This is a genuine question. I’ve always had an interest in learning languages and I have a list I want to learn. I am already somewhat decent in Spanish, so I’m picking up that, practicing my Portuguese, going to learn French and Italian, maybe German, learning Polish, and possibly Russian.
I already canceled the idea of living in Russia due to obvious reasons, but will I have any need to learn the language? Will it be useful? Will that be offensive? Many people HATE Russia and the language.
While it’s true a language is tightly linked to the culture of its speakers by definition, a language’s speakers aren’t just their leaders. Russian represents centuries of cultural wealth, not just the misadventures of the last hundred or so years. It’s not the language’s fault that Putin invaded Ukraine. If you love learning languages for their own sake, do it. I made the same choice when attempting to learn Mandarin during the Hong Kong protests.
Ime people hate russia, not it’s people or the language
It’s never a bad idea to learn another language.
It’s never a bad idea to learn. period…full stop.
The act of learning anything wires our brains in a thousand different ways; increases our critical thinking skills. Increases our verbosity and our ability to communicate our own ideas more effectively. It increases problem solving skills, etc…
The very act of learning is something that should be practiced every day with something, whether that’s a new language, or a hobby, or being a history buff…it doesn’t matter. What matters is the learning itself.
So if Russian is what is giving you that interest right now, do it. At the very least, chicks dig polyglots.
Hey, I’m trying to be more proficient in my Russian.
I think that the more letters a language has, the more words it has, and the more ways you have of getting you message across. The Russian language has so much depth to it due to the many ways of saying the same thing. This can be heard through Russian music or read through Russian literature. The more words a language has, the better you can describe what you are feeling. Maybe there is a better language for translating the complexity of our minds into primal/basic words that we have created.
Now, I might me a bit further in my learning that you are, but if anyone is interested
I have just started a Russian Learning Community that I hope to grow in the coming months.
Beginners, intermediate or advanced / fluent speakers of the Russian language
All are welcome! Не стесняйтесь ребята!
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Feel free to join and create discussions and posts.
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Share insights, resources and lessons
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Participate in comments
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Spark conversations by adding questions at the end of your post
We have a rule of trying not to use translators, only dictionaries and being fine with posting a post that is grammatically incorrect and having others point out your current flaws and room for improvement.
It can be found at: [email protected] (pun intended)
Найти нашу группу можно по етой ссылке: [email protected]
or here https://lemmy.zip/c/RushB
When joining, please introduce yourself in the welcoming post
EVERYONE IS WELCOME!
Приглашаю Всех!
It is currently very dry, so consider yourself an OG and use that title when it gets more popular.
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It is never a bad idea to know the language of your enemy.
Which reminds me: I heard of a story about a Chinese American helping South Korea’s side during the Korean war and like yelling “别开枪，自己人” (“don’t shoot, friendly”) in Mandarin and confusing the PLA, it was such an intriguing story.
Of course, if you look up that story in Baidu search, dude’s branded as a race traitor.
Learning the language is not a political statement, and you’ll outlive Putin. Besides we’re not solving anything by refusing to communicate with each other. If you want to learn Russian, learn Russian. Just be careful not to fall for the propaganda.
As a Russian myself, it depends.
Do you want to explore classic Russian literature without translation losses? Explore the cultural ties of Russians and how language and culture affects history and politics? Figure out what Russian politicians are saying? Hang out with Russians somewhere? Are a proud pirate looking for Russian resources? Finally figure out how to write the word “лишишься” in cursive?
If at least one answer is “yes”, go ahead! It’s not easy, but quite rewarding. If you just want to dip your toes a little, however, and feel like you grasp something, there are better options.
Writing in cursive is easy, just write a bunch of “u” next to each other and you’re bound to write one of the characters that look like bunch of “u”.
True lol
But figuring out just how much “u” you need to write, or how many are there, is a bit tedious without the language experience.
I think you’re Russian to conclusions.
Your puns are Putin this community to shame
You guys need to Finnish with these puns.
No way! I’m Hungary for more puns!
You need to Polish your joke a little
Next guy to add a pun joke to this chain…Europe!
Learning Russian would be handy for when you meet them on counter strike and they start raging at you, but otherwise probably not.
The only solid worst-case reason is to learn “please dont kill me ive got a family” and thats not actually going to get you anywhere so whatever.
There’s never really any downsides to learning another language, provided you have the commitment and resources.
People should be able to understand what is going on there, so I say go for it.
This would also open the door to other Slavic languages, many not even written in cyrillic.
Shout out to Interslavic! This is a language that is comprised of common words and roots from all Slavic languages, all united under consistent rules.
Learning it will enable you to understand all Slavs to a good degree, and they will in turn understand you very well.
Knowing 2 Slavic languages (3 if we count basic Czech), I can confirm it works.
IMO it depends on if you are interested in the language or culture, or if you plan to be in contact with Russia or Russians. For example, do you plan to translate Russian? Do you plan to read Russian-language literature?
Will that be offensive?
Bigots deserve to be offended.
Many people HATE Russia and the language.
Not your problem if people are prejudiced against Russians for the actions of the government that lords over them. If you want to learn the language, go for it.
I just plan to be a writer or teach English :)
30 years ago we had a saying that optimists start to learn Russian now. Pessimists Chinese.
(Sub text for the ones who need explanation: because it’s going to be the language of the next world rulers)
Learn Ukrainian first maybe, and then learn Russian? It may be easier to learn if you already know Ukrainian, too.
Of course, if you already know Ukrainian, why not learn Russian too?
