What foreign languages are offered to high schoolers in Russia?
Here in the US, most high schools offer Spanish. Some offer French (not sure why), and a few offer German, Chinese, Japanese, etc.
What languages are taught in Russian high schools?
English, probably. But what else would make sense for Russian kids to learn?
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English for sure. The sister of a friend of mine teaches English in Russia, I think in high school, but not 100% sure what year.
Guessing: probably Chinese. Maybe German is offered? In the past East German students had to take Russian, but that was before the wall came down.
French is taught because we border Canada. Both English and French are official languages there, and the official language in Quebec is French. 71% claim French as their first language, and 95% speak it.
@smudges Psst. The question is about Russia.
^^ I know, but the OP wrote that they didn’t know why French was taught in high schools. I was enlightening them. It’s a lot more relevant than the others mentioned other than Spanish.
Talking about French, Russia probably still teaches some French. For years it was the diplomatic language in the world, but now English has taken over that designation, or at minimum for business English is key.
@jca2 I wondered why the OP didn’t do that.
@smudges, maybe he just wanted to talk to us.
When I was in high school aeons ago, the smart boys were encouraged to take German in order to read scientific papers that were published only auf Deutsch. I took it for the literature and the character of the language itself.
Students typically preferred French for the literature, for travel, and for the character of the language, which is prettier than German.
Spanish was generally thought of as an easy A to meet a language requirement. This was long before Spanish became, in effect, our second language.
At my school, Russian was offered in a special preschool class for people who were really determined. One of my classmates who took that early class grew up to become (I think) An American spy.
But Russians had to keep an eye on us, including with their elaborate spy network. This was the post-Sputnik era of Cold War, U2, and Khruschchev. They had to learn English. We were—and still are—mostly , despite all our diversity, too ethnoscentric to get serious about learning other languages. By now, no matter where in the world you are from, you can speak to other foreigners in English.
^^ I guess that’s not how I see fluther. I don’t think I’ve ever asked a question that couldn’t be found online or just to chat. I’ve asked for opinions or advice. I figure if it can be found using google then I shouldn’t bother people. Maybe I should expand my horizons.
In the beginning of Fluther, we’d get modded if we asked a question that could have been googled. In fact, I think it’s in the rules.
I remember in the days of Gail, I asked a q that could have been googled and Gail wrote one word response,” Google.” I found it a little snarky but she did have a point.
^^ Thanks for the info. I would guess that 40% of questions asked could be googled or Binged or something. and 1% could just be skipped! LOL
@smudges I remember it differently. I think when a question was asked, we weren’t supposed to tell the OP to Google it although Google links might come up in the answers.
@janbb That may be correct, but in that case, Gail’s response to me violated the guidelines.
When people say “google it” to the original poster on facebook or fluther, my usual response is, “this is SOCIAL media.”
The conversation is as important as the literal answers.
@jca2 and @janbb, Gail was indeed often snarky, and she usually did have a point.
@Jeruba Sometimes she was downright nasty.
@jca2, true, including when she greeted me as a newcomer. I almost quit right then. Took me a long time to warm to her.
And now someone’s bound to flag us.
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