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.
I agree with the person who said it’s not a bad idea to learn the language of your enemy. And Russian culture is fascinating and worthy of study, even if the country is currently being run by a fascist dictator bent on world domination, at the expense and destruction of his own people. But then, that has been a trend in Russian history.
If this bothers you enough to ask about it, have you considered learning Ukrainian instead? You’ll get many of the benefits of learning Russian, and my understanding is that the two languages are mutually intelligible with some difficulty despite the differences.
Find a culture you like and language you think is interesting and learn. No need to make it a chore, turn it into something positive and maybe go visit. You can find someone to talk to in their native language and even better someone who wants to learn yours!
Lots of Ukrainian refugees are native Russian speaker. I wouldn’t overthink things if I were you
how to ask for mercy in Russian
Sorry, am of lazy. Prefer shootings Ruski over learning his gibberish.
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.
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.
Learning Mandarin is very useful to say:
Guāngfú Xiānggâng, Shídaì Gémìng (Free Hongkong, Revolution of our times!)
xD
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!
Norway we’re gonna stop!
There’s never really any downsides to learning another language, provided you have the commitment and resources.
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.
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.
I learned Russian when I was in school - after having family who left during the pograms. Learning the Russian language, or any language, should not be about politics. You don’t learn the language to embrace government policies, you do it in order to better understand the artists and the art they created. I don’t have my Russian keyboard, so you’ll forgive me - but there are works which work best when untranslated and understanding some context. “We” by Zamyatin, “Master & Margarita” by Bulgakov, a bunch of Tolstoy’s works, “Diary of a Madman” by Gogol, “Roadside Picnic” by the Strugatsky brothers, and movies like Solaris and Stalker. Not to mention the poetry.
Learn the language for the art. If it does make you political at all, it’ll make you even more opposed to the Chekist in charge.
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.
Of course not. If we blamed the language for the bad actions of the people who spoke it during, there would be virtually no language left in a pristine enough condition to learn.
That being said, tempers can boil over. So maybe don’t shout your Duolingo answers at a full Starbucks. I mean, that’s good advice regardless of the language but you know what I mean.
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.
True, but there’s a high chance you’ll accidentally write something that’s correct than in latin script. When I was learning Russian in high school I spent more time than I should trying to come up with a word that has the most “u” shapes. Sadly I don’t remember what I settled on, but it was quite a bit long.
The classic ones are “шиншилла” and “лишишься”, although the latter could be extended to “лишившийся”. 11 of the same strokes for the latter, if my calcultations are correct.
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)
