<p>I plan to take courses in Russian next year, but my parents are skeptical: they'd rather I learn Chinese or Spanish. But there are already so many people who can speak that language better than I can (I'd have to start at the beginning). There are few people who speak Russian, and I feel like it has a lot of value in international politics and business, not to mention the wealth of underrated culture it opens up. So in the event I have to convince my parents with some arguments, what are some I should prepare?</p>
<p>Well, as a parent, I really feel that what a student studies in college is up to them. </p>
<p>I took Russian in college...that was back during the Cold War, so no one argued with me about it's potential usefulness. I didn't take it to get a job with the CIA or NSA, though. I took it because I just love Russian literature and wanted to be able to read it in Russian. </p>
<p>I haven't used it a lot since...I did for a while when I lived in the city (Boston), in a area with a fair amount of Russian immigrants. </p>
<p>I work in software development now and there have always been at least 1/2 a dozen native Russian speaking engineers everywhere I've worked. I don't generally speak Russian with them, mine's too rusty, though they'll certainly entertain my occasional attempts with patience. There is a lot of outsourcing of software development to Russia...so in this field, anyway, there would be a practical certainly be a use for it. </p>
<p>Russia's economy has been growing quickly and they joined the WTO last fall...there should be plenty of opportunities for doing business with Russia if your parents are worried about potential practical uses for the language.</p>
<p>BECAUSE IT SOUNDS WICKED COOL!!!</p>
<p>and whatever kwl said....</p>
<p>I really wanted to start Russian in college for many of the same reasons that have been said already (the literature and because it sounds cool), but I just didn't have room in my schedule. It would have come down to becoming really fluent in French which I'd studied through high school or starting Russian and being able to half-way speak two foreign languages, and I still really enjoy the French language, French culture, etc. I decided to go for fluency in one, so if you also have the same choice: to continue with whatever language you've been taking in high school or to start another, then I would say go for fluency unless for some reason you just can't stand another year of whatever you've been learning. I think being really fluent in one beats half-way conversational in two: bird-in-the-hand-two-in-the-bush kind of thing</p>
<p>I hear the cryptic alphabet takes quite a bit of time to learn. How would that alphabet compare to say Japanese?</p>
<p>Cyrillic takes hardly any time at all to learn. It is absolutely nothing compared to Chinese or Japanese characters. You can learn to read the Cyrillic alphabet fairly fluently within an hour, and with just a few weeks it will become second nature.</p>
<p>I'm also beginning Russian next year and my parents are furious :P</p>
<p>Granted, I already speak Spanish almost fluently (to the point where my grammar is excellent and more classes aren't really going to help me) and can read French and Portuguese fluently as well.</p>
<p>I always promised myself that I would learn at least one non-Romance language. Russian makes the most sense because it's one of the most wanted languages for the CIA, NATO, State Department, and other areas. During the Cold War, many more people learned Russian but no one learns it anymore, so it sets you apart on a resume. Also, Russia is growing economically and will be important in the business sense in the coming years.</p>
<p>I'm also fighting with my parents over learning Portuguese this summer- but a language is a language and any language you learn fluently is going to make you a much more marketable candidate for a job. Granted, I think it's stupid that people aren't all taking Spanish and then a 3rd language on top of that as Spanish is the de facto 2nd language in this country (and you'll be more likely to be required to be bilingual in English and Spanish than English and any other language), but speaking ANY language is essential to succeed in today's world of globalization.</p>
<p>The Cyrillic alphabet is easy...especially if you already know the Greek alphabet. If you are at a college with a lot of fraternities and sororities, you probably already know most of the Cyrillic alphabet ;).</p>
<p>^I meant the Japanese 'syllabrey' which is easy to learn serves as an alphabet. (hiragana and katakana) I wasn't comparing the chinese characters to the cryllic alphabet. (The chinese characters being what most people think of since they only have one meaning for each character, more-or-less.) So what I mean to ask is, how does the Japanese "Syallbrey" compare to the cryllic alphabet?</p>
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So what I mean to ask is, how does the Japanese "Syallbrey" compare to the cryllic alphabet?
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<p>I'm a native speaker of both Chinese and English. I found Cyrillic to be MUCH easier than both hiragana and katakana. (I speak neither Russian nor Japanese. I can fudge my way around the letters.)</p>
<p>Cyrillic has a lot of letters that are influenced by either Greek or Latin. Only a few letters stand out as being unique.</p>
<p>i heard russian is pretty easy in terms of speech cuz its slow. it's also pretty influencial in northern western asia: kazakstan and all those other -stans, mongolia and eastern europe. but, it's not in the mainstream of society. u hardly hear from russia or eastern europe or asia in the news.</p>
<p>why does it matter what your parents think as far as what classes you take in college?</p>
<p>Russian is one of the language requirements for the Ph.D program for math major.</p>
<p>Yeah, Russian seems constrained to historical pieces and old movies/modern cold-war movies nowadays. I also saw several episodes of Star Gate SG1 where Daniel argues with Russians over nukes in an attempt by the bricks-for-brains writers to heighten the stale drama.</p>
<p>Russian sounds kinda cool and rough in the James Bond movies...It has a lot of constonants like German along with several new vowels and constonants right?<br>
I heard its easy to get mixed up though because several of the English letters are reused but representing a completely different phonetic.</p>
<p>learn Spanish too! It is soo cool :)!</p>
<p>If you want to learn it, then heck learn it. I don't really see any negatives to learning russian. Not many people know russian, so if someone disses you, diss them back in russian and you will feel good about it. You can watch... russian tv! and listen to funky russian music! Russian is a cool language, have fun learning it.
=]</p>
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learn Spanish too! It is soo cool !
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<p>I think I definitely will, but since Russian is much harder, I think I should started on it earlier.</p>
<p>I have a question though: When it comes to Spanish and Portuguese, which order should you learn them in?</p>
<p>If it makes you feel any better, most government agencies list Russian up there with Mandarin and Arabic as target languages.</p>
<p>Oh, and you should learn Spanish first. It's easier to use it on a regular basis.</p>
<p>it'd be pretty useful if you meant to go into math...lots of interesting theories came out of Russia, and math professors/students seem to be Russian.</p>
<p>^ not to mention physics. Some of the best books out there are in Russian</p>