southern_breeze

southern_breeze t1_iycwwwc wrote

Yes. I do speak Russian. The times that I needed it were when I was travelling through former USSR countries where English is not that prevalent and when talking to some Ukrainian refugees if they don't speak English.

If I could trade knowing russian to any western language (not even western, basically any) I would, in a heartbeat.

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southern_breeze t1_iycw5cr wrote

Yep, there's plenty of cases where kids would like to learn German, but the school does not have a German teacher, but they definitely have a Russian one.

I hope that with the access to remote learning at some point kids will be able to choose whatever language they want and learn it remotely.

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southern_breeze t1_iycv5hx wrote

yeah, a lot has changed these past few decades. With the sanctions that started a long time ago, a lot of businesses has reorganised from working with russia to working within EU and western world, and obviously "the money is in the west".

Probably the biggest industry that I can think of that Russian language is still needed is logistics - someone has to know Russian to speak to the drivers that majority comes from the East and they don't speak English.

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southern_breeze t1_iyccg5u wrote

Yes, I am not saying that Russian don't have good authors, but the cultural aspect is just a bonus I guess. The main point is the value of the language learnt. You can learn French and then go to a university in France or get a job in a business that works with France. You could do the same with Russian, of course, but... yeah. If you had to choose one...

>It's weird that you say let's forget politics and war and then bring politics in describing Russia.

Yeah, I guess I got carried away, just a lot of emotions directed towards the east at the moment.

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southern_breeze t1_iyc1wo7 wrote

Let's forget about the politics and war for a second here.

What second foreign language would you want them to learn?

Popular western languages that can be used in the future as an advantage to further your career or enjoy, say, French authors in their native tongue?

Or Russian - corrupt country that supports terrorism with a shit economy that cannot give us any advantage except to buy cheap shit?

If Russia becomes a normal country in the future, we can revisit this question in 30 years or so.

Edit: changed 'second' to 'second foreign'.

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southern_breeze t1_iuhsypy wrote

>the army is extremely out of date

What a dumbass take. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6XyfoZ5jHA

>due to low funding and corruption

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/defence-spending-pledges-by-nato-members-since-russia-invaded-ukraine/

Not true. >people were pocketing all the funding up until recently by writing it off as the army buying spoons and forks worth 200€ each.

The company has returned the money and got their spoons back.

Anything else?

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