(no subject)

[suku-vse.livejournal.com]

Off-top. I just want to ask a question: why did you chose to learn Russian language? It's very interesting for me, why people make this choice: do they hope to find a job, or they're just interested in the culture for some reason.

I'll be grateful to all who'll answer my question.

Comments

[solito.livejournal.com]

I had no choice :) In my elementary school there were no other languages... :))) But somewhere deep inside I had a hope to find a job, that's true.

[suku-vse.livejournal.com]

Come on. The question was not for native speakers.:) And believe me, you started learning Russian long before your first grade. (Unless we have a miracle here, and you're a very well adjusted former Mawgli:)

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

Well, I was just starting university and wanted to take a language class, but I wasn't sure whether to take Chinese or Russian. I thought they would be the most difficult of the offered (living) languages, and I wanted a challenge. I ended up choosing Russian because my university didn't offer Chinese past the first year.

I knew very little about Russian before I started the class; I just knew it was Indo-European, Slavic, and written with Cyrillic. =)

[arestoktra.livejournal.com]

actually both. i started to learn Russian in my 2nd year in university. both for a chance to find a job and because Russian culture and language is something i love a lot. (also a bit about heritage from 2 generations ago) :)

[darth-phoenix.livejournal.com]

A reason I have been giving people, as they don't see interest as a good enough reason, is that a large portion of the Internet Underground is in Russian. They accept that. :)

[sisyphus.livejournal.com]

joo h4x0r d00d!

[shariperkins.livejournal.com]

I am only beginning to learn. I'm attracted by the large body of great literature. I am a theater professional, and the great theatre tradition is also very attractive. I'm in Moscow now, and only wish that my language skills were sufficient to fully experience the culture.

[apredeus.livejournal.com]

Moscow must be like heaven for a theatre professional!
Hope your Russian will progress rapidly :)

[sisyphus.livejournal.com]

Because of Alexander Motherfucking Pushkin. Oh, and my girlfriend. But like I told her: anything can happen with a girlfriend, but Pushkin is forever. She took it surprisingly well.

[alinaf.livejournal.com]

!!!!! amen.

[evaluna68.livejournal.com]

If you go back 3 - 4 generations, my family is from that neck of the woods. Then when I was a kid, Mom sent us to summer camp at the local Jewish Community Center, during a time of heavy emigration of Jews from the FSU. The camp gave lots of scholarships to recently arrived immigrants, so roughly half the kids spoke Russian. It alternately drove me bonkers and made me curious, but as my high school didn't offer Russian, I had to settle for Spanish, and then French until college.

When I decided to study Russian, Mom thought I was crazy - what was I going to do with it? But by the time I finished college, it was 1989, and I've had plenty of opportunities to use it (first of all, during a semester in Leningrad in the fall of 1989 - boy, was that a crazy time!) and in fact it got me my first job after college. I've never been sorry. :-)

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

1989... We must be about the same age. I adored crazy 80s. The only thing I don't miss is the make-up style. :)

[moria923.livejournal.com]

During my senior year in high school, my honors English teacher assigned us a unit on Russian literature. We all had to read CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, and then each person was to do an individual presentation on another Russian novel. By the end of the unit I was hooked, and I decided to be a comp lit major with Russian emphasis. So of course my adviser in college informed me in no uncertain terms I'd have to learn Russian! I was reluctant, but I then got hooked on the language and culture, too.

[sventhelost.livejournal.com]

I'd always been fascinated with Russia growing up, partly because it was a big UNKNOWN place that seemed so important in world politics, but that it felt like we really knew nothing about. Mostly I was curious. So when I finally had the chance when I got to college, I took 101, despite my firm intention to become a theoretical astrophysicist. My curious investigation turned into fascination and respect and love.

People always asked what I wanted to do with my degree, and I wasn't sure. I joked that I wanted to be a spy or a dictator or a Russian physicist, but really I had no idea. Didn't want to teach, wasn't comfortable enough to translate, but didn't want to lose it. I have now had two jobs where I use it at least semi-regularly, working with people from many countries of the FSU.

I studied Chinese, too, for partly the same reasons. I like a challenge, I guess. :)

[surok75.livejournal.com]

came here for three months ten years ago.

had no idea what was going on, spoke no russian, and was completely confused by the whole thing.

but got hooked, studied russian at college, and now work in Russia. oh, and studying chinese in Russian....sven, I guess we both like challenges.

and I adore Russian. Russia itself - well, there are lots of things that bug me, as well as lots of things which are endlessly pleasing, entertaining, fascinating. but Russian itself - yes, there are some frustrating things which I'm certain I will never ever understand - is an endless source of delight.

Might as well

[storm-jack.livejournal.com]

I started learning Russian in the military - this is back before the Iron Curtain fell. It was either that or Arabic. I feel that I made the right choice. And I found a rich culture and history to go with that language that no one in my provencial little home town in rural Texas even knew existed.

[suku-vse.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'm a little bit comforted that sometimes people start learning it because of family heritage, even after several generation have lived happily in America.

I'm fascinated by your hard work, I wouldn't learn Hebrew just because my family once spoke it. (Maybe a few words, but not the whole language.)
I hate challenge, I got really exausted by my Arabic classes in school.

So, great respect for your hard work.

No, PUshkin wasn't right when he wrote "Мы ленивы и нелюбопытны." Maybe if he knew you, he would never write it.

[apredeus.livejournal.com]

Don't forget - he was writing about an average person :)

[logodaedaly.livejournal.com]

I actually got forced to. ;-) I was going to a residential high school for gifted students and all the other languages (French, German, Spanish, Japanese) were full. I took Russian reluctantly but over the course of three years in high school I fell in love with it. So I majored in it in college and the rest is history.

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

My Russian teacher once told me, "You know, I don't mean to brag or anything, but Russian is one of the most richest languages in the world." She forgot to mention culture. :)

For me it started out with "No one will know what I write in Cyrillic!" its amazing literature. I started reading Anna Karenina (but was thwarted by other school reading) and honestly, one of the only novels that actually got me into it. I need to finish her this summer...

Then it came to me speaking horrendously to a Russian that they were like "What!?" and they became exasperated. So I started to learn the grammar. And by golly grammar is AMAZING!/FRUSTRATING! I guess it's the frustrating part that makes it so amazing. Perhaps I'm sadomasochistic?

I would really love to major in Russian Language and Culture/History, but what for a job? So I'm taking that for a minor, and International Relations for a major. Diplomat comes to mind, but to get there... oy vey. I'm really worried about how my future is going to look like.

My love started in 9th grade. Formal learning started this summer. I caught on somewhat quick. And although this is my most favorite of languages, I am planning on polishing my French, and picking up German. Just so that I have a nice palette of languages to choose from should I go to Europe and want to "mingle" with the natives.

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

Oh, but I've still a loooooooong way to go with Russian. Each o in long should represent a year. I should make it longer.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG.

[pink-rain.livejournal.com]

I don't know why I've always been interested in it, but I've been wanting to learn it since I was 8.

[philena.livejournal.com]

I went to the language fair my first week at college, and there was a fellow there from the regular Russian sequence, and one there from the literary Russian sequence. The latter was way cooler, and the literary Russian sequence involved learning Russian grammar and vocabulary through reading Pushkin. We read Медный всадник and a couple of short plays my first year. I later found out that even if the professor from that sequence was cooler, he had still been immensely hung-over that day, and for the rest of the year he would periodically cancel class in advance when he was planing to get drunk the night before. He was cool.

The second year was taught by a linguist, and we read most of Мастер и Маргарита that year. I had started my linguistics degree, and not only did I like the literature, I started to love the language from a linguistic standpoint. I started to get the feeling that it is possible to learn all the rules, and they all make sense, and there's none of this nonsense the way there is in English and French, with things being right because they just are, and it doesn't make any sense.

And it should be mentioned that I love calligraphy, and although I'm immensely rusty right now, I know ten or twelve different scripts, and I was excited to play around with cyrillic and invent new scripts with it. I gave my boyfriend (Russian civilization major) a bi-lingual scroll of a couple short Ахматова poems.

[solteronita.livejournal.com]

I'm in the very beginning stages of learning. I chose Russian, because I live in Portland, Oregon, and I already know Spanish. The next most common language spoken here behind Spanish is Russian. I wanted something I could use, and am also looking to teaching English to speakers of other languages at the elemetary school level.

[arflahgha.livejournal.com]

I already speak English, Spanish, German and some French, and now I want a challenge.

[arflahgha.livejournal.com]

Besides -- It's a great way to meet hot men an interesting language.

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

I took Russian in college because I wanted a non-Romance language (I have a few years of Spanish and some Latin under my belt). Plus, I've always loved how Cyrillic looks, how it's like-but-not-like English; it felt like some sort of secret code that all of Russia was using behind my back. My grandmother's family was also from a-place-that-was-Russia-at-the-time, which made me more interested in the language (in response to suku_vse's disbelief, it wasn't my only reason, just one that made it a bit more interesting).

[suku-vse.livejournal.com]

No, suku_vse doesn't have any disbelief. I just wonder why people happen to chose one of the most difficult languages in the world.

[rumball107.livejournal.com]

i had a friend in high school who was from belarus. we were both in the same Latin class and we hated it, so she taught me russian secretly during that class -- we'd pass notes in russian, and i ended up learning more russian than i did latin. :)

[suku-vse.livejournal.com]

Basically, guys, you make me feel more comfortable. Sometimes I feel that I teach my kids the language that almost nobody speaks - and they're growing up in a culture (in a family) that no one else is interested in. It looks like I'm wrong.

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

No, it's important I think to pass that sort of thing along to your children. I'm so sad my dad didn't feel comfortable teaching us Spanish growing up. :(

[soidisantfille.livejournal.com]

Nobody, least of all my Scottish immigrant family, understands why I started learning Russian or how I became so interested in the culture, almost to the point of fetishism. I don't have a good answer... I just stumbled into it by accident. As a high school student, I fell in love with the classics of Russian literature (Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, etc.) before I had any knowledge of their cultural context, then I became fascinated with Russian history after taking a few survey classes during my undergraduate degree. When I started getting organized about going to graduate school, I realized that if I was going to get accepted anywhere, let alone make a legitimate contribution to the field, I needed to learn Russian and do my research in the original. I took the beginner's Russian class at my university, then I splurged and did a six-week stint at the Smolny Institute in St. Petersburg last summer. Two years later, I'm still plodding along... though it has made me cry (especially when I was in Russia), I don't regret at all my decision to learn this difficult but ultimately rewarding language.

As far as my 'career' is concerned, I'm not sure where this will take me... possibly academia or journalism, or translation... I have no clear idea at this point, but I'm only 24 and just effectively finished my undergraduate degree two days ago. In any case, I think that having another language under your belt is always a marketable feature to stick on a resume and it just makes you a more interesting person. If nothing else, knowing how to speak Russian makes an interesting anecdote to tell about yourself at a boring party! :)

[caitilady2007.livejournal.com]

I took French all through junior high and high school, but never liked it at all. Oh, and I took some Latin, too.

I started taking Russian when I got to college, because I love Russian history; but in the two years I've been at college, taking Russian and Russian history, it's developed into a career choice. Now I am going to get my Ph.D. in Russian history, and be a college professor. That means I have to be fluent in Russian - but luckily, I still love Russian as much or more as the first day I stared in bemusement at the Cyrillic alphabet!

[jadore-vin.livejournal.com]

I have been interested in Russia since elementary school, when my 5th grade teacher traveled there and came back with all kinds of strange tales. My senior year of high school, I had a bit of a romance with a guy from Moscow who lived nearby. I loved being at his house and his family was so welcoming! But I always hated that they could speak in Russian to talk over my head. It wasn't until college, after we'd broken up that I started to really study Russian seriously. I will study in St. Petersburg this coming summer.

I think the US could use some help in the foreign policy department- so I am considering joining the foreign service when I graduate. But also I hope to speak fluently with my exbf and his family in their native language, and meet other Russian people. I also see it as a great challenge. I already have Spanish under my belt for the most part. Russian grammar is still a huge puzzle to me compared to Spanish. Fascinating.

Here's to romance!

[battersby.livejournal.com]

because I can't find anyone to teach me Polish. I love languages. I know 3 already. A few more won't hurt.

[jennerosityls05.livejournal.com]

I've always had a deep fascination for russia (language, culture, history etc.). When I was in the 9th grade my family started doing the foreign exchange thing and I actually met native speakers and learned a little. Later, I started attending a college prep boarding school that offered it and began to take it.

More of a passion than anything i guess although i do hope to turn it into a career.

[negativeentropy.livejournal.com]

Mine is built from many reasons, all coming together.

Personal reasons, because I also loved the history, culture, literature, etc. and became fascinated with Russia and Russians. It started when I got involved in researching the Cold War when I was about fourteen and discovered that the Russian side was as or more interesting than ours.

Heritage, because my family a couple of generations ago emigrated from what was then Russia. No one speaks it--they primarily used Yiddish, which no one ever bothered to teach me--but for genealogical research, all of the relevant family documents are in either Hebrew or Russian.

Academics, because I am studying to be a chemist and was recommended to take a language "in which a significant body of chemical literature exists" (my French didn't fulfill this one) to facilitate collaboration with international chemists in academia. That basically meant German or Russian, and the decision was easy. :)