Did you know?.. Facts about Russian


Russian

There are more than five thousand languages in the world, and Russian is considered to be one of the five major world languages. People all over of the world use Russian to communicate. It is spoken by 280 million people around the Globe and is one of the most widely spoken native languages in Europe. Russian is spoken as the second language in all the countries that belong to the ex-USSR as well as in other neighbor countries. Russian is one of the United Nations official languages and is widely used in international commerce, politics, academic and cultural life.

Books by the famous Russian writes Dostovesky, Pushkin, Tolstoy and others have been translated into many world languages. However, true connoisseurs prefer to read them in the language they were written. Over a quarter of the world's scientific literature is published in Russian.

Learning Russian, people from different countries become familiar with jewels of the unique Russian culture and with the modern science and technology accomplishments. Starting from the 16th century, various Russian words, like kremlin, tzar, cossack, borsht, samovar, babushka, balalaika were adopted by other languages. In the recent history, words like perestroika and glasnost emerged.

In 1967, the International Association of Russian Language and Literature Teachers was founded with its headquarter in Paris. This organization publishes Russian books, holds international conferences and organizes Olympiads of Russian for students.

Even though Russian uses Cyrillic alphabet, it has a lot of letters that are also common for those European languages that use Latin alphabet. For example, 15 out of 33 Russian alphabet letters are written exactly in the same way as they are in English, French, Spanish and other European languages.

Nowadays, when international economics, political and cultural contacts are thriving, thousands of businessmen around the world partner with their colleagues from Russia, Ukraine and other countries where Russian is spoken. And the success of these international business efforts may depend on whether you can speak Russian. Really, learning Russian you make a good investment to succeed in your career or business!