Reply to Russian studies

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Russian studies "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For employment, you compete against native speakers-not necessarily from Russia but other countries (Kazakhstan, Ukraine, etc). Also, linguist jobs may be impacted by AI in the future. For colleges, look at whether their program is focussed more on literature versus political science. Different departments have different focuses. [/quote]

I spent almost 10 years living in Moscow and Kyiv for work.  I know a lot of people whose jobs were possible due to their Russian language skills, and they were all fluent.  I don't think it is possible to become fluent in Russian just by raking it up in university as a native English speaker.  Your child will have a heavy accent, will not be completely fluent, and won't have the cultural mindset or understanding of nuance to really "get" a tense or complicated situation involving native speakers.  The people who had the language skills that got them these jobs were Americans with a parent from a Russian-speaking country who had used the langauge with them from childhood or were from an ex-Soviet country with a Slavic-family local language and Russian taught routinely in the local school system, etc.  Don't forget that AI advances are going to narrow down the prospects for anybody intending to use their "Russian language skills" to get a job.

I can speak and read Russian at a conversational level.  My accent and even my facial expressions/gestures are clearly American.  This is after living in Russian speaking countries for 10 years and taking classes.  I do not have the matery of the subtleties and cultural-influenced quirks/nuances to the language that would allow full fluency.  And I can tell you that I wouldn't have the skills I do have unless I had spent so much time fully immersed in a Russian-speaking country.

Tell your child to take Russian for fun, for his electives/language requirements.  He isn't going to be the American version of Phil Jennings.  [/quote]

I don’t know that I agree with this.  I didn’t live in Moscow as long as you but no one ever believed I was American.  From my accent and my facial expressions they all thought I was from one of the republics — Latvia or Lithuanian usually.  My friend who started Russian at age 14 spoke with basically native fluency and is now a professor.

But I agree that it is hard to achieve a real level of fluency that can compete.  But for positions that need security clearance, a native born American will have an advantage.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics