3 Reasons Why I Want To Learn Russian🇷🇺

Hi friends, hope we’re all keeping well.

As some of you may know, I actually have a keen interest in language learning. I speak native English and Mandarin, but have also acquired German to a decently high level (no CEFR level yet, but am considering taking the C1 exam). I have also studied Japanese on an on and off basis for the last 2 years, and feel like I’m at a relatively intermediate level with that right now.

Recently though, I’ve been itching to pick up a brand new language to learn. The last one I picked up, Japanese, was a good while ago and since much of its writing system was derived from Chinese characters (Kanji), it wasn’t exactly a ‘completely new’ experience since I already recognised and could piece together the meaning of a lot of words.
Therefore, this time I wanted to pick up a completely new language that I had absolutely no experience in, and eventually narrowed it down to either Spanish or Russian.

It was an extremely tough deliberation, but in the end I decided to choose Russian for a few reasons.
This was a rather hard reason and general topic to talk about though, since at the time of writing this the Russian government has launched a ruthless and brutal invasion into Ukraine. However, I think it’s important to recognise that one can appreciate a country’s culture, history and language without supporting the country’s government (which I very clearly don’t). Even more, I’d like to think that learning Russian will give me more abilities to help support and talk to Ukrainian refugees since most of them speak Russian too.
Anyway, with that disclaimer out of the way I feel like I can dive into my reasons now.

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⏳History⏳

Russian history is fascinating. From the adventures of Peter the Great to the Russian modernisation of Catherine the Great, I truly think Russian history offers so much to learn about, and I’m certain that knowing the language will make me appreciate it even more. Once I started becoming more interested in learning German, my curiosity and intrigue for Germany as a whole also ignited fiercely. I definitely expect a similar effect for my Russian learning journey.

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🗣Communication🗣

According to this website, Russian was spoken by nearly 258 million in the people in the world in 2021. It is the 8th most spoken language in the world and is the most spoken language in Europe.

One of the reasons why I love learning different languages so much is it helps me connect with more people from around the world, as well as helping broaden my views and horizons. The fact that Russian is one of the most spoken languages in the world is another massive reason why I’m deciding to take it up. It is useful and handy, especially when I decide to visit Eastern Europe in the future.

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⭐️Beauty of the Language⭐️

Russian is a member of the Slavic languages (the most spoken one, in fact), and is one of the three Eastern Slavic languages too (the others being Ukrainian and Belarusian).
It also uses the notorious Cyrillic alphabet, which I’ve always had an intrigue in ever since I first saw Russian texts.

I mean, imagine being able to understand signs and texts written in this alphabet. Not only would that be so convenient in many places, but it would also be a pretty massive flex💪🏻
Furthermore, if I can honestly unleash a bit of my inner child in this post and be real for a minute, like, the language just sounds so cool man, I don’t know what else to say🤷🏻‍♂️

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Even putting aside the other typical ‘opportunities’ you can get by learning a foreign language in general, I think I’ve listed enough of my own personal reasons to stay motivated and disciplined in learning Russian for the long term.

I’ve already started and gained steady progress on the Russian alphabet, and am planning to move onto basic grammar, vocabulary and phrases shortly when I feel more comfortable with the alphabet.

Overall, I’m pretty stoked to get started on this new language journey, and maybe I’ll even be able to document my progress on it on the blog.

Thanks so much if you read this far, stay safe