Learning Foreign Languagesand Not Speaking

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I often get questions how many languages do Russians speak? Do all Russians
speak English? Aside from English, would the next favorite foreign Western
language for Russians be French? Do Russian students ever have an opportunity
to study Latin in school? Are Russian students interested in learning Chinese? Lets
explore.

Do Russians Speak English?

English First Learning the foreign language ad. Become the boss of your boss
Most Russians do not speak other languages. Learning foreign languages has not
been obligatory until this year (now the curriculum of all schools should contain a
foreign language). Most Russians did study a second language at school and even
at the university, but have a very limited level of knowledge of the language they
studied.
I was fortunate to live abroad with my parents and study English with native
speakers. I found such note in a diary of my dad: Tanya is 8 years old. She
already speaks some English. She has a thick Russian accent, but her English is
anyway better than mine was, after I studied in school, at the university and did my
PhD. According to the National census of 2010, only 6% of Russians wrote that
they speak English. According to other research studies (English First etc.), the
percentage is higher, but still is around 10-15%. Discrepancies in numbers may be
explained by the different samples among urban population language knowledge
percentage is higher than among rural population.
Why is the language learning so poorly organized in schools? My guess is that the
main reason is the old and boring curriculum and lack of real language practice.
Kids just do not see why they need to study the unnecessary subject. London is the
capital of Great Britain. Ok. Making kids learn texts of songs, learning 100 useful
phrases or even watching animated films wouldve been much more entertaining
and useful.
Still, most foreigners know at least one Russian, who speaks English or other
foreign language pretty well. Sometimes, really well. How did they master the
language? Chances are most of them went to the specialized English-speaking
schools, where they had many hours of English classes per week, professional
tutors, special equipment to improve pronunciation and maybe even a chance to go
on a study exchange program abroad. Some of the students later enhanced their
language skills at the specialized linguistics institutes and/or at work or by taking
the private classes. A lot of parents now make their kids study English with a
private tutor in addition to school curriculum, although that is available only for
families with above average income.

What About Other Languages?

English is indeed the most useful

language to learn in the world now. If one speaks English, it is enough to travel and
even work in the majority of the countries. However, historically that was not always
the case. For a long time French was the preferred second language in Russia. Not
for everybody of course. The majority of the population did not speak French, only
people from upper social circle did speak it. They were usually taught French in
childhood, by the native French speakers and spoke really well.
Now French is the third popular language, German is the second and Spanish is
the third. The language, which is on the rise, is Chinese. A lot of parents think
about the current demographic trends and want their children to have advantage at
the workplaces of the future. So, their kids do study Chinese. Whether that will
really give them advantage is questionable, but studying a language which is so
different from Russian is of course beneficial for the development of the brain. Still,
in absolute numbers the number of students who study Chinese is fractions of the
percent.

How About Latin?

Unfortunately Latin is not studied in schools. A very few people (maybe medical
students?) have studied Latin. Even the Biology departments of universities do not
teach Latin as a separate subject. Students may have to learn parts of the body or
botanical names in Latin, but they just learn the lists by heart. Learning such lists is
not productive. The idea of studying Latin is to understand the roots of the words
and how the language is built. I did study Biology at the university for 5 years and
learned those lists. Guess what is the only Latin name of a plant that I still
remember? Auga Reptans or the carpenters herb in English. Why I remember it?
Because the Russian name of this plant ( ) does sound really
funny! (something like a crawling living being)

Are There Language Schools In Russia?

Yes, plenty of them. But most are concentrated in big cities and taking lessons is
still quite costly. Of course there are so many apps, sites, chats and other free
opportunities to learn languages. But learning a language takes a lot of hours and it
is difficult to motivate yourself, especially for people who do not travel abroad or
interact with the foreigners. There are 143M people in Russia, all speak Russian,
so a Russian person has many fellow citizens to speak with in a native language.
Also, all foreign movies are dubbed and most books eventually are translated into
Russian.

Advantages of learning foreign languages, www.kaplaninternational.com

I speak Russian (my mother tongue), English, German and some elementary
Spanish. I studied German in school, but the only thing I remember from
classes is that all stories in the textbook were about one character a
journalist named Schreibikus. I did not learn German in school, I learned it
later, with a private teacher. Now I very rarely practice it and feel how the
language fades. I do study Spanish now, although it goes slowly. But I really
believe that the more languages you speak, the wider is the world.