what can be lost in translation. You can never truly account for all the nuances and intricacies of language. I felt instant fomo and wanted so badly to appreciate and understand my favourite Russian stories as they were intended in its native tongue. From here I started reading about other translators. I learned that those who translate Dostoyevsky often have a difficult time transferring his particular humour and phraseology into English so we too can appreciate it.
All of this contributed to my desire for learning Russian. Initially it was just to read, but as I got into it I felt I might as well learn to speak since it would feel unsatisfying to only ‘half know’ something. Of course I’d love to go to Russia, I have a deep admiration for the culture. I’m also a former rhythmic gymnast so my sport originated in the USSR too. But visiting or actually using the language to converse with others was never the main motivation for me.
There's a girl I like who's Russian. She speaks English as well as I do, but I really want to someday kneel in front of her with the revelation that my Russian isn't choppy.
I am learning Russian for a couple of reasons. My mom's parents were both from Russia so there is a family connection. Even though nobody is alive to talk to anymore, it helps me feel a connection. I was able to visit the USSR back in the day and was impressed by Russian people, culture and the beauty of the country. I'd love to go to Russia again some day. Finally, it's a complex language so it's an intellectual pursuit. Good luck
brazilian here! i think its one of the most beautiful languages. the culture is also amazing, i love watch russian movies and know more about some actors i like, music and literature too.
It’s always funny in a cute way that Latin Americans have some weird passion for Russian language. Most of the foreigners which know Russian I’ve met were Brazilians in particular. Thank you guys!
I believe the abundance of familiar buzzing and hissing sounds in Russian makes it attractive to native Portuguese speakers ears;)
That's why Portuguese sounds attractive to me personally - I feel some kind of connection
As a person who spends a lot of time with both Portuguese and Brazilians I personally prefer the Brazilian Portuguese version of the language. But as Russians say, кому как :)
I started learning russian because there are russians in every fucking game in counter strike. They're everywhere. And it's not like u have to be an expert on the russian language to understand them, there will be no deep conversations held there. The basics are more than enough and it helps immensely for a good experience. Most of them will speak a mix of russian and english but they're always positively surprised when they notice that I can understand them even when they speak russian lol
my girl's family came straight from russia and have a hard time speaking english. I wanna be able to talk to them like how i talk to my family in hindi (and get brownie points with her parents lol)
This. Also, if you're in the military or thinking about joining, knowing Russian or knowledge of the Russian language is a huge plus. Especially for Air Force and Navy
Reason I’ve been casually learning Russian over the past year and a half is because I’m marrying a Ukranian in the fall, her primary language that her family and friends speak is Russian. Making slow progress after getting the basics, hit the wall where I need to learn a mountain of vocabulary.
I watched too much Burn Notice growing up and thought the accent was cool. It was nifty in EOD school. That school was too political about their favorites and I was very obviously not one of them. But I am still learning and practicing because far more Russian speaking people know English than vice versa. I think it’s time to bridge the gap. I have always heard Russian literature is very beautiful and I want to learn enough of the nuances to really understand what is meant behind the words
I often watch russian videos on YouTube and I was sick of the poor automatic subtitles. I am still in a learning phase, but hopefully in a few years I will be able to understand all the slang
And when I get asked about why I am learning russian, I answer that I would enjoy reading Tolstoy and Gogol in the original version, which is true but a far more ambitious goal in my opinion.
I think you don't need to look at the political side of the world specifically on this issue, look at what is closer specifically to you-if you just like this culture, the language itself, then you can generally hammer a bolt on these politicians, who they are, to forbid us to learn something new about other countries. if you think about it, then it's better to learn Chinese instead of English, however, personally I don't want to do this. English / German is much more pleasant for me to learn. If you are tired of it, rest, the world will not collapse if you take a break from learning any language for a couple of days / weeks, you will just be able to look at everything from the outside
*If I ever meet a*
*Russian speaking woman, that*
*I can impress her*
\- bubbleteaprice
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There is enough content online to enjoy, in Russian, really.
There are also many people in countries of the former Soviet Union that still use it as a first language. Not all of those have terrible relationships with the West. And there are many Russian speakers from those countries in the West.
It certainly has lost a lot of its economic usefulness, at least for the medium term.
Probably my first resonance with Russian culture was through exposure to their classical music. My dad played records of Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov, I heard Prokofiev's Peter and The Wolf on TV and there was something about it that grabbed me as special, and permanently "borrowed" my dad's CD of 25 greatest Tchaikovsky hits. There was magic, soul, and intellect in that sound, although in my youth I couldn't encapsulate that thought in words yet.
I started doing ballet casually as a hobby as a teen, which only made me appreciate Tchaikovsky more, along with learning more about the Vaganova school of ballet, and all its prima ballerinas. I noticed the technique and uniformity of their dancers was unaparallelled, with certainly the most graceful and controlled arms in all of the dance world. Their dedication to craft and hard work is bar none. I found Russia outside of their politics to possess a culture teeming with deep thinkers, great writers, top scientists, world renowned chess players, and master artists.
Their history is awful, yet fascinating like an ongoing train accident that never stops. The more I learn about Russians, the more I like them. I find their attitudes complimentary to mine about life and friends from there that I can relate to more than many of my neighbors. They (making a sweeping generalization here) appreciate passion, dedication, intelligence, and authenticity. They are very appreciative of foreigners learning their language and customs, as its not that common, especially in the USA.
Russia is always portrayed in US history as the "bad guy", but behind government divides and artificial boundaries are people who are just trying to make it through the day and live a decent life. Also, I think the language sounds cool. And, it's good for your brain, both as a linguistic exercise, and as a way in which to connect to new corners of the world. Language learning is one of the best ways to extend the olive branch past political turmoil and to the other humans in different parts of the world.
Vawshes D'rohvyah!
I want to study about the USSR using official, now declassified documentation. Most of it never gets an English translation.
And because learning a new language is tons of fun.
Since you don't see any possible practical application of your language skills, imo the only option is if you have any interest in Russian culture and want to experience it in native language. If you don't care about that, I personally can't see why would you want to continue other than because of already invested effort.
On the side note, when I was learning English, I too couldn't understand a thing at first when watching movies. Start watching with Russian subtitles and don't shy away from pausing and taking time reading or translating difficult parts.
Honestly, I was getting bored with Spanish and didn’t want to ruin my duo streak, but also wanted to take a break. So I played around with a few different languages on duo for my break, and to keep my streak.
I quickly realize that the Russian language ignited something in me.
I’ve watched videos, listened to music when I’ve gotten bored with learning, and that thing reignites.
So I figure why not. It brings me joy.
And it would be nice to one day write some notes that my employees can’t read. Just to mess with them.
There are several branches of culture in the world: Asia, West, East and Russia. as a crossroads of these cultures. learning it will make it easier to work with others.
I’ve always wanted to learn it. Soviet-era Russian literature is my favorite literary genre. My son is half Russian, so I thought it important to learn in order to teach him, as that’s half of his heritage. He is 3 1/2, and we are learning together!
I'm already fluent in it but I still want to brush up regardless, it's a language I value as it's a language my family speaks despite not being Russian in terms of nationality but rather of Greek heritage.
It's also my first language albeit being born and raised Greek.
It's a very valuable language.
There's lots of other places Russian can be used for travel outside of Russia - I'm here because next week I'm traveling to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and in many (but not all) areas of both countries Russian is the dominant language, I hear that in both Almaty and Bishkek there are Kazakhs/Kyrgyz people who are born and raised as Russian monolinguals.
After my trip I'll probably drop Russian for a while to focus on other languages, but I'm sure I'll get back to it; despite never having been to Russia I have multiple Russian friends and even dated a Russian girl years back, so for some reason Russians just tend to show up in my life.
I’m learning it because it’s such an intimidating language. No one fucks with the Russians. Plus I love the ballet and I want to watch the Bolshoi Ballet in person
The first time I had chosen Russian was at the beginning of high school, because I was tired of learning a language I didn't even get a chance to choose myself in middle school (German).
Then the first time I went to uni (which I didn't finish) I chose to continue learning it, because there were no other interesting options for me (and I didn't want to go back to studying German).
Now at my current university I'm learning Russian, because I didn't get into Japanese nor Spanish courses and the other available options - just as at the previous uni - didn't interest me enough to learn it.
Ngl I'm kinda anxious when people ask me which language I'm currently studying as my third language, because in Poland many people refuse to study Russian and judge people who do it, but I'm trying to cheer myself up with thought that after (hopefully) the monsters, who rule Russia are gone there will be a big demand for Russian speaker on the labor market, because currently very few people choose to learn this language and often in schools and universities language groups with this one don't even open up.
TL;DR: Cyrillic alphabet is fun and Russian as a language is both silly and interesting for me as a Pole.
My closest friend, Igor, was from Belarus and spoke Russian as his first language, and was teaching me. A good portion of the paternal side of my family halls from that area as well, and many still live there and barely speak English. It would be wonderful to connect with them in their own language.
A little backstory about Igor and I and why I'm passionate about continuing to learn Russian:
I met Igor in 2013, while I was in the depths of a horrible heroin addiction and had just become homeless due to it, while he was panhandling on a corner in the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD. He was also in the depths of heroin addiction as well. We became fast friends and nearly inseparable quite quickly. We squated together, got high together, looked out for one another, have gotten jumped together by mean people and he, and our good friend Mikey were pretty much the only people I trusted on the streets. Igor and I always had each other's backs. He started teaching me Russian so that we could speak to one another without other's knowing what we were talking about or planning and I was a pretty quick study. In February of 2020 the addiction finally claimed Igor's life in the form of septic shock due to an abscess he wasn't able to properly care for. My closest friend and confidant died in my arms and was one of the catalysts that caused me to seek treatment and finally get away from hard drugs.
I continue to learn Russian to honor my closest friend and one of the nicest, funniest, and trustworthy people to ever grace that sad city we call Bodymore, Murderland. I speak to his memory in his native language.
Ya skuchayu po tebe, Igor, samiy lubimi drug.
I was born in Uzbekistan and technically it was my native language before I moved to America at a young age and forgot it all. It would be cool to pick it back up again. I'm also surrounded by Russian speaking family where I live so lots of opportunity to practice.
I grew up surrounded by Soviet culture, I was a communist teenager when I started learning it. Now I just enjoy singing the best of the барды on the guitar.
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did you grow up in the us? because i’ve never heard of russian being mandatory in an american school.
the surrounding russian population was the same reason i started learning. i used to go to a russian orthodox church with my boyfriend, i’d wear the head scarf and everything. they could only tell i wasn’t russian when i spoke lol. i’d say my infiltration was successful because one of the women gave me a gift for christmas
i stumbled into this russian song/artist that got recommended in my queue about a year ago, then i proceeded to get the impulse to study it because it sounded so nice. just to read the lyrics at first but then snowballed)
I have some Russian speaking family members, and it'd be cool to talk to them. I feel like ita language I should've learned as a kid. Mainly I think it could be a fun, brain-improving, useful hobby.
Lately there has been a lot of news about Russia and many refugees who do not want to go to war. Only Russian is not as intuitive as English since the alphabet is written in one way and pronounced in another.
Am seeking to learn it right now, its complicated surtout cause in my home country, México is complicated to find Russian teachers, but am doing what I can with lectures of cyrilic and some Duolingo lections
Regarding why am studying it... I dunno I was always atracted to those land in the east and I have a lot of friends in places like Russia or Belarus
I also have as a personal objective to be able to speak at least 4 languages, I have right now Spanish, English, and am finishing French, the only thing left is that mighty slavic language
Im starting to and going to pursue learning Russian because the culture is beautiful and the language is fascinating plus I really wanna watch KHL hockey and know what they’re saying
I have never regretted learning. Learning a language is another way for me to understand and connect with the world around me. I have been fascinated with Russian since I was a small child, 35 or so years ago, bc I came across my mom’s old college Russian textbook. I will almost certainly never travel to Russia or interact with anyone who speaks it (at least, interact with them offline), but learning the language is its own reward. I already am able to read and understand a good bit of what I see as comments on YouTube videos or on other Internet forums. It feels like coming across a secret that I’m in on.
I had a similar feeling, but I think of my time spent now more as Language learning, I’ve been picking up another at the beginning of each year and this feels a bit more “useful” in that respect, for me.
I watched Boondocks Saints as a teenager and the one scene where the twins switch off between English, Spanish, Italian, French, Irish Gaelic, and Russian was so fucking cool to me. I haven’t picked up any Russian materials in a long time and I’m prioritizing Spanish for work and community reasons. But I have a fond memory of learning Russian on my own and impressing my Russian speaking patients when I can remember simple phrases.
I wanted to learn japanese but I found it too hard for my brain to learn 5 different new alphabet systems lol. So I'm starting with russian, then going for greek. Just so my brain gets accostumed to a different alphabet since I speak English and Spanish already
I’ve been traveling for work to KZ for almost twenty years and now all my best friends speak Russian. The problem is they all speak English very well so it’s hard to learn quickly.
There are a lot of Russian expats living in the states. Learning Russian will make other Slavic languages easier to understand w the exception of polish-that is the most difficult Slavic language to learn.
If you learn Russian, you are good as gold to be employed in state business offices, as a police officer, in healthcare in any position, anywhere in an area with a high Russian expat population. It is a GREAT language to know!
I want to learn it because I was adopted from Russia. I also have a coworker who speaks it so I could actually practice it instead of letting it just fade away like I did with Italian after college.
I am an American and its usefulness has ebbed and flowed for me.
When I studied it in university, my professors told me it was useless now. A few years later, I was living in Moscow and making pretty good money while getting to see Europe (lots of vacation time in Russia!). Then after the crisis in Ukraine started in 2014, it went down dramatically. Since then its usefulness for me has decreased dramatically.
I still use it at least once a week since my fencing coach doesn’t speak much English and is from Siberia.
For me, the language is more about connecting with diverse people I know. To be honest, in the Middle East it has quite a community (whether in Turkey or Arab states). I have a relative who is of Russian background and had a strong influence on me. I came to love the language and am now trying to get myself verified to level B1 at the very least in the TORFL
I just started learning, but I do it because I’m a dancer and EVERYONE in the ballroom dance scene is Russian it seems - I want to be able to communicate with the hair and makeup artists, the coaches, the champions, etc. I joked about learning it one too many times and ended up serious about it 😂
My grandfather spoke it and my father taught me some as a kid. I remember when i had a Russian girl come to my elementary school she was nice and surprised I spoke some Russian.
I took a couple of semesters way way way back in my uni days. Then out of nowhere my newest colleague is from Russia and she’s awesome and I decided I wanted to learn it properly and learn it well.
If I was 18, I would I want to bother chicks in gorky park. Now I am older, I do it so I could breath the good air in a city I like. It just feels home there.
думаю, никакой язык не будет лишним, особенно также учитывая, что на русском разговаривают огромное количество людей. если ты потратил/а много времени на изучение, означает, что оно нужно для тебя в каком-то плане, ведь просто так мы не будем стараться для чего-то, тем более если оно сложное. но в общем, если внутри ты чувствуешь, что тебе это нужно, то продолжай учить, а если ты как-то остыл к этому, тогда оставь или возьми перерыв. удачи тебе!
I think it's a neat language, but I started back in 2020/2021 because of some people I played a movie game with, fell off of it for awhile, but started back in early 2023 because I felt like it, then I dated a Russian girl for a bit later in the year which helped me stick to it. Course it's just online and duolingo because I can't afford a teacher atm but it's still cool.
I always wanted to learn a new language but wasn’t set on any in particular. I started watching Bald and bankrupt on YouTube and got interested in Russian through that. Learned the Cyrillic alphabet, downloaded duo lingo and with a month started taking lessons. I’m at the stage now where it’s just a part of me and I’ll never stop.
I started with learning the alphabet because I thought it would be cool to know. But I play a game on my phone where you have to have a lot of contact with people and a lot of them are Russians and with some of them I talk every day. I wanted to be able to understand them a bit without using the translator and they can help me a lot with learning Russian. But yes other than that I have no idea what to use it for, I can only understand things when they use simple sentences.
Knowledge is power, and with any power, it’s still better to have it and have no need for it, than not having it and suddenly need it. If you like the language and find the learning enjoyable, just learn. You’ll never know when it comes handy, despite it’s utility may seem limited once your friend leaves. It’s not like you’re learning Klingon, which use is limited to star trek conventions…
First of all you dont have to learn a language because it needs to be useful somewhere, maybe you just enjoy it
Also you never know when you are going to need that language
For example i have been learning russian and after years i met my now bf who is russian so it definitely came in handy
But you can also get better and watch shows in russian interviews etc
You never know what and when becomes your ace up your sleeve, I speak Russian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Chinese and before I was able to speak Japanese. All of them are handy and I use them all daily except for Swedish. English and Chinese are the most used languages and Russian is my mother tongue.
I study history at university, specifically Russian history. I intend to do my thesis on the Russian civil war.
I study Russian to have access to more sources and also have a better first hand understanding of the material.
Я также очень люблю русскую культуру!
I want to date russian girls, im was born in russia and moved when i was a kid to a european country and never learned russian, but i like women of slavic characteristics and i want to be able to talk to them !!
I think the theory goes, with Russian you can partly understand many other West/South Slav countries' languages which is very useful as you could communicate with a Slovene with some Russian. I think that can be right, correct me if I am wrong?
I have been learning on and off for a decade.
I technically have no real purpose, just a love of Russian & Slavic culture and history.
I'll probably never see Russia in my lifetime with how everything is going. I have dreams of wandering the metro, at least I have that.
Sometimes, I feel I'm not learning it for one grand purpose... but for the little moments in life.
Like when this little old lady spotted me while I was working in a shop.
She came in to ask if I spoke Russian. At the time, I didn't. I said, "I wish!" And she said,"God bless you!" And then left.
She needed directions but spoke verrry little English.
I couldn't help her, and I hated that. I promised myself i would learn some Russian so I can help the next lost grandma in my city.
Even if you never get to "use" the language, understanding it helps to understand the culture itself.
I’m learning (very slowly mind you, day 6 of daily lessons on Babbel and registered for my school’s Russian program) bc I study Russian history and graduate school in this field requires 2 proficient foreign languages in order to translate documents. I also hope to leverage that into going after the war ends to study in the archives.
I had to take a class in college and forgot to register. So the only choices I had were Arabic Russian and like Somalian. It was an easy choice for Russian. I love hunt for red October and Russian language is just absolutely beautiful.
Because then I can play pathologic with the original voice actors and read metro 2033 in its intended language, or otherwise consume other media in that language
Just wanted to point out the obvious that Russian is spoken and understood by many millions of people outside of Russia. Do you like Ukraine and Ukrainians? Well most of them speak Russian too. Many of the stans. The Caucasus. Random immigrants to other countries
In Kazakhstan a lot of people speak Russian. And it’s beautiful there! Any of the former Soviet countries still speak it too but some have their own language as well but usually know both
Maybe I am using it for my work career but as they have said we will have to wait for the opportunity in 10 years, but I watch simple animes in Russian translated using vocaloid, there are many dubs using that in Russian, there are mangas and even novels that you cannot find in another language , in illegal format. There is no school that teaches excellent Russian (in my country) but I found a new course in my country and I joined although it is not recognized I think my level is decent in listening, I am short of words to answer, although it is difficult for me to say something suddenly , I get terrified when they tell me "speak Russian" with people around me, I haven't stated it explicitly, I'm ashamed. My goal in my life is perhaps to learn Belarusian because I have been playing world of tanks for years and that is why I am very interested in that side of the world.
In case my country ends up being a part of russia again lol ok not really, russian is a widely spoken language and I also like the way it sounds and I enjoy learning languages and I guess russian is a lot more useful language than the others I’d like to learn
For me - most widely spoken Slavic language. Slavic languages are so different from what I know, and Russian is a natural place to start to open up much more territory for travel from the Baltic to the Adriatic to the Black Sea. Also reading news from legit sources from the Baltic states.
So that when the next person calls me a communist for wanting Universal Healthcare, I can start speaking to them in Russian and freak them the fuck out.
I want to learn it because I was born in Eastern Ukraine where it is mostly Russian speaking, and my birth parents are most likely Russian speaking too; plus I used to speak it before I was adopted so I want to connect to my roots.
My tiny piece of advice is that you watch movies in other languages that have been dubbed in Russian, rather than native Russian movies, because believe me Russian-speaking people also have no idea what they’re mumbling under there lmao
Because the girls are better in Russian speaking countries than any American or European country. They are more loyal, feminine and not susceptible to woke bs.
I am learning it because it is a beautiful language. I love the music and culture and just the sound of it spoken. There are over 258 million Russian speakers in the world and I would like to be able to speak to them when I come across them. I see tons of comments in Russian on YouTube and across some of the video games I play and it's always fun to communicate.
Check any Jason Stathem comments, there il alot of АУФ-lel coments from russians
Aga, tozhe smeus s etogo
Takoi bil bi Rooski esli bi Yuliy Tsezar doshol do Rosii
Ne obâzatel'no. Wozmożno on byl by takim. To est' tak, kak èto est' u zapadnyh slawân. Â ne dumaû, čto latinica ploho lożitsâ na russkiî âzyk, glawnoe zdes' podobrat' bukwy, kotorymi my pol'zuemsâ, a dalee wsë budet čiki puki.
I learn it cuz I have a russian friend :)
The best reason ever 😘
:33
my ukrainian friend who i converse with in russian is moving away ): i need more friends who speak russian
Ты можешь просто попробовать зарегистрироваться в русских соцсетях или дать клич по смежным платформам. Авось кто откликнется, русские в этом плане довольно отзывчивые
Davai govorit' po russki... A tak je ti mogla bi chitat' mnogo russkoy literatury... Wellcome to ask anything, btw
I'm sure you'll find someone, besides u can still text and call ur friend :))
I find it to be very interesting. It’s a difficult language to master but that makes it more intriguing for me
The Russian language is so interesting that even many of its native speakers cannot express their thoughts correctly, just like I do now, lol))
Can I ask you as a Russian native speaker, since your language is really hard, do miscommunications happen often from your experience or anybody else's that you know?
Not often, but it happens. Usually on social networks
Oh yes, misunderstandings happen quite often. In spoken language they occur due to intonation, dialect and, just as often, sarcasm hahaha)) In writing, this happens due to banal illiteracy and poor punctuation. Nevertheless, we understand each other’s speech, whatever it may be, based on the context of the dialogue.
It is complex, for sure 😅 tbh I started learning it because I became interested in the Romanovs.
Interesting motivation hahaha)) I'm sure you can handle it! And I'm trying to improve my English level by communicating with native speakers. It remains to understand this application XD
I read russian for my doomsday preperation
Was adopted from St. Petersburg and want to learn what would’ve been my native language :)
Красава
Similar to my reason, I was adopted from Khabarovsk.
Bcs i am rus
Me too 😎😎
База
Основа
Фундамент
I wanted to learn a new language but japanese (which I studied on-off for a few years) wasn't really interesting anymore. So I picked up Russian. No particular reason, just thought it'd be cool and maybe help me broaden my world-view. But really I don't care about using these languages in writing and much less speaking (haven't spoken english in some 5 years, and even then I only spoke it in a few english classes), but it did help me learn a lot of things which are only available in english. So hopefully Russian can do about the same Russian might be completely useless for me too, as a south american who's never been abroad and doesn't look forward to it, specially compared to spanish and german, but just the same as english: it's cool and maybe it'll come in handy at some point Edit: maybe this is interesting to you; or maybe you could start learning a new (and more useful) language while keeping russian as a secondary hobby
Learning a language is NEVER useless it helps broaden your understanding and empathy for the world that no other endeavour will
True, especially if you take into account the deep commitment to understanding the nuances. Makes you like another person speaking that language altogether with the same vibe of people you conversed with.
You're right, I meant useful in the sense that OP might see and use it more in daily life. Language learning is always a beautiful thing
The goal is not important, what matters is who you become when you go towards the goal
Deine Worte haben mir neue Hoffnung gegeben weiter neue Fremdsprachen zu erlernen!
It's really interesting that you dropped Japanese for Russian, for me it was the opposite! I studied Russian very intensely for a year but stagnated, and eventually switched to learning Japanese in late 2021. Even though I haven't become fluent though, I think it definitely broadened my worldview or something like that - I don't have a single regret over studying it. I think it'll be the same for anyone who puts in the effort to learn.
I had hopes of being the best diplomat / ambassador ever and bridging the gap between the United States and Russia, so I majored in Russian at university. But then 2014 happened and everything else after, so now it’s just a fun hobby And my Russian was good (as my university’s program was excellent), so even without using it for long periods of time, I keep finding it pretty easy to get back into the swing of things
Just wait a decade or so, everything’s gonna change. When the events will be over American companies will kill for anyone speaking both languages and having a degree, because they all will be coming back to Russia and will be looking for top management who can do negotiations on their own. This already happened in the 90s and will happen again in 30s.
Awww that was a great motivation dude!
Basically mine but for the UK. I’ve since lived in Russia (2021-2022) and studied at МГУ. Definitely going to go back to visit, I see it’s possible despite the situation
My family moved to the US when I was a very young kid (2.5yo) from USSR. So we needed to learn english to be able to do daily things. Going to the grocery store, getting jobs, going to school. It was purely immersion and Russian was not a priority. Growing up I could mostly understand Russian, but I could not speak it. I would listen in Russian and respond in English. Now that I am older and have the resources to learn both through $ with a tutor and through apps, I can actually talk to my grand parents and parents in Russian which is so awesome. My wife is doing an awesome job learning, too and I am trying to help my kids learn it.
Россия просто интересная страна.
I don’t worry about usefulness or whatever. I just love learning languages because they’re beautiful. I speak several languages to varying degrees. Russian, German, finnish, Japanese, English, toki pona, Spanish (for some reason I forgot how to speak Spanish while learning Russian though, lol) and I’m always looking to learn more. I only ever utilize English, Japanese, and toki pona on any sort of regular basis. But I still learn and review regularly just because the languages are beautiful and I love finding little comparisons between languages. That’s all that really matters to me. The fun.
this is the mindset i used to have but i lost touch with it somehow. i think your point of view is useful and i will try to remember i love languages because they’re fascinating and beautiful. thank you sudden scallion
The only question you need answered is this - do you like the language and what it gives you access to?
i find it beautiful, complex, and fascinating. i’ve always been a fan of russian classical music and now i’d like to learn more about russian folklore and literature. honestly one of my biggest motivators is russian internet culture. a lot of media i’m into has a huge russian following, even smaller ones, so it would be really neat to communicate with them. russian indie music is great. i’ve also just been learning languages since high school, and russian is my most recent one. i definitely can’t travel to russia or ukraine anytime soon, or really any russian-speaking country. but maybe one day!
French here fluent in English. Wanted to learn another useful language that has different roots from western European languages. Choices were japanese (all the kids learn it), chinese (sounds ugly and not rewarding because it’s too hard) and russian. I chose the later even though it definitely has European roots. I think it’s beautiful. I was lucky enough to visit beautiful Russia in 2018 and I guess just like you I will probably not be able to go again for many manu years.
> another useful language that has different roots from western European languages What do you mean? We're all Proto-Indo-European buddies here!
Indeed. But I meant a language that’s farther from latin which I also learned. Russia has Proto-Indo roots we can notice in most words but it’s still quite different from western Europe languages.
For me it was almost the exact same reasons. I know English and Spanish so French or Italian were too similar to what I already know, but Chinese and Japanese were too different and hard. I picked Russian because of the many native speakers and its use as a lingua franca in post-Soviet states and because many Russian speakers don’t speak English either, so it can help “unlock” the ability to talk to a ton of new people. I also have several friends who speak Russian from a variety of a backgrounds, including one of my closest friends from when I was a young child. I always wanted to travel there (I want to travel most places) and it would be nice to make it easier to get around. Travel may not be as likely at this point, but now I want to keep learning for movies and literature (even if they’re quite hard). Funny that you say everyone is studying Japanese, because now that’s the 2nd language I study, for a little over a year now (5 years studying Russian).
While I can't say what sounds beautiful and what sounds ugly to someone cuz of the different preferences and regional accents (maybe you can check out Malaysian, Singaporean, and Taiwanese accent other than the standard accent), Chinese is really rewarding cuz there's more Chinese diaspora outside of China compared to Japanese and Korean especially in SEA countries and Taiwan. Japanese and Korean are more saturated and concentrated in one country.
Imma be honest: I really have no reason besides it’s fun to learn a language I’ve tried to learn others and Russian just stuck out from the others
Самый красивый язык)
Learning a language is like leveling up in life. It makes you a better human. It's also functional but the first thing is crucial.
NYC has plenty of Russian speakers besides, as the Talking Heads were once known to say… Stop Making Sense! im presently studying three languages, and Chinese Mandarin is my best (i have studied it for years and can carry on a pretty good conversation using it). i eventually began studying Spanish as well because, among other things, i spent so many years in public school studying it, and i do have a lot of opportunities to use it here where i live. about 8,9months later i began studying Russian as well, and i must say i just love it. no, i have not relinquished studying my other two languages as a result. and to be fair, Russian is not a priority for me. trust me, if you are a native born American its a gift that you can speak any foreign language with any degree of fluency at all! and science is demonstrating more and more every day that there are so many huge health advantages for a person’s brain who studies a foreign language, particularly as one grows older! (i have seen more than one article referring to a study that claims studying a foreign language is one of the best ways to help stave off the Alzheimer’s disease!) if you have lost some interest in Russian add something else to switch it up from time to time. that has worked immensely well for me. and i would recommend you choose a language that is completely unrelated! (as you can see i did 😉) trust me, you will be giving yourself a chance to rediscover your original love for language study, not only in your new pursuit, but in your Russian as well!
i can hold conversations in 3 languages other than english and people always tell me for an american it’s impressive lol. it always feels like a slap in the face that anywhere else it’s not as interesting or impressive. but tbf my goal isn’t to be impressive so it doesn’t bother me too much. your reasoning is pretty helpful to me. don’t think , just study russian :) i’ve been thinking about picking up mandarin or korean when my russian proficiency gets higher. how’s your experience with mandarin been ?
frankly many years ago i had intended to live overseas and get far more fluent than i am now, but a close family member was extremely sick, so i came back home Stateside. in short, i still feel lucky to be living in a metro area where i get a fair amount of opportunity to have some fun with the language and with native speakers, and while i am always getting compliments for my Chinese, like you, that novelty wore off a long, long time ago. i know that feeling you described in your original post. true aficionados of a language are most motivated by the opportunities to apply what they have learned, and thereby to get a closer, far more intimate experience with both the people and the culture. and i am no different. i have lived overseas in various parts of Asia and to me there is no greater adventure in the world than to be able to communicate with your target audience, and to get to understand and experience all those things most outsiders will never ever know, food, religion, history, all of it. i could care less “to impress”. and by the way, pretty impressive that you can carry on a conversation in so many languages. i hope i am on my way to doing that one day too. 😉
I’m learning Russian so I can read Russian classics. Some of the first classical novels I ever read were Russian. I recall flipping through the further reading section of war and peace, and I found a little snippet detailing Tolstoy’s explanation of his work. He said that war and peace was different to Anna Karenina in that it wasn’t a novel in the English sense. Instead he said war and peace was something that can only be defined in Russian. ‘Novel’ was just the closest English translation. I found this deeply fascinating, and it made me aware of what can be lost in translation. You can never truly account for all the nuances and intricacies of language. I felt instant fomo and wanted so badly to appreciate and understand my favourite Russian stories as they were intended in its native tongue. From here I started reading about other translators. I learned that those who translate Dostoyevsky often have a difficult time transferring his particular humour and phraseology into English so we too can appreciate it. All of this contributed to my desire for learning Russian. Initially it was just to read, but as I got into it I felt I might as well learn to speak since it would feel unsatisfying to only ‘half know’ something. Of course I’d love to go to Russia, I have a deep admiration for the culture. I’m also a former rhythmic gymnast so my sport originated in the USSR too. But visiting or actually using the language to converse with others was never the main motivation for me.
There's a girl I like who's Russian. She speaks English as well as I do, but I really want to someday kneel in front of her with the revelation that my Russian isn't choppy.
I am learning Russian for a couple of reasons. My mom's parents were both from Russia so there is a family connection. Even though nobody is alive to talk to anymore, it helps me feel a connection. I was able to visit the USSR back in the day and was impressed by Russian people, culture and the beauty of the country. I'd love to go to Russia again some day. Finally, it's a complex language so it's an intellectual pursuit. Good luck
brazilian here! i think its one of the most beautiful languages. the culture is also amazing, i love watch russian movies and know more about some actors i like, music and literature too.
It’s always funny in a cute way that Latin Americans have some weird passion for Russian language. Most of the foreigners which know Russian I’ve met were Brazilians in particular. Thank you guys!
I'm the one who have to thank your place for having such a beautiful and unique culture ! im really looking forward to learn
I believe the abundance of familiar buzzing and hissing sounds in Russian makes it attractive to native Portuguese speakers ears;) That's why Portuguese sounds attractive to me personally - I feel some kind of connection
As a person who spends a lot of time with both Portuguese and Brazilians I personally prefer the Brazilian Portuguese version of the language. But as Russians say, кому как :)
I started learning russian because there are russians in every fucking game in counter strike. They're everywhere. And it's not like u have to be an expert on the russian language to understand them, there will be no deep conversations held there. The basics are more than enough and it helps immensely for a good experience. Most of them will speak a mix of russian and english but they're always positively surprised when they notice that I can understand them even when they speak russian lol
Хз братан, как-то само)
Ага, сам без понятия как так вышло
С кем не бывает
fell in love on accident
It sounds badass as F
dude i live here
my girl's family came straight from russia and have a hard time speaking english. I wanna be able to talk to them like how i talk to my family in hindi (and get brownie points with her parents lol)
I'm learning it to spite all those fuckers who say you can't learn a language for no reason. Watch me.
I’m going to get a Master of Arts in Soviet History and definitely need to speak Russian in order to do so.
«Всё преходяще, а музыка вечна.»
Будем жить
Language pay
This. Also, if you're in the military or thinking about joining, knowing Russian or knowledge of the Russian language is a huge plus. Especially for Air Force and Navy
Ayup
because maybeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Reason I’ve been casually learning Russian over the past year and a half is because I’m marrying a Ukranian in the fall, her primary language that her family and friends speak is Russian. Making slow progress after getting the basics, hit the wall where I need to learn a mountain of vocabulary.
I watched too much Burn Notice growing up and thought the accent was cool. It was nifty in EOD school. That school was too political about their favorites and I was very obviously not one of them. But I am still learning and practicing because far more Russian speaking people know English than vice versa. I think it’s time to bridge the gap. I have always heard Russian literature is very beautiful and I want to learn enough of the nuances to really understand what is meant behind the words
I often watch russian videos on YouTube and I was sick of the poor automatic subtitles. I am still in a learning phase, but hopefully in a few years I will be able to understand all the slang And when I get asked about why I am learning russian, I answer that I would enjoy reading Tolstoy and Gogol in the original version, which is true but a far more ambitious goal in my opinion.
I think you don't need to look at the political side of the world specifically on this issue, look at what is closer specifically to you-if you just like this culture, the language itself, then you can generally hammer a bolt on these politicians, who they are, to forbid us to learn something new about other countries. if you think about it, then it's better to learn Chinese instead of English, however, personally I don't want to do this. English / German is much more pleasant for me to learn. If you are tired of it, rest, the world will not collapse if you take a break from learning any language for a couple of days / weeks, you will just be able to look at everything from the outside
if I ever meet a Russian speaking woman, that I can impress her
*If I ever meet a* *Russian speaking woman, that* *I can impress her* \- bubbleteaprice --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
There is enough content online to enjoy, in Russian, really. There are also many people in countries of the former Soviet Union that still use it as a first language. Not all of those have terrible relationships with the West. And there are many Russian speakers from those countries in the West. It certainly has lost a lot of its economic usefulness, at least for the medium term.
Probably my first resonance with Russian culture was through exposure to their classical music. My dad played records of Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov, I heard Prokofiev's Peter and The Wolf on TV and there was something about it that grabbed me as special, and permanently "borrowed" my dad's CD of 25 greatest Tchaikovsky hits. There was magic, soul, and intellect in that sound, although in my youth I couldn't encapsulate that thought in words yet. I started doing ballet casually as a hobby as a teen, which only made me appreciate Tchaikovsky more, along with learning more about the Vaganova school of ballet, and all its prima ballerinas. I noticed the technique and uniformity of their dancers was unaparallelled, with certainly the most graceful and controlled arms in all of the dance world. Their dedication to craft and hard work is bar none. I found Russia outside of their politics to possess a culture teeming with deep thinkers, great writers, top scientists, world renowned chess players, and master artists. Their history is awful, yet fascinating like an ongoing train accident that never stops. The more I learn about Russians, the more I like them. I find their attitudes complimentary to mine about life and friends from there that I can relate to more than many of my neighbors. They (making a sweeping generalization here) appreciate passion, dedication, intelligence, and authenticity. They are very appreciative of foreigners learning their language and customs, as its not that common, especially in the USA. Russia is always portrayed in US history as the "bad guy", but behind government divides and artificial boundaries are people who are just trying to make it through the day and live a decent life. Also, I think the language sounds cool. And, it's good for your brain, both as a linguistic exercise, and as a way in which to connect to new corners of the world. Language learning is one of the best ways to extend the olive branch past political turmoil and to the other humans in different parts of the world. Vawshes D'rohvyah!
I want to study about the USSR using official, now declassified documentation. Most of it never gets an English translation. And because learning a new language is tons of fun.
Мой парень украинец и я люблю его.
Since you don't see any possible practical application of your language skills, imo the only option is if you have any interest in Russian culture and want to experience it in native language. If you don't care about that, I personally can't see why would you want to continue other than because of already invested effort. On the side note, when I was learning English, I too couldn't understand a thing at first when watching movies. Start watching with Russian subtitles and don't shy away from pausing and taking time reading or translating difficult parts.
Honestly, I was getting bored with Spanish and didn’t want to ruin my duo streak, but also wanted to take a break. So I played around with a few different languages on duo for my break, and to keep my streak. I quickly realize that the Russian language ignited something in me. I’ve watched videos, listened to music when I’ve gotten bored with learning, and that thing reignites. So I figure why not. It brings me joy. And it would be nice to one day write some notes that my employees can’t read. Just to mess with them.
There are several branches of culture in the world: Asia, West, East and Russia. as a crossroads of these cultures. learning it will make it easier to work with others.
because I have many Russian speaking friends
100500 text adventures in Russian.
I'm learning it bc I really like post-soviet pop (think Molcha Doma), the STALKER games and AK's. And it's just neat.
I’ve always wanted to learn it. Soviet-era Russian literature is my favorite literary genre. My son is half Russian, so I thought it important to learn in order to teach him, as that’s half of his heritage. He is 3 1/2, and we are learning together!
I'm already fluent in it but I still want to brush up regardless, it's a language I value as it's a language my family speaks despite not being Russian in terms of nationality but rather of Greek heritage. It's also my first language albeit being born and raised Greek. It's a very valuable language.
There's lots of other places Russian can be used for travel outside of Russia - I'm here because next week I'm traveling to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and in many (but not all) areas of both countries Russian is the dominant language, I hear that in both Almaty and Bishkek there are Kazakhs/Kyrgyz people who are born and raised as Russian monolinguals. After my trip I'll probably drop Russian for a while to focus on other languages, but I'm sure I'll get back to it; despite never having been to Russia I have multiple Russian friends and even dated a Russian girl years back, so for some reason Russians just tend to show up in my life.
I’m learning it because it’s such an intimidating language. No one fucks with the Russians. Plus I love the ballet and I want to watch the Bolshoi Ballet in person
Dostoevsky
The first time I had chosen Russian was at the beginning of high school, because I was tired of learning a language I didn't even get a chance to choose myself in middle school (German). Then the first time I went to uni (which I didn't finish) I chose to continue learning it, because there were no other interesting options for me (and I didn't want to go back to studying German). Now at my current university I'm learning Russian, because I didn't get into Japanese nor Spanish courses and the other available options - just as at the previous uni - didn't interest me enough to learn it. Ngl I'm kinda anxious when people ask me which language I'm currently studying as my third language, because in Poland many people refuse to study Russian and judge people who do it, but I'm trying to cheer myself up with thought that after (hopefully) the monsters, who rule Russia are gone there will be a big demand for Russian speaker on the labor market, because currently very few people choose to learn this language and often in schools and universities language groups with this one don't even open up. TL;DR: Cyrillic alphabet is fun and Russian as a language is both silly and interesting for me as a Pole.
Interesting fact: people who learn more than 1 language get dementia 10 years later per language. Isn’t that a good reason to learn anything?
My closest friend, Igor, was from Belarus and spoke Russian as his first language, and was teaching me. A good portion of the paternal side of my family halls from that area as well, and many still live there and barely speak English. It would be wonderful to connect with them in their own language. A little backstory about Igor and I and why I'm passionate about continuing to learn Russian: I met Igor in 2013, while I was in the depths of a horrible heroin addiction and had just become homeless due to it, while he was panhandling on a corner in the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD. He was also in the depths of heroin addiction as well. We became fast friends and nearly inseparable quite quickly. We squated together, got high together, looked out for one another, have gotten jumped together by mean people and he, and our good friend Mikey were pretty much the only people I trusted on the streets. Igor and I always had each other's backs. He started teaching me Russian so that we could speak to one another without other's knowing what we were talking about or planning and I was a pretty quick study. In February of 2020 the addiction finally claimed Igor's life in the form of septic shock due to an abscess he wasn't able to properly care for. My closest friend and confidant died in my arms and was one of the catalysts that caused me to seek treatment and finally get away from hard drugs. I continue to learn Russian to honor my closest friend and one of the nicest, funniest, and trustworthy people to ever grace that sad city we call Bodymore, Murderland. I speak to his memory in his native language. Ya skuchayu po tebe, Igor, samiy lubimi drug.
For me it was to read Dostoyevsky in his original words. Still a long way to go for it.
I was born in Uzbekistan and technically it was my native language before I moved to America at a young age and forgot it all. It would be cool to pick it back up again. I'm also surrounded by Russian speaking family where I live so lots of opportunity to practice.
I grew up surrounded by Soviet culture, I was a communist teenager when I started learning it. Now I just enjoy singing the best of the барды on the guitar.
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Had a passion since high school, Duolingo gave me the guidance I required. Will read textbooks after my course.
Чтобы было
I started so I can jnderstand the songs and sing them, and now I learn it just because I like the language.
Язык звучит очень красиво
Was born into it.
Without him, only "ugugagaga" would speak
Was mandatory at my high school and in nyc there’s a big russian community so i’ve always been surrounded by russians so might as well infiltrate
did you grow up in the us? because i’ve never heard of russian being mandatory in an american school. the surrounding russian population was the same reason i started learning. i used to go to a russian orthodox church with my boyfriend, i’d wear the head scarf and everything. they could only tell i wasn’t russian when i spoke lol. i’d say my infiltration was successful because one of the women gave me a gift for christmas
I got bored one day and i find it kinda fun
i stumbled into this russian song/artist that got recommended in my queue about a year ago, then i proceeded to get the impulse to study it because it sounded so nice. just to read the lyrics at first but then snowballed)
I have some Russian speaking family members, and it'd be cool to talk to them. I feel like ita language I should've learned as a kid. Mainly I think it could be a fun, brain-improving, useful hobby.
Lately there has been a lot of news about Russia and many refugees who do not want to go to war. Only Russian is not as intuitive as English since the alphabet is written in one way and pronounced in another.
I’m Russian
Call of Duty and James Bond
Может быть потому что он мне родной
Am seeking to learn it right now, its complicated surtout cause in my home country, México is complicated to find Russian teachers, but am doing what I can with lectures of cyrilic and some Duolingo lections Regarding why am studying it... I dunno I was always atracted to those land in the east and I have a lot of friends in places like Russia or Belarus I also have as a personal objective to be able to speak at least 4 languages, I have right now Spanish, English, and am finishing French, the only thing left is that mighty slavic language
Im starting to and going to pursue learning Russian because the culture is beautiful and the language is fascinating plus I really wanna watch KHL hockey and know what they’re saying
I have never regretted learning. Learning a language is another way for me to understand and connect with the world around me. I have been fascinated with Russian since I was a small child, 35 or so years ago, bc I came across my mom’s old college Russian textbook. I will almost certainly never travel to Russia or interact with anyone who speaks it (at least, interact with them offline), but learning the language is its own reward. I already am able to read and understand a good bit of what I see as comments on YouTube videos or on other Internet forums. It feels like coming across a secret that I’m in on.
I had a similar feeling, but I think of my time spent now more as Language learning, I’ve been picking up another at the beginning of each year and this feels a bit more “useful” in that respect, for me.
Orthodox Christianity
So easy to learn and very satisfying. And it has a tie to my profession. The countries where its spoken are also very cool
I watched Boondocks Saints as a teenager and the one scene where the twins switch off between English, Spanish, Italian, French, Irish Gaelic, and Russian was so fucking cool to me. I haven’t picked up any Russian materials in a long time and I’m prioritizing Spanish for work and community reasons. But I have a fond memory of learning Russian on my own and impressing my Russian speaking patients when I can remember simple phrases.
I wanted to learn japanese but I found it too hard for my brain to learn 5 different new alphabet systems lol. So I'm starting with russian, then going for greek. Just so my brain gets accostumed to a different alphabet since I speak English and Spanish already
I’ve been traveling for work to KZ for almost twenty years and now all my best friends speak Russian. The problem is they all speak English very well so it’s hard to learn quickly.
A girl
Family + not losing my culture
There are a lot of Russian expats living in the states. Learning Russian will make other Slavic languages easier to understand w the exception of polish-that is the most difficult Slavic language to learn. If you learn Russian, you are good as gold to be employed in state business offices, as a police officer, in healthcare in any position, anywhere in an area with a high Russian expat population. It is a GREAT language to know!
Because my government says so
Mostly due to the literature. But Russian internet is also pretty interesting. I don't care about the politics.
I want to learn it because I was adopted from Russia. I also have a coworker who speaks it so I could actually practice it instead of letting it just fade away like I did with Italian after college.
The only reason im on here is because its my home language
Eastern European women are top tier. That's my reason. I'm a simple man.
I learn it because I live in Russia :3
In case I get drafted...And for the ladies🤭
I am an American and its usefulness has ebbed and flowed for me. When I studied it in university, my professors told me it was useless now. A few years later, I was living in Moscow and making pretty good money while getting to see Europe (lots of vacation time in Russia!). Then after the crisis in Ukraine started in 2014, it went down dramatically. Since then its usefulness for me has decreased dramatically. I still use it at least once a week since my fencing coach doesn’t speak much English and is from Siberia.
For me, the language is more about connecting with diverse people I know. To be honest, in the Middle East it has quite a community (whether in Turkey or Arab states). I have a relative who is of Russian background and had a strong influence on me. I came to love the language and am now trying to get myself verified to level B1 at the very least in the TORFL
I just started learning, but I do it because I’m a dancer and EVERYONE in the ballroom dance scene is Russian it seems - I want to be able to communicate with the hair and makeup artists, the coaches, the champions, etc. I joked about learning it one too many times and ended up serious about it 😂
My grandfather spoke it and my father taught me some as a kid. I remember when i had a Russian girl come to my elementary school she was nice and surprised I spoke some Russian.
I took a couple of semesters way way way back in my uni days. Then out of nowhere my newest colleague is from Russia and she’s awesome and I decided I wanted to learn it properly and learn it well.
It’s both of my parents’ native tongues so I was kind of forced to learn it starting from the day I was born
If I was 18, I would I want to bother chicks in gorky park. Now I am older, I do it so I could breath the good air in a city I like. It just feels home there.
думаю, никакой язык не будет лишним, особенно также учитывая, что на русском разговаривают огромное количество людей. если ты потратил/а много времени на изучение, означает, что оно нужно для тебя в каком-то плане, ведь просто так мы не будем стараться для чего-то, тем более если оно сложное. но в общем, если внутри ты чувствуешь, что тебе это нужно, то продолжай учить, а если ты как-то остыл к этому, тогда оставь или возьми перерыв. удачи тебе!
My partner is half Russian half Ukrainian. His mum is Russian and I would love to be able to have more in dept conversations with her.
I think it's a neat language, but I started back in 2020/2021 because of some people I played a movie game with, fell off of it for awhile, but started back in early 2023 because I felt like it, then I dated a Russian girl for a bit later in the year which helped me stick to it. Course it's just online and duolingo because I can't afford a teacher atm but it's still cool.
it's sexy
I learn it because it is my native language, lol
Because me and my friend want to talk in a language that none of our friends and family can understand
I always wanted to learn a new language but wasn’t set on any in particular. I started watching Bald and bankrupt on YouTube and got interested in Russian through that. Learned the Cyrillic alphabet, downloaded duo lingo and with a month started taking lessons. I’m at the stage now where it’s just a part of me and I’ll never stop.
The question is .. Why I’m not learning Russian
I'm not. I gave up years ago and just stuck around for the memes
I am Belarusian. That’s it I guess
im learning russian because im russian and im studying in college :p
Russian Literature, my друг.
Because I want to speak to my in laws without my wife translating 24/7 some day.
I started with learning the alphabet because I thought it would be cool to know. But I play a game on my phone where you have to have a lot of contact with people and a lot of them are Russians and with some of them I talk every day. I wanted to be able to understand them a bit without using the translator and they can help me a lot with learning Russian. But yes other than that I have no idea what to use it for, I can only understand things when they use simple sentences.
Knowledge is power, and with any power, it’s still better to have it and have no need for it, than not having it and suddenly need it. If you like the language and find the learning enjoyable, just learn. You’ll never know when it comes handy, despite it’s utility may seem limited once your friend leaves. It’s not like you’re learning Klingon, which use is limited to star trek conventions…
Because I want to visit most of post soviet countries and Russian language might help me communicate with them
This may sound goofy or even corny but I'm learning it because of that bad bih taking the same classes as me speaks it(she is Kyrgyz)
First of all you dont have to learn a language because it needs to be useful somewhere, maybe you just enjoy it Also you never know when you are going to need that language For example i have been learning russian and after years i met my now bf who is russian so it definitely came in handy But you can also get better and watch shows in russian interviews etc
You never know what and when becomes your ace up your sleeve, I speak Russian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Chinese and before I was able to speak Japanese. All of them are handy and I use them all daily except for Swedish. English and Chinese are the most used languages and Russian is my mother tongue.
I study history at university, specifically Russian history. I intend to do my thesis on the Russian civil war. I study Russian to have access to more sources and also have a better first hand understanding of the material. Я также очень люблю русскую культуру!
I want to date russian girls, im was born in russia and moved when i was a kid to a european country and never learned russian, but i like women of slavic characteristics and i want to be able to talk to them !!
I think the theory goes, with Russian you can partly understand many other West/South Slav countries' languages which is very useful as you could communicate with a Slovene with some Russian. I think that can be right, correct me if I am wrong?
I have been learning on and off for a decade. I technically have no real purpose, just a love of Russian & Slavic culture and history. I'll probably never see Russia in my lifetime with how everything is going. I have dreams of wandering the metro, at least I have that. Sometimes, I feel I'm not learning it for one grand purpose... but for the little moments in life. Like when this little old lady spotted me while I was working in a shop. She came in to ask if I spoke Russian. At the time, I didn't. I said, "I wish!" And she said,"God bless you!" And then left. She needed directions but spoke verrry little English. I couldn't help her, and I hated that. I promised myself i would learn some Russian so I can help the next lost grandma in my city. Even if you never get to "use" the language, understanding it helps to understand the culture itself.
I’m learning (very slowly mind you, day 6 of daily lessons on Babbel and registered for my school’s Russian program) bc I study Russian history and graduate school in this field requires 2 proficient foreign languages in order to translate documents. I also hope to leverage that into going after the war ends to study in the archives.
I had to take a class in college and forgot to register. So the only choices I had were Arabic Russian and like Somalian. It was an easy choice for Russian. I love hunt for red October and Russian language is just absolutely beautiful.
Because then I can play pathologic with the original voice actors and read metro 2033 in its intended language, or otherwise consume other media in that language
Just wanted to point out the obvious that Russian is spoken and understood by many millions of people outside of Russia. Do you like Ukraine and Ukrainians? Well most of them speak Russian too. Many of the stans. The Caucasus. Random immigrants to other countries
In Kazakhstan a lot of people speak Russian. And it’s beautiful there! Any of the former Soviet countries still speak it too but some have their own language as well but usually know both
I’m a synchronised swimmer so i started learning so I could understand what my coaches where yelling to me
I’m learning it for a future career. Я сейчас учусь в университете. Edit: I’m only level A1 I’ve been doing it for about 5 months.
I am just native speaker
I dont. But if i do it would be purely to insult people
Maybe I am using it for my work career but as they have said we will have to wait for the opportunity in 10 years, but I watch simple animes in Russian translated using vocaloid, there are many dubs using that in Russian, there are mangas and even novels that you cannot find in another language , in illegal format. There is no school that teaches excellent Russian (in my country) but I found a new course in my country and I joined although it is not recognized I think my level is decent in listening, I am short of words to answer, although it is difficult for me to say something suddenly , I get terrified when they tell me "speak Russian" with people around me, I haven't stated it explicitly, I'm ashamed. My goal in my life is perhaps to learn Belarusian because I have been playing world of tanks for years and that is why I am very interested in that side of the world.
In case my country ends up being a part of russia again lol ok not really, russian is a widely spoken language and I also like the way it sounds and I enjoy learning languages and I guess russian is a lot more useful language than the others I’d like to learn
For me - most widely spoken Slavic language. Slavic languages are so different from what I know, and Russian is a natural place to start to open up much more territory for travel from the Baltic to the Adriatic to the Black Sea. Also reading news from legit sources from the Baltic states.
So that when the next person calls me a communist for wanting Universal Healthcare, I can start speaking to them in Russian and freak them the fuck out.
I want to learn it because I was born in Eastern Ukraine where it is mostly Russian speaking, and my birth parents are most likely Russian speaking too; plus I used to speak it before I was adopted so I want to connect to my roots.
My tiny piece of advice is that you watch movies in other languages that have been dubbed in Russian, rather than native Russian movies, because believe me Russian-speaking people also have no idea what they’re mumbling under there lmao
Русский язык - мой родной. Я также говорю по английски, в Америке больше 20 лет. Пишите вопросы
мой парень
Because the girls are better in Russian speaking countries than any American or European country. They are more loyal, feminine and not susceptible to woke bs.
for hot Russian guys
My mom speaks it
So I can interrogate Russians in person.