World languages

Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 10:02 am GMT
I forgot to add:

Turkmenistan: 12% speak Russian fluently. Up to 50% claim good knowledge of Russian. It is an officially recognised regional language, and considered the language of interethnical communication.


Uzbekistan: 14% speak Russian. Russian is widely used for interethnic communciation and business, scientific and government use.

Mongolia: Russian is the most widely spoken second language, and although English has gained ground, this tendency is showing signs of turning around.
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 10:04 am GMT
- Anyhow, Russian in Ukraine is here to stay.-

This is not true.

In Western Ukraine, Ukrainian is 100 % used,
in Eastern Ukraine, Surzhik is used, it's a language made up by Ukrainian phonetics/pronunciation and grammar, and Russian vocabulary.

Surzhik and Russian are not the same thing, although some Ukrainians would classify it as '"Russian'' in statistics.

No Russian peope would consider Surzhik the Russian language, just like
most people wouln't consider Spanglish the English language.
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 10:06 am GMT
In Kiev (Kyiv), both languages Ukrainian and Russian are spoken. Actually, this is a notable shift from the recent past when the city was primarily Russian speaking. The shift is caused, largely, by an influx of migrants from the western regions of Ukraine but also by some Kievans' turning to use the language they speak at home more widely in everyday matters.
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 10:07 am GMT
<<I am sure that, if People there, vote to the Pro-Russian President, Russian would be also official in one week.>>

I think Russian speakers should feel free to vote for an anti-Russia president if they want to, but I wouldn't vote for an anti-RussiaN president. I think these staunch anti-Russians are ignorant.


<<Russian is as important in Ukraine as Italian is in Switzerland, most people don't speak it.>>

That is not true. I've been all over Ukraine and Russian is overwhelmingly prominent in the East and significantly visible in the West.
I'm not against Ukrainian, all languages should be protected, but you're denying reality!
:D   Sat Aug 23, 2008 10:44 am GMT
I see a big problem for Russian. The growing influence china in Central Asia. China will dominance the five former Soviet republics because it is his area of expansion

In addition, Eastern Europe, the growing influence of NATO will make the decrease of Russian faster.

For example Kosovo. In Kosovo English grows as the foam by the presence of NATO. The same could happen tomorrow in Ukraine or georgia (both countries want to enter to NATO)

anyway Russian will remain important, i don't konw if more or less but I think less
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 10:47 am GMT
One question : Is there inmigration in Russia? If so, from what countries? and if not, why not?
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:12 am GMT
There is huge immigration into Russia from former soviet Union countries mainly Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Tajiks, and Ukrainians. Also some immigration from Africa, Turkey and China.
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 11:57 am GMT
Russia go home
Otherwise, Nato's gonna kick your butt.
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 12:06 pm GMT
Huge countries that can grow in population and the languages they speak
Russia Russian
Canada English and French
USA English
China Chinese
Brasil Portuguese
Australia English

China is already overpopulated so I don't think they can grow much more.
Russia,however, has room to increase population just as USA,Canada and Australia.
Brasil together with countries where spanish is spoken are a huge territory as well.
So I'd say the most important languages in the future will be: English,Russian,Chinese,Spanish-Portuguese,and French.

That's about population and territory and in addition I think these countries have all a lot of economic power.
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 12:23 pm GMT
Bullshit. Territory size has nothing to do with anything. There is a huge range in population densities. Look at Japan and New Zealand - both are similar size but Japan has 30 times as many people.
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 3:56 pm GMT
<<Huge countries that can grow in population and the languages they speak
Russia Russian
Canada English and French
USA English
China Chinese
Brasil Portuguese
Australia English

China is already overpopulated so I don't think they can grow much more.
Russia,however, has room to increase population just as USA,Canada and Australia.
Brasil together with countries where spanish is spoken are a huge territory as well.
So I'd say the most important languages in the future will be: English,Russian,Chinese,Spanish-Portuguese,and French.

That's about population and territory and in addition I think these countries have all a lot of economic power.>>

Absolutely ridiculous, then why German is a language so important if is only spoken in a territory smaller than Texas state?

Size has nothing to do with the importance of languages, German is more important that Russian and Russia is far bigger than Germany
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 4:09 pm GMT
<<Absolutely ridiculous, then why German is a language so important if is only spoken in a territory smaller than Texas state?>>

That is probably because German is an overestimated language.

<<Size has nothing to do with the importance of languages, German is more important that Russian and Russia is far bigger than Germany >>

I don't think so. Russian is official UNO language and German not. Russian is spoken by over 270 million people and German by 100.

Anyway, I think that territory is an important factor, but not the most relevant.
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:44 pm GMT
<<That is probably because German is an overestimated language. >>

Maybe, but french fanatics here say that is extremely important but i know that they only say this for win the support of the Germans in this forum...

<<I don't think so. Russian is official UNO language and German not. Russian is spoken by over 270 million people and German by 100.>>

The official languages of the United Nations correspond to winners countries of the second World War. German is not official for that reason, just that and German is studied much more than Russian. For example, in Russia people study German but nobody in Germany study Russian ... Why? because German is more important, at least for me .... look at Eastern Europe, for years Russian was very important, now with the enlargement of the EU, German is the language that everyone wants to learn.
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:27 pm GMT
Is Russia a politically and linguistically isolated country? . Are Russians like aliens? . I had a Russian workmate in my last job and he was very nice.
Guest   Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:33 pm GMT
<<Maybe, but french fanatics here say that is extremely important>>

It has similar points with French: it is not in the top ten languages (only 93 million of speakers) and economic power (more than French, of course). However, it is decreasing in number of students globally, like French.


<<The official languages of the United Nations correspond to winners countries of the second World War>>

Not only English, French and Russian are official. Chinese, Arabic and Spanish are also official.


<<For example, in Russia people study German but nobody in Germany study Russian>>

In Eastern Europe, German is traditionally overestimated: it is a language spoken in 3 countries by 93 million people, not UNO language status and not in the top ten languages.

It is perhaps the only area where German is really important. In all other areas, German is decreasing in number of speakers and students.


<<German is the language that everyone wants to learn.>>

No, it is English.