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southern_breeze t1_iyc1wo7 wrote

Let's forget about the politics and war for a second here.

What second foreign language would you want them to learn?

Popular western languages that can be used in the future as an advantage to further your career or enjoy, say, French authors in their native tongue?

Or Russian - corrupt country that supports terrorism with a shit economy that cannot give us any advantage except to buy cheap shit?

If Russia becomes a normal country in the future, we can revisit this question in 30 years or so.

Edit: changed 'second' to 'second foreign'.

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Jud1_n t1_iycb6dv wrote

If you want to enjoy literature, then chosing Russian isn't a bad choice. they have plenty of well known and pretty good authors and books. Let's not pretend that just because Russia is currently being a terrorist state, that their long history of literature is suddenly not worth reading or is inferior to lets say French or German.

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It's weird that you say let's forget politics and war and then bring politics in describing Russia.

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southern_breeze t1_iyccg5u wrote

Yes, I am not saying that Russian don't have good authors, but the cultural aspect is just a bonus I guess. The main point is the value of the language learnt. You can learn French and then go to a university in France or get a job in a business that works with France. You could do the same with Russian, of course, but... yeah. If you had to choose one...

>It's weird that you say let's forget politics and war and then bring politics in describing Russia.

Yeah, I guess I got carried away, just a lot of emotions directed towards the east at the moment.

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Jud1_n t1_iyccytp wrote

Can't blame ya. What with Russian government deciding to become terrorists.

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I can't really comment on bussiness side of things in modern Lithuania. Haven't lived there for 12 years and things most certainly changed.

But 12 years ago knowing Russian was a massive boon for finding jobs in Lithuania it self. Even more so if you knew both English and Russian.

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southern_breeze t1_iycv5hx wrote

yeah, a lot has changed these past few decades. With the sanctions that started a long time ago, a lot of businesses has reorganised from working with russia to working within EU and western world, and obviously "the money is in the west".

Probably the biggest industry that I can think of that Russian language is still needed is logistics - someone has to know Russian to speak to the drivers that majority comes from the East and they don't speak English.

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osuvetochka t1_iycnuq5 wrote

> You can learn French and then go to a university in France or get a job in a business that works with France. You could do the same with Russian, of course, but... yeah. If you had to choose one...

Language is not the the only deciding factor though. Education in Russia is free, cost of living is low. There are significant amount of students from Africa and China who come for education to Russia and then return home.

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southern_breeze t1_iycvqdt wrote

Yes, but I think that Lithuanian students have better options for education to choose from than African or Chinese students overall.

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Oram0 t1_iycsnrc wrote

You do understand off course that a large group of eastern Europeans know Russian as a second language, because... History. It can be useful even without going to Russia.

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southern_breeze t1_iycwwwc wrote

Yes. I do speak Russian. The times that I needed it were when I was travelling through former USSR countries where English is not that prevalent and when talking to some Ukrainian refugees if they don't speak English.

If I could trade knowing russian to any western language (not even western, basically any) I would, in a heartbeat.

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andro_aintno t1_iycor0b wrote

The only thing here is that Lithuania has a lot of teachers that can teach Russian and not so much that can teach other languages, the process of phasing out will finish itself when generations fully change, you can't just will teachers into existence even if you had extra money. Calls for it is just populism just like a lot of other stuff that politicians say.

It's not like it's impossible to choose German if you want your kids to study it right now. In practical terms, especially with increased migration from the east, knowing Russian is not an unpractical thing if you do not plan on leaving Eastern Europe.

But I am opposed to having a mandatory additional foreign language in general, so if that's the case, it shouldn't be forced into people, but definitely should not be removed as an option.

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southern_breeze t1_iycw5cr wrote

Yep, there's plenty of cases where kids would like to learn German, but the school does not have a German teacher, but they definitely have a Russian one.

I hope that with the access to remote learning at some point kids will be able to choose whatever language they want and learn it remotely.

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hunternoscope360 t1_iycq3fn wrote

> What second language would you want them to learn?

Most common are German/French as 3rd language - since second language is mandatory English

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