<p>I'm interested in taking Russian language courses in university, and I'm fully aware of the cultural benefits, but I'm wondering about the practical ones. Russian is a widely spoken language, but the populace is mainly concentrated in Russia. If you were to go on a trek through Eastern Europe, could you get by with knowing Russian?</p>
<p>duuude ime russian. i grew up learning to speak it alongside english :)</p>
<p>anyways, russian would help you understand a lot of slavic originated languages, for example ukranian, polish, croatian, etc.
specifically in russia, you get ripped off if you speak english (they literally have different prices for tours, tickets, in english and russian)
finally, most adults living in the former soviet union know russian for obvious reasons.</p>
<p>therefore, if you get your basics down it would help. beyond that, i don't know</p>
<p>good luck studying it! it must be a pain to learn all the grammar =]</p>
<p>Many of the residents of the former soviet bloc speak Russian, but many will refuse to speak it because for them the language is reminiscent of oppression. However, the slavic languages are a lot more closely related than even the romantic languages, so picking up another slavic language will not be difficult at all. </p>
<p>Russian rocks. I hope you stick with it to fluency, because it'll certainly be worth it.</p>
<p>Russian economy is booming. BRIC means Brazil, Russia, India, China; i think(?).
Russian literature is great, although i don't know russian, i grew up reading russian stories translated from Mir Publications. Suvorov, Kutojov, Razin; very interesting.</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn't learn a language for the practical reasons (and I'll be a Russian/Biology major); having said that, I'm sure Russian would be extremely useful for entering any kind of field on the international or diplomatic level. Other than that, I can't see it being extremely useful in a non-academic context, though it would certainly help in understanding other slavic languages. However, not all eastern european languages are slavic; Romanian is certainly a romantic language, and many even believe it to be the language bearing the closest resemblance to Latin.</p>
<p>Russian has recently been named by the State Department as a critical language for Americans to study, so the demand for it as a skill may be higher in the future.</p>
<p>I'm taking Russian as an elective ( wanted to learn a language that didn't use a roman alphabet) and just learning the alphabet and how to write the letters in cursive, not to mention learning to read and pronouncethe words correctly is a challenge.</p>
<p>Somewhere it reads</p>
<p>"Only pessimists learn Chinese; the optimist learns Russian."</p>
<p>Whatever that means...</p>
<p>My Polish father in law was quite impressed that I could read the Polish newspaper -- I studied Russian for three years in high school. So that little parlor trick, plus speaking to the Russian cabbies in NYC, are my only uses of the language. I did enjoy it though!</p>
<p>Oh yes ... learning to <em>write</em> the language improved my handwriting in English immensely.</p>
<p>When you get into languages that have millions and millions of native speakers, you don't have to worry so much about "usefulness" in general. A language is what you make of it. If you're overwhelmed by languages you want to learn and can't choose which one to start with, just pick a language whose uses relate to your interests.</p>
<p>And re: challenge of the alphabet, handwriting, pronunciation. Challenge isn't the right word. These things just take practice, and not very much. With a little practice, pronunciation and handwriting become second nature.</p>
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Personally, I wouldn't learn a language for the practical reasons
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<p>I dunno. I think that it's a perfectly reasonable thing to do as long as you actually enjoy studying it. </p>
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Russian has recently been named by the State Department as a critical language for Americans to study, so the demand for it as a skill may be higher in the future.
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<p>Did it ever actually drop off the list? I think State kept it up there even after the Cold War...I'm not entirely sure though. </p>
<p>At any rate, Russian's going to continue to be an important language.</p>
<p>I'm teaching myself Russian at the moment, and so far I absolutely LOVE this language. I picked up a Pimsleur Language CD on whim after watching Everything Is Illuminated, and now I am really truly glad that I decided to learn this language. I think I'm going to enroll in a Russian course at the local community college. I'm so excited--I've never been this excited about a language before!</p>
<p>I agree with whoever said that it's a pain learning how to pronounce things correctly! I'm fluent in Korean, and I know how important accuracy in pronunciation is. ^_^; I'm not really learning this language for its usefulness, although the op raises a very valid point that I've never thought before. I guess it WILL continue to become an important language like uclari said.</p>
<p>spiffy stars, I feel the same way when I speak Russian. I am just happy speaking it. It's kinda magic. I don't feel quite that way about any other language or culture.</p>