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I am sorry, due to the war, I cannot see this in good faith. I am Dutch, so that’s that. I am sorry I can’t see this in good faith, but I would need to see an
by mettamage 10mo ago
I am sorry, due to the war, I cannot see this in good faith. I am Dutch, so that’s that.
I am sorry I can’t see this in good faith, but I would need to see an attempt at how this is meant for curiosity’s sake and not propaganda.
I am on here a lot, I am a person. And this is what I think when I see the title. I am sorry for the bad vibes but I say no to Russia and learning Russian (for now).
I am okay with potential downvotes. I still think this needs to be said. I wish I could be above this but I can’t.
- cryptoegorophy 10mo agoBut how does this makes any sense? Do you refuse to speak English when USA (English speaking) invades Iraq? Or you are ok with double standards?
- Fhch6HQ 10mo agoRussian is neither a common lingua franca nor is it commonly spoken by foreigners (with the obvious exclusion of former Soviet countries). It belongs culturally to Russia and it's people. English belongs to half a dozen countries. I'm not sure I agree with the original commenter, but I see the merit in their perspective.
- koakuma-chan 10mo agoIs English commonly spoken by countries that aren't former British colonies? I am a Ukranian citizen, and if I can speak Russian, and not have that kind of prejudice, you should also be able to. In fact most Ukrainians speak Russian.
- llIIllIIllIIl 10mo agoExactly that gives ruskies propaganda talking points to invade Ukraine by saying they don’t like how Ukrainians treated russian speakers. British King isn’t delusional enough to start war with neighboring English speaking country.
- koakuma-chan 10mo ago> Exactly that gives ruskies propaganda talking points to invade Ukraine by saying they don’t like how Ukrainians treated russian speakers. The Russians have a point there. I wish the Russian language was an official language in Ukraine, and I wish I could speak Russian in Ukraine without restrictions, but unfortunately the Ukranian government chose to instead try and force people to speak Ukranian at school, etc. But that obviously doesn't justify starting a war. > British King isn’t delusional enough to start war with neighboring English speaking country. Do they even have a neighbouring country that speaks English? They are dumb enough to quit EU though.
- Antibabelic 10mo ago> Do they even have a neighbouring country that speaks English? Ireland.
- koakuma-chan 10mo agoEnglish is an official language in Ireland, so it is not like Ukraine.
- throwaway290 10mo agoTake any neighbouring country in Europe Tons of people totally speak English there. But it's not an official language. And government totally forces kids to speak French/Dutch/whatever in schools. if England invades Netherland will you say they also have a point?;)
- koakuma-chan 10mo agoThe point is that Ukraine used to be a part of Soviet Union, and this is why "obviously" Ukranians speak Russian, and we are drawing a parallel to how former British colonies also speak English. France et al are not former British colonies, and I assume they prefer to speak their native language at home, and not English. Not because they are forced to, but because English is not their native language.
- koiueo 10mo agoThis is not true. Like literally factually incorrect. Most people in big cities can speak russian due to russia's colonization strategy. But it's far from "most Ukrainians". Saying this as Ukrainian citizen who has seen more Ukraine (both eastern and western parts) than just a few big cities.
- koakuma-chan 10mo agoIt's true that Ukranian is more prevalent in western Ukraine, but that is a minority. Most people live in Kyiv, and prefer to speak Russian, including the current president of Ukraine. Or at least this was the case before the war started, and a huge chunk of population left the country.
- koiueo 10mo agoUkraine population before russian invasion of 2022 ~40M Kyiv population before russian invasion if 2022 <3M > Most people live in Kyiv This perfectly demonstrates your level of expertise and trustworthiness of your opinions. Go home, and don't forget to buy some vodka in пятерочка.
- tguvot 10mo agoafter russian invasion many of those who preferred to speak russian swore off speaking russian. do you want to guess why ? as other poster wrote, don't forget to collect your 15 rubel and buy some vodka on the way home
- koakuma-chan 10mo ago> do you want to guess why ? Because they were brainwashed by the government.
- tguvot 10mo agolet me guess, they consumed spiked up oranges ? and you are the only one who could resist it ? and russia launching war in the middle of the night has absolutely nothing to do with it ?
- Fhch6HQ 10mo agoTo answer your question directly, yes. By population, 55% of Germany, 57% of France, 49% of Poland, 51% of Ukraine, 90% of the Netherlands, 89% of Sweden, 73% of Austria, 30% of Romania, 39% of Croatia [0]. Apologies in advance if any of these countries are former British colonies, I don't claim to be knowledgeable on world history. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-s...
- lmz 10mo agoThe propagation of English is due to the influence of America and Britain. If you look at the history of what those two have been up to all around the world, it's not pretty.
- koiueo 10mo ago[flagged]
- cryptoegorophy 10mo agoBecause there is 0 logic in blaming the language.
- koiueo 10mo agoMy man, if you think language is just a communication tool, you're very wrong. Language is a carrier for centuries of cultural evolution. Russian language is rich with unique untranslatable slurs for neighboring nations. Why? Language is a powerful colonization engine. Read history of any colonization. First thing colonizers do: teach colonized their language. Once you impose your language on a person, you immediately integrate that person in your cultural domain. I assume you just have no experience with the matter, and haven't seen this in action.
- wiseowise 10mo agoThe language is literally pretext for the current war, if you read just a little bit about it.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- wraptile 10mo agoI speak Russian and due to war I've completely abandoned the language and the culture. Russians not showing any resistance is a good litmus test whether culture is worth being involved with and the answer is a clear no imo. Kinda sad as russian language is quite incredible but any sane individual must sanitize their environment for their own sake and abandoning russian culture is a perfectly reasonable take.
- koakuma-chan 10mo agoYou should take pity on them. They are unfortunate people who live in a dictatorship. Russians who tried to protest were arrested and taken in unknown direction by authorities.
- TiredOfLife 10mo agoI live in Baltics. It took 50 years and many dead people, but we got rid of them.
- Alex2037 10mo ago[flagged]
- wraptile 10mo agoAh yes all the freedom fighters and culture preservationists had zero impact in securing Lithuania's freedom - what an incredibly dumb, disrespectful and frankly depressing take.
- Alex2037 10mo agodepressing - certainly, disrespectful - perhaps, but dumb? if instead of Gorbachev there had been another Stalin (or the current version of Putin), the empire would have endured that period of turbulence intact, and you would still be part of it. also, the provinces that didn't fight for independence - Kazakhstan, for example - had got it anyway, whether they wanted it or not at the time.
- rixed 10mo agoYour comment is troubling. I am really struggling to understand how so many human brains routinely confuse such different things as a cultural artifact (like a language) with a violent act (a military invasion). This is disturbing to me because i believe this is the kind of mental confusion that actually makes this kind of political violence possible. For the record, I had the exact opposite feeling when i saw that title: I was glad the poster was not feeling obliged to not mention a culture because of a war. I'm glad you expressed your own view so candidly though, as I did myself, and would not want to discourage that. But you understand you are playing "their" game by helping erecting those fences, right?
- TiredOfLife 10mo agoIt's not "mental confusion" its a lived experience for millions of people. Russia and Russians have a long history of exterminating local languages and culture in territories they control. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russification
- throwaway290 10mo agoThis is false. Colonization of eastern parts of russia involved forced conversion to christianity, violence, rape, mass murder, but not language extermination Even culture extermination is an exaggeration, sure some areas got forcibly "converted" to christianity (if they were unlucky to be invaded before USSR) but you will see mosques/buddha statues/whatever is applicable and all the local traditions and beliefs mostly going like before Actually in areas where local languages exist they kept schools teaching local languages and official signs are duplicated in both local and Russian all the way from USSR. I know this first hand;) but even the article you linked will tell you that. So it was maybe not as good as support for indigenous languages in Canada but not extermination Only since 2018 it is optional to teach local language in schools, previously there were at least some schools that teach it in every area like that. thank Putler for that too.
- wraptile 10mo ago> but not language extermination as Lithuania - this is absolutely not true. Even before Soviet union the Russian empire was exterminating language to the point where there's an entire Lithuanian history chapter on Lithuanian book smugglers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_book_smugglers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_book_smugglers Soviet empire wasn't better either. My great grandmother who was a Lithuanian language teacher was sent to Siberian gulags _for_ teaching Lithuanian. Luckily she survived and lived to a 100 just to prove these disgusting people wrong.
- impostor313131 10mo agoYou are not alone in this my friend. As a Ukrainian, seeing how US sometimes romanticizes Russia and takes active interest in its culture is heartbreaking. But I guess having an ocean between you and the continent with Russia does that to you.
- mlrtime 10mo agoSo we should hate all Russians and it's culture because of Putin? As a Ukranian you should know that there is a lot of shared [positive] culture between the two, so where do we decide where the interest lays?
- distances 10mo agoI don't think he suggested hating all the Russians. But I agree that we shouldn't promote or glorify any aspect of the Russian culture, including the language, until they face the truth and start making amends for their history. Instead they are currently doubling down on the atrocities and russification. So yes, this article is misplaced here.
- tguvot 10mo ago[flagged]
- throw-the-towel 10mo ago[flagged]
- tguvot 10mo ago[flagged]
- throw-the-towel 10mo ago[flagged]
- koiueo 10mo agoThank you for stating your position. My good friend once taught me that people without shame are the most dangerous people. I am shocked by how much russian-speaking people are shameless. When russia starts the biggest war since WWII using language/national justification¹, promoting russian culture is shameless beyond limits. ¹ putin promised to solve "Ukrainian question" ("украинский вопрос" – an obvious reference to "Judenfrage" which later was used by German fascists to justify holocaust) when he announced his svo