Re: Russian out, English in
- From: vello <vellokala@xxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 21 May 2009 09:46:24 -0700 (PDT)
On May 21, 6:27 pm, hol...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Eugene Holman) wrote:
In article
<44bb71f5-b184-44c2-9176-da289a735...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
max.ustime...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Apr 30, 12:24=A0am, hol...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Eugene Holman) wrote:<deletions>
In article
to use or not to use Russian language in small Baltic states has been
an issue politically abused in the last 10 years. if these small
countries want to be well integrated and do business with Russia, they
would need to learn Russian.
Agreed. Russian is a major international language of business and science,
while Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian, charming as they are, are
virtually useless beyond their national borders. Up to a certain level,
Baltic-Russian business can be done in English or (shudder) German, but
when it gets down to serious, long-term trade relations, the native
langauge of one of the partners is going to win out.
This is plain and simple. Languages of
Baltic states simply have no vocabulary or necessary amount of
carriers to be used as viable business language.
The three Baltic languages are modern and sophisticated European languages
that, among other things, coordinate their technical and business
terminology with the EU so that they will always be up to date. The number
of carriers, that is to say, people competent in them, is another issue.
Few people outaide of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania know the language in
question well enough to do serious business in them, even if that
situation might be changing for the better: every EU country has or will
soon have at least a few specialists in every other of the EU's official
languages. The EU-sponsored course in Estonian that I worked on a few
years ago (http://www.panglosskool.eu/index.php?id=23) was specifically
designed as a pilot project for making the less commonly taught EU
languages accdssible to speakers of other less commonly taught languages
without having to use an intermediary language. Thus, there will be people
in countrie such as Greece and Portugal who are able to do business in
Estonian and Lithuanian. Russia, on the other hand, is certainly one of
the few countries in the world where specialists in Estonian, latvian, and
Lithuanian have always been anbd continue to be trained, even if I think
that their primary function is not to do business...
Russia as one of the
most prolific European cultures brings big advantages to anyone
wishing to learn this languages.
Agreed. I know for a fact as an EU language teaching insider that the EU
is devoting a considerable amount of money and effort to increasing
knowledge of Russian throughout the EU, the idea being that, for better or
worse, Russia is our large eastern neighbor and it cannot be properly
understood or be an equal business partner without a knowledge of its
language, culture, and history. Of course we expect Russia to reciprocate
and train people with expertise in EU languages and cultures. Lingua
Franca (or Anglicana?) Euro-English is not the way to go.
70% of Entire world scientific and
business literature is published exclusively in Russian and English.
This is the extent of how important Russian is worldwide. And
regionally, there is no other language more important than Russian
anywhere in East Europe
Eastern Europeans are loathe to admit it, but you are correct. What I
think is going to happen is that the importance of English will diminish,
while, in Euorope Germany and eastward, that of Russian and smaller local
EU languages will increase during the next generation. International
business in basic commodities will probably be done in English, but when
it comes to more sophisticated consumer products and services, the
languages of the trading partners will dominate.
Regards,
Eugene Holman
Unhappily it is a dead topic, I think. That battle is over, worldwide
- till Chinese will take the lead :-) Most people are not gifted/
motivated to wander into too many foreign languages and "choosing the
language of one side" is more exception. International business runs
in (US) English - it's the working language in international companies
even in such big cultures like Germany or Spain (in France it's maybe
banned by law:-)) What not means that knowing language of nation you
are in business is not an advantage - sure it is. In some Egyptian
holiday resorts street sellers and shopkeepers speak even a bit
Estonian. But reality is simple for any boy/girl from Estonia, Russia,
Spain or Greece etc etc wanting to succeed internationally: a) good
English, b) good English c) good English. And after one is fluent in
those three languages, any other from Chinese and Spanish to some
tribal dialect are only for good making you a intellectually richer
person - and helping you making business in particular countries/
regions.
.
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- Re: Russian out, English in
- From: max . ustimenko
- Re: Russian out, English in
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