Czech students are wanting to learn Russian again! After English, Russian is the second most desired foreign language to learn, even more popular than French or German! Reason? Russian is much easier to learn since it is a Slavic language like the Czech language, and second, Czech companies are now doing quite a lot of business with Russia so they are after people who know how to speak the language.
20 years ago my class was one of the first ones that did not have to learn Russian but could pick English as a second language. It is amazing how the tables have turned. Russian used to be a symbol of communism and the language of the much hated invaders from 1968. Now it found its way back again……
CZ: Cesti studenti znovu prahnou po rustine! Po anglictine je to v nynejsi dobe nejzadanejsi cizi jazyk ve skolach a to i po nemcine a francouzstine! Proc? Jednak dela ceska Republika hodne obchodu s byvalym Ruskem a rusky mluvici omladina je zadana, a jednak je rustina pro Cechy ten nejednodussi cizi jazyk.
Pred 20-til lety byl muj rocnik jeden z prvnich, ktery se historicky nemusel ucit rustinu, ale anglictinu. Rustina bylala symbolem nenavideneho komunismu a bolsevicke okupace v roce 1968. Netrvalo dlouho a karty se obratily – rustina je zase v mode…
Source: http://www.radio.cz/en/current/magazine
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Funny, because I was the last class that had to take Russian. I still understand some and can say a word or two. Still can read it too, which amazes me. I went back to Czech two years ago and you would be shocked how many Russians were at the airport. As a matter of fact, I stood in line for two and a half hours to go thru Czech customes and heard nothing but Russian. I thought I got off the plane in a wrong country. 🙂
How funny! I remember feeling so fortunate that I don’t have to learn it! And now it looks like I am out of style with my inability of speaking/understanding Russian 😉
By the way, what did all the Russians do at the airport???
It was just a matter of time. Russian is a world language spoken by millions of people around the world, and also the language of the biggest country in the world. Russia, as a great economic power, is a sought after business partner for a lot of companies around the world that understand that if they want to do business with the Russians, they have to learn their language :-).
I only had one or two years of mandatory Russian at elementary school but ended up majoring in English and Russian at college thinking that one Western language and one Eastern language would be a good combination. It seems that my time just came … It’s too bad that since I moved to the US, English has become my number one foreigh language and I have forgotten most of my Russian :-(.
I guess the good thing is that if the US ever gets overtaken by the Russians then you would be on their ‘good’ side, Nikola 🙂
they were waiting to go thru customes. And cutting lines. I was so mad. Of course I thought this was a second waive of invation. At least it felt like it. The officer said it has been like that for the last couple of weeks. It is sad that you go to Karlovy Vary, and hear nothing but Russian. You walk down the Vaclavak and hear nothing but Russian. Ten years ago when we went to Czech with my then fiancee to look for wedding rings, we went to several jewelry stores in Prague and they were all talking Russian. What happened to Czech?
weird….then of course there is the Russian mafia which creates huge problems in Czech. I know a guy whose brother used to own a casino in Prague and one day the Russian mafia came to him and said that he needs to give him 2/3 of his profit otherwise they will burn out his casino. He refused and guess what? Casino was in flames the next day…
I speak Russian very fluently …But NO!! Russia is NO
great economic power as Nikola tried to suggest.
It is a country ruled by a dictator Putin and millions of Russian people work for free in factories months only for a promise to get their salaries in future.
But Russia is a great country to invest in and if you will not be killed by Russian mafia or Russian secret service, you may actually become rich. Very rich.
The fact that the Russian maffia is expanding in Czech Republic is not because they are SO DANGEROUS and SKILLED, it is because the Czech government is SO CORRUPT and for a modest fee they let them to run their prostitution rings a and gambling operations….
Eto vsjo, chto ja xotel skazat..:))
As I said before, makes me happy to see that I still can understand something after way over twenty years and only having two years of Russian. Diky Vlastimile. 🙂
lenka , diky za co? I have a special relation to Russia.. You can meet plenty of honest and really good people over there…What you see in Czech is a collection of scum being hated even in Russia .
BTW, I love Siberia, it is a wonderful unspoiled part of the world….I am sure some people over there still don’t know the Czar is dead :)))
Hi Vlastimil,
so explain it to us (since you know about that stuff, your wife being Russian): what do these Russians do in Czech? I heard some of them are just poor doctors that see a better life in digging ditches in Czech than practicing medicine in Russia.
Those doctors are coming from Ukraine..
Russia is much richer. The Russian maffia is a mix of Russians, Jews and Chechens….Remember, Las Vegas was founded by a Russian Jew, one of the worst gangster USA had ever seen….
Tanja, I watched Viktor Dmitrijevič Chuliganov’s clips and he said that the Czech language sounds funny to his ears. He’s a fictional Russian.
In the clip, he described the Czech language with long vowels and flat intonation, which don’t exist in his language and in Polish. He said that in both languages, it’ll sound like babytalk.
Also I read in many Slavic forums that the extensive use of diminutives make it sound more like babytalk that Polish and Russian people even laugh at hearing that.
To untrained Czech ears, does Russian sound as funny and ungrammatical as Polish? I’m aware that a Slav can hardly mistake Russian for Polish.
Hi Raffy,
how interesting and disappointing at the same time 🙁
I do agree that Czech is not one of the most beautiful languages but still…
Russian and Polish sound just different to us – they don’t sound ‘uglier’ or anything like that. And yes, we can tell them apart pretty easily.
In Viktor’s Vlak Vlog (Czech train vlog), by 14:00, he starts mentioning the Czechs, and then, their language.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI2QrbdIKCY&feature=related
This is the one I was talking about.
I was always interested in learning Russian. It’s become much easier now thanks to russian lessons via skype. BTW, this spring I eventually completed russian course here – http://russian-studies.com/. It turned out that Russian is not as difficult as I thought.
Conda Lisa was believed to be able to speak Russian fluently…When she arrived to Moscow, she said: “Zdravstvujte” and continued speaking to Russian politicians in English….
But it is true, Russian is not difficult at all… already small children in Russia can speak it 🙂
It is always good to know foreign languages. It will allow you to get close to the local culture ( or the opposite of it 😉 )….