MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – A senior Russian Orthodox bishop has claimed that Russian speakers “often suffer ethnic and religious discrimination” in regions in Russia’s North Caucasus where they are in the minority. “We are used to thinking that it is only smaller ethnic groups that need protection. That is not true. In many of the republics (of Russia), Russians […]
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MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) “Why are you arresting me?” “Isn’t it just easier to give money to the policeman?” “What do you do if the police beat you?” Practice conversations in a special Russian language-learning textbook handed out at an experimental new cultural integration center for migrants focus on topics considered most relevant to guest workers […]
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(RIA Novosti – KIEV, October 16, 2013) More than a half of Ukrainians are against the idea of making Russian the country’s second state language, according to a survey released by an independent Ukrainian pollster on Wednesday. Sociological Group “Rating” said 43 percent of respondents are in favor of the idea, while 51 percent are against. Five percent said […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexey Mikheev, special to RBTH – September 19, 2013) Matryoshka, kolhkoz, sputnik, perestroikaall of these original and untranslatable words have been borrowed in other languages from Russian at one time in history or another. This happened recently with another Russian wordkryshain English. The word krysha itself is not new and simply means “roof.” […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexandra Kulikova, special to RBTH – September 17, 2013) Renowned polyglot, interpreter, psycholinguist and TV host Dmitry Petrov talks about the incentives for learning the Russian language. RBTH: What is the role of psychology in foreign language learning? Dmitry Petrov (D.P.): Learning a new language is about both psychology and mathematics. A range […]
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(RIA Novosti- MOSCOW, July 24, 2013) Russia has allocated significant spending power to Rossotrudnichestvo, Moscow’s vehicle for promoting its influence abroad, as part of an apparent drive to improve the country’s image, according to a decree published on the government’s website Wednesday. Federal money has been redirected from the Foreign Ministry, formerly responsible for the financial support of Russians living […]
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Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 Subject: Facilitating Learning Russian From: Ron Pope <ron42.pope@gmail.com> The current (July 29) issue of Time magazine has an article entitled “The Power of the Bilingual Brain” that presents a powerful case for encouraging every child with a connection to Russia — the children of emigres and adopted Russians – -to learn what could have been […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 25, 2013) Russian became the second most frequently used language on the Internet in 2013, having passed Germany by a narrow margin, according to a report by analytical company W3 Techs. The company counted the number of sites in each language regardless of the number of hits the sites get, Vedomosti reported Friday. The […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, March 22, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/03/window-on-eurasia-136-national.html) Some 136 national languages of the Russian Federation are at or already beyond “the edge of extinction,” according to UNESCO. Many of these languages are subgroups of others, but the danger of disappearance exists for groups as large as Avars, Bashkirs and Chechens. According to the United […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – March 17, 2013) Around 250 languages are spoken in Russia, including Russian, which is spoken by some 150 million people. Russian, along with several Turkic-based languages, is doing fine. However, the linguistic situation for many lost tribes and Small Indigenous People in Russia is far more Dmitry Sukhodolsky, special to RBTH Russia’s many […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 20, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/02/window-on-eurasia-putins-nationality.html) Both the five specific planks of his nationality policy that Vladimir Putin outlined yesterday and problems underlying his entire approach to this issue guarantee that the Russian president will offend both Russians and non-Russians and produce the very outcome he says he is trying to avoid […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – Dec. 14, 2012) Members of the diaspora who gathered in Moscow on Thursday for the Forum of Russian Compatriots welcomed President Vladimir Putin’s recent edict to support remote Russian language-learning amid efforts in their home countries to limit the status of their mother tongue. However, attendees also voiced doubts that the language […]
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Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 From: “Michael Launer” <mklauner@russtechinc.com> Subject: Re doing business in Russia My wife, Marilyn Young, is a subscriber to The Johnson List. Some time ago she printed out a number of messages regarding the perils of doing business in Russia. The attached message is a response to one of those messages that dealt with interpreters. I […]
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