I wanted to write this post to share my thoughts on the topic of learning Russian in 2025 and during times of war. It’s a difficult topic for some and I wanted to know how others, specifically learners of Russian, feel about this.
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The following applies not only to Russian, but to all languages:
Language is one thing, the current politics of a country where that language is spoken is another. These things should not be mixed up.
At the time of the Vietnam War (yes, I’m old enough to remember it, and I was one of those who protested against it), it wouldn’t have occurred to any of us to boycott American English.
And besides, why are you asking about Russian of all languages? Why don’t you ask about people’s attitudes to Arabic, or Persian (because of the attacks on Israel that have been going on for decades)? Why don’t you ask about Turkish, when Turkey is still trying to eradicate everything Kurdish or at least assimilate it into Turkish by force?
There is always armed conflict or oppression somewhere on earth. But the languages of the aggressors/oppressors are not to blame.
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I consider language as a tool to communicate and to enjoy literature in order to broaden my horizons. Beyond these reasons I do not care about opinions of other people. I do things for myself. When I was in a German language class ; the teacher was Russian who was an immigrant and also a German language teacher who was teaching German to newly arrived Ukranian immigrants/refugees. They went along perfectly well. No hard feelings for each other. It was all in early stages of war. I asked one of Ukranians could you understand Russian he said yes because both Ukranian and Russian shared similar vocabulary. Why should I not learn Hebrew just because someone who speaks it happens to be a war criminal. But that does not mean all israelis think and behave like that. Politics is very complex. There are no friends and based on self-interests.
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I have the same experience as you also.
I learn languages because I want to and because I find it a great way to delve into other cultures.
You raise interesting points, one which I do not disagree with.
My post was purely some thoughts I had after my visit to Estonia and watching some videos from the perspective of Russian language teachers.
I am interested in another question. How to forget Russian?)
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I’ve only had one incident where a person (a German) stopped our conversation once they found out I was learning Russian. It was kinda strange to be honest. I guess they thought that people learn languages only to show their political opinions, which I guess is at least partially true for some people. Didn’t DuoLingo see a massive uptick in users learning Ukranian directly after the war started?
The judgement you receive from saying you’re learning Russian depends on the person you’re talking to. If you talk to a Russian, they assume you are doing it cause you fell in love. If you talk to idk a Vietnamese, they’ll assume that you are doing it for work. But they are really just jumping to conclusions about why you are learning the language. Without asking you, they don’t know the real reason.
@DJTembo You can see on @JoshDTutor’s LingQ activity that he’s learning Russian, so I imagine it’s a more relevant topic for him.
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In Georgia, there was talk of boycotting the Russian language. In the end, it fizzled out—people from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as from Ukraine and Belarus, came and spoke Russian. Without the language, local businesses were left without means of communication. In Mongolia, Russian is studied. So, a language is more than just a handful of politicians; it’s more than just a country.
We work in a company half from Azerbaijan. We communicate in Russian and English. The business itself is in the USA.
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To me it is complicated. A language is not just a language, separate from politics, and yet it is not identical to politics either.
As a child, I wanted to learn Russian because my cousin hosted a Russian-speaking exchange student. But the Russian government used the language as a pretext for the invasion and reportedly actively suppresses Ukrainian language use in occupied areas. The Russian government doesn’t appear to think that the language and the invasion are independent. I have no interest in learning Russian anymore. I started learning Ukrainian instead. But if I’d already learned a lot of Russian, I’m not sure what I would have done. There are many reasons for learning languages, and also many reasons for choosing not to learn a particular language. I find it hard to see Russian as a neutral language these days.
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I don’t think we should boycott Russian. There is an amazing culture which is much older than Putin. Furthermore I learn Languages because I want to learn them and not for political purposes. However, last but not least, if they should in fact be stupid enough to invade Europe people who speak Russian will be in high demand in order to beat them.
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As others have said, I don’t think that Putin owns the Russian language and I’m certainly not going to stop learning it. In fact, I was first inspired to learn Russian when I was on vacation in Central Asia. This is what Russian means to me. Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russian is also the language that people in my Ukrainian class decided to hate. However, I have countless examples of Ukrainians who were very grateful for the fact that I am able to speak at least a little Russian.
So, all in all, language is about connecting with people and for a lot of us, it’s a hobby.
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A bit over three years ago, I stopped studying Russian and fully invested in learning Ukrainian. The switch was bittersweet, since I loved Russian. But I never looked back until recently.
A few of my Ukrainian refugee friends speak much better Russian than Ukrainian. Two of my Italki teachers also speak mostly Russian in their daily life, instead of Ukrainian. I now realize that someday I’m going to be learning Russian again to be able to communicate with more people.
So keep learning Russian. Connect with Russian-speaking people. Your efforts are not wasted.
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In 2025, the Russian language continues to evolve with increasing digital influence and globalization. New slang, tech terms, and AI-driven language tools shape modern communication.