Are you learning Russian and wondering how Russians will react to you speaking Russian? You will be happy to hear that the vast majority of Russians are incredibly tolerant of foreigners speaking Russian. Almost every Russian finds it flattering and is willing to help. Don't believe us?
The Russian language (native name: русский) has its roots in the Indo-European language family. As a percentage of the total population, the largest share of around 82 percent is in Russia. A total of about 156.6 million people worldwide speak Russian as their mother tongue.
Only 14 percent of Russians speak a foreign language and just 11 percent say they want to move abroad, new poll shows. Most Russians do not want to live or work abroad, according to a new survey by the Levada Center polling institute.
Travelling in Russia can be challenging for non-Russian speakers. Migration cards may be in Cyrillic only, and immigration officials may only speak Russian. At train stations, most signs are in Cyrillic and ticket sellers usually do not speak English.
Moscow is probably the most English speaking city in Russia. Street names are often dubbed in latin alphabet on signs (especially in the city center), so are subway stop names. And the Moscow subway ring road started playing announcements in English as well as Russian recently. You shouldn't have any problems.
From the point of view of spoken language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn, the other three languages in the East Slavic branch.
Russian is the most geographically widespread language in all of Eurasia, and it's the most popular native language in Europe. Russian speakers number roughly 138 million in Russia, followed in popularity by Ukraine (14.3 million), Belarus (6.9 million), Poland (6.9 million) and Kazakhstan (3.8 million).
According to the 2016 Australian census, 85,000 people reported their Russian roots. According to unofficial data, more than 100 thousand Russian-speaking people live in Australia.
Russian is allegedly one of the most complex languages to learn; its Cyrillic alphabet is enough to scare you away. In fact, the Foreign Service Institute classifies it as a category-four language. But don't let that intimidate you. Learning the Russian language is far from impossible.
About 10% of Russian words resemble their English counterparts. But don't get too comfortable with guessing. These are also many words that look or sound the same but have different meanings between the two languages. For example, in English, "angina" means chest pain.
Tatar. With over 4.2 million native speakers, Tatar takes the crown as the second most common language in Russia.
“Russian continues to be one of the most in-demand languages among employers in both the public and private sectors due to its international relevance and unique versatility.”
Germany. Germany has the highest Russian-speaking population outside the former Soviet Union, with approximately 3 million people. They are split into three groups, from largest to smallest: Russian-speaking ethnic Germans (Aussiedler), ethnic Russians, and Jews.
According to 2002 census data, 7 million out of 145 million people speak English in Russia, and the majority of those people live in Moscow.
Since Russian is a global language with so many speakers, learning the language could be a great step for anyone's career. With many Russian-speaking nations experiencing economic upswings, knowing the language could be the key to striking the ideal business deal.
The English dialects prevailing both in Russia and Latvia are almost the same. Phonetically, Rusine is the closest to Russian, the pronunciations are pretty similar in both. If you're looking for Latvian Translation services, check this out. Latvian, on the other hand, is pronounced very differently from Russian.
Ukrainian and Belarusian are the closest languages, as together with Russian they form the East Slavic group of languages. These three languages have an 86% lexical similarity; that is, they share 86% of the same words.
The Foreign Service Institute of the United States has determined that it takes about 1100 hours of study to reach fluency in Russian. If you're willing to study 3 hours every day, it could take you a year to reach that level.
Russia - Level 4: Do Not Travel.
Moscow has ranked among Top 3 of the most attractive megapolises for living. On the first place is New York, London is on the second. These are the data of the City for Everyone study, which the experts of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) international consulting company presented at the Moscow Urban Forum.
The official language of Russia is Russian. Hence, people in St Petersburg speaks Russian. Russian is the commonly spoken language everywhere. However, you may find some people being able to speak English only in big malls, top museums, and well known restaurants where foreigners goes.