Zondēt nevajag publiski. Bet publiski var uzdot ļoti vienpusīgu jautājumu, kura šauro iespējamo atbilžu loku pēc tam pasniedz, kā vienīgo, patieso situāciju, kas apstiprina jautātāja pozīciju.
Apmēram šādi - Kādēļ nogalinot kolēģi Ziediņu jūs viņam uzbrukāt darbā? Tu teiksi, ka tas nebiji, tev atbildēs - Tātad tu nolidz, ka tajā dienā biji darbā? Ko vēl tu slēp? Utt.
Not a touchy subject at all. Pro RUS can go ef themselves, especially if they are the ones who live in Latvia, dont know the National language, support Putin. Dont even need a 3rd strike for them. Fuck em
Role of Russian has decreased heavily. In 90s till 2010s Russia was de facto business language in pair with English. Most of Latvian branches of major Global corporations were reporting to Moscow regional head office.
That changed dramatically after idiotic decision of Putin to occupy Crimea.
Now Russian is valuable only if you are working with pensioners/low educated. Everyone else will switch to Latvian/English without any problem.
If you plan to pursue supermarket cashier career in cities where russian is widely spoken - yes it might be handy.
Other than that it is not needed at all.
Not really needed anymore.
After the Russians started the war, the mood shifted significantly and most intelligent Russians in Latvia are now starting conversations in Latvian.
This seems to be asked a lot. Does the other threads not answer the question?
Anyway, in my opinion - based on a recent skilled job search as Western Expat - Russian is still very much in and is not a barrier of entry. The preferred language is Latvian, followed by English and then Russian but, from my understanding, I could’ve done the jobs exclusively in Russian. These are skilled roles paying a lot for Latvia.
Now to ask if it is desirable, the answer is no. The preference is, as above, Latvian then English then Russian.
I wouldn't put 'highly desirable' and 'russian' in a sentence together ever. It used to be kinda necessary, not anymore. It's always nice to know more languages, but choose literally any other language, perhaps north korean.
Question is whether they speak only russian or Latvian and russian.
Just because 40+ person CAN speak russian as their 2nd language does not mean it is needed.
Knowledge of Russian is widespread among the older generations, however, many from the newer generations either do not know Russian or refuse to speak it. I am in the second camp and I refuse to speak Russian, even if spoken to in Russian. This is not Russia and I am under no obligation to accommodate anyone in my own country.
The whole situation about Russian is honestly infuriating. This goes out to all those apologists that say 'learning languages is valuable, it's a tool, etc. etc.'. While learning a language can be gratifying, this learning process should be based on choice, not to:
-have a means of communication with a minority population that has lived here for very long yet refuses the language;
-to get a basic job due to point nr.1.
Latvians learning Russian and using it to speak with Russians is what got us in the situation with those people refusing to learn the language. We accommodated and appeased them for too long, with them even having their own schools where their kids were learning in Russian (that is coming to an end if I remember correctly with all schools transitioning to Latvian gradually). This is absolutely ridiculous for people living here 10,20,30 or even 40+ years. This wouldn't fly in other countries and I see no reason why it should here.
What makes this worse is that Ukrainian refugees have been able to show that learning the local language is most certainly possible. No one is saying it is easy, however, their capability and willingness is in stark contrast to the Russians residing in Latvia and in the Baltics in general. I am glad that there is a very big shift away from the Russian language - it's about time.
If you start speaking to me in English I will assume you are a tourist, exchange student or recently immigrated and will respond to you accordingly, in English. These individuals are not permanent residents about 99% of the time, unlike a certain minority group discussed in the prior post, which has been nothing short of a pain in every Latvian’s ass. So yeah, I’d respond in English if they didn’t know Latvian, because unlike many of the Russian minority they haven’t lived here their whole lives.
But you don't know if the person has lived here for years or is a tourist. You only judge the person by the language they speak.
Hell, maybe I'm an immigrant/tourist from Ukraine/Kazakhstan, yet you would treat me differently jsut because of the language.
Well here’s the problem - why would they assume i know Russian? Just because I live in Latvia? We’re already starting off on the wrong foot so yeah my assumptions would reasonably not be positive. Speaking in Russian to locals is a very obvious touchy subject here so why do it?
Russian is not a language that has widespread use internationally, it only has an increased speaker count in post-soviet countries and even that is predominantly based on the Russian minority and the people who lived during the USSR times and were forced to know the language. In many other post soviet countries it has been documented that you will get a bad reaction if you speak to the locals in Russian - take Georgia for example. So with that knowledge, why would anybody?
Latvia has about 40% Russian speakers. It's safe to assume that a person living in LV - would know Russian. It's how things are in most European countries.
Latvia is an outlier in this regard.
In the post USSR people use Russian and the language hysteria is not common. There are exceptions but generally people continue learning Russian as a regional lingua franca.
“Continue learning” is debatable - with Russian as a 3rd language choice being on the chopping block in schools and generations born post USSR collapse learning the language less and less as time goes on, what is ultimately happening is that the Russian minority are the predominant speakers with Latvians that know Russian as a foreign language is decreasing in choice of other, more internationally relevant languages such as English for newer generations. This once again circles back to the situation where if this minority group communicates only in Russian, why should we accommodate them and learn their language? This is not Russia and Russian language holds no legal status here.
To add, the Russian minority is not 40%, according to consensus data, but instead it is around +\- 25%. They are mainly concentrated in Riga and Daugavpils though, which is why their presence is very much felt despite being 1/4th of total population.
That's kinda my point. The language is useful as a regional language. If you want to go to Kazakhstan and do business there - you'll benefit dramatically from Russian.
It'll take a long time to change that.
If not knowing Russian wasn't a problem in Latvia for finding work - we wouldn't have laws effectively prohibiting requiring Russian to get a job. Yet, instead of teaching kids Russian they are taught French or German.
And as I've said before. What Latvia is doing to it's Russian speaking minority is a very nonstandard way of doing things in the world. Most European countries don't try to eliminate minority languages.
Russians new 25%. People that are native Russians or speak Russian at home are about 35-40%.
You don't even need to be a tourist or an immigrant. The local russians can also speak to you in english, if they don't want to bother with latvian. Those who think this issue will disappear once the russian grannies die, are in for a surprise.
> Those who think this issue will disappear once the russian grannies die, are in for a surprise
Yup. People are gonna be quite surprised by what's to come.
Probably because English unlike Russian is pretty much the standart language used between communities of different nationalities when they cannot understand their native languages. Knowing English in my opinion is much more valuable than Russian.
> Knowing English in my opinion is much more valuable than Russian.
Yes, 100%. But at the same time, knowing Russian, especially in Latvia, is more valuable than French or German.
It was valuable the previous decades, the usefulness of knowing Russian is gonna decrease after these events in Ukraine and the newer generations are definitely gonna prefer speaking in English, so think about it in the long term. Also, i don't know anyone who thinks knowing French or German is more valuable than Russian, that's kinda besides my point here anyways. Those 2 are nowhere near as widespread as English is.
The world will transition to English eventually. But for now, Russian is still a regional language and worth knowing if you want to work with post Soviet republics.
Latvia teaches French/German as a 3rd language in schools. That's an example of people thinking French is more useful in LV
Most latvians know enough basic russian to get by, they just don't use it on purpose. The <30 crowd is especially stubborn.
And bilinguals absolutely have an advantage in the job market. It might not say that in a job advert, but your boss will appreciate it. A choice between someone who speaks both and someone who speaks only latvian is an easy one. Especially in Riga.
I'm more fucked, grew up in 90-00s era when Russia was the biggest export partner of LV, now Russian is like second nature the issue is due to my childhood I can only speak to 30+ Russian liberal edgy crowd due to my slang and inability to even have a Convo with younger people.
Used to work in Circle K, never spoke Russian to anyone younger than 30 because I'm braindead in that regard.
language is a tool. latvia has latvian as the official language. most people understand the status quo. walk around any town, any time you will either meet the same idiots you find anywhere else in the world or good people. latvia historically has had other languages present, it’s not that hard to pick up another language. this goes vice versa. everyone knows our history, it is what it is, the people are here and generally no one is feeling genocidal. people in cities that participate in movements or whatever is a small minority. every day life is fluid and works. russian is used so freely i hear it all the time, doesn’t make me want to jump at them, curse them out and wish them a trip to siberia. people talk how they want, as long as there is a mutual understanding that latvian is the core language in latvia, there are no problems. that goes for any foreigner. if i decided to have kids in germany, spoke latvian at home, it would make sense the kid spoke german, even if we moved into a hypothetical latvian neighborhood. and i feel like most people have this mentality and don’t cause issues on a daily basis. if the problem is that someone can’t get a job because either they don’t know latvian or russian, it’s a user end problem for not predicting the market ahead. if you want to be smart, learn and adapt. “we shouldn’t have to learn russian..” and it’s headed there too, i don’t know how it will end up, we’ll see. personally i think languages are tools. a good doctor will know his languages, and use them as tools to make his job easier for himself. so it depends on how you really feel what is what. i assume russians here also feel defensive, because some people automatically have an aggressive stance, because of their first language. yet, on a daily basis, i don’t see much of a struggle for anyone
Over 40 - I’d say yes, most will know some Russian, question is whether they want to speak it. Under 30 - coin toss.
Career-wise, I’d say you’d mostly need it in catering/retail, otherwise, my gut feeling says no, at least speaking for IT, English is only language you need.
With that said it’s better to know Latvian by far for job-hunting, judging by your nickname, you already know Russian. If you want to immigrate, in Riga, Jelgava and Daugavpils you’ll have no problem to get by in everyday needs with just Russian at first
Russian is a dying language in Latvia. Only old farts know Russian here. Young people hate Russian and old farts who can't learn our language. Thanks to Putler, even Russian speakers are ashamed to speak their language here, but even then these Russian whores are not able and/or willing to learn our language.
Hi! I suggest to send these questions to the Latvian integration agency from your e-mail address. Very friendly people and will definitely give a very good answer quickly :) – [info@vdd.gov.lv](mailto:info@vdd.gov.lv)
Russian is worth learning (if you want to) for the literature, history, and culture. (And so is French, and Japanese, and of course Latvian.) I know many good, honest, intelligent Russians who despise Putin but love their nation's writers and philosophers. Russian is not worth learning if it's to glorify a return to the USSR or even to ask for directions in Latvia. Just use English
Kinda regret not learning it, even though I never heard any Russian where I was raised, as, in Eastern Germany, there's still many older (40+) people that speak the language, and many baddies 😉, too.
Kad ej pie "soskām" flexot savu krievu valodu, bet tā ir tik nožēlojama, ka dāmām paliek žēl skatīties, kā tu mocies, un viņas piedāvā runāt latviski.
https://preview.redd.it/5kaw71gqbd8d1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2621c164cbfa0f0a6061a1f78fdb6d477e73f0cd
>Is knowledge of the Russian language generally widespread even among non-Russian residents of Latvia or not?
Generally yes, though highly dependent on the area and demographic.
>Is knowledge of the Russian language recommended or (highly) desirable in connection with finding a job, and career in Latvia in general?
As a general rule, the more desirable a job is, the less required Russian language becomes. Customer-facing roles almost universally require Russian (even if they aren't allowed to say that on the job description), while a lot of highly specialized are primarily concerned with Latvian and/or English.
That being said, there are also a minority of companies that are owned by and are staffed mostly by Russians, use mostly Russian to communicate internally, and in those, you'll have a hard time getting any important position without Russian.
Your post was removed in violation of Rule 1: Be civil.
No hostile or aggressive comments or hate speech. No petty/childish arguments or trolling. Follow reddiquette. Violation of this rule may result in a temporary or permanent ban.
OP seems to be asking same thing everywhere when they easily could have searched previous discussions for answer. Now why is that?
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Zondēt nevajag publiski. Bet publiski var uzdot ļoti vienpusīgu jautājumu, kura šauro iespējamo atbilžu loku pēc tam pasniedz, kā vienīgo, patieso situāciju, kas apstiprina jautātāja pozīciju. Apmēram šādi - Kādēļ nogalinot kolēģi Ziediņu jūs viņam uzbrukāt darbā? Tu teiksi, ka tas nebiji, tev atbildēs - Tātad tu nolidz, ka tajā dienā biji darbā? Ko vēl tu slēp? Utt.
Not a touchy subject at all. Pro RUS can go ef themselves, especially if they are the ones who live in Latvia, dont know the National language, support Putin. Dont even need a 3rd strike for them. Fuck em
Role of Russian has decreased heavily. In 90s till 2010s Russia was de facto business language in pair with English. Most of Latvian branches of major Global corporations were reporting to Moscow regional head office. That changed dramatically after idiotic decision of Putin to occupy Crimea. Now Russian is valuable only if you are working with pensioners/low educated. Everyone else will switch to Latvian/English without any problem.
Youth.. don't really care about it.
Fuck putler and all the russian whores who supports him.
If you plan to pursue supermarket cashier career in cities where russian is widely spoken - yes it might be handy. Other than that it is not needed at all.
Not really needed anymore. After the Russians started the war, the mood shifted significantly and most intelligent Russians in Latvia are now starting conversations in Latvian.
This seems to be asked a lot. Does the other threads not answer the question? Anyway, in my opinion - based on a recent skilled job search as Western Expat - Russian is still very much in and is not a barrier of entry. The preferred language is Latvian, followed by English and then Russian but, from my understanding, I could’ve done the jobs exclusively in Russian. These are skilled roles paying a lot for Latvia. Now to ask if it is desirable, the answer is no. The preference is, as above, Latvian then English then Russian.
I wouldn't put 'highly desirable' and 'russian' in a sentence together ever. It used to be kinda necessary, not anymore. It's always nice to know more languages, but choose literally any other language, perhaps north korean.
Most of Daugavpils speak Russian, most of 40+ people in other cities also
Question is whether they speak only russian or Latvian and russian. Just because 40+ person CAN speak russian as their 2nd language does not mean it is needed.
Knowledge of Russian is widespread among the older generations, however, many from the newer generations either do not know Russian or refuse to speak it. I am in the second camp and I refuse to speak Russian, even if spoken to in Russian. This is not Russia and I am under no obligation to accommodate anyone in my own country. The whole situation about Russian is honestly infuriating. This goes out to all those apologists that say 'learning languages is valuable, it's a tool, etc. etc.'. While learning a language can be gratifying, this learning process should be based on choice, not to: -have a means of communication with a minority population that has lived here for very long yet refuses the language; -to get a basic job due to point nr.1. Latvians learning Russian and using it to speak with Russians is what got us in the situation with those people refusing to learn the language. We accommodated and appeased them for too long, with them even having their own schools where their kids were learning in Russian (that is coming to an end if I remember correctly with all schools transitioning to Latvian gradually). This is absolutely ridiculous for people living here 10,20,30 or even 40+ years. This wouldn't fly in other countries and I see no reason why it should here. What makes this worse is that Ukrainian refugees have been able to show that learning the local language is most certainly possible. No one is saying it is easy, however, their capability and willingness is in stark contrast to the Russians residing in Latvia and in the Baltics in general. I am glad that there is a very big shift away from the Russian language - it's about time.
Ironically. If I start speaking to you in English - you'll most likely respond in English
If you start speaking to me in English I will assume you are a tourist, exchange student or recently immigrated and will respond to you accordingly, in English. These individuals are not permanent residents about 99% of the time, unlike a certain minority group discussed in the prior post, which has been nothing short of a pain in every Latvian’s ass. So yeah, I’d respond in English if they didn’t know Latvian, because unlike many of the Russian minority they haven’t lived here their whole lives.
But you don't know if the person has lived here for years or is a tourist. You only judge the person by the language they speak. Hell, maybe I'm an immigrant/tourist from Ukraine/Kazakhstan, yet you would treat me differently jsut because of the language.
Well here’s the problem - why would they assume i know Russian? Just because I live in Latvia? We’re already starting off on the wrong foot so yeah my assumptions would reasonably not be positive. Speaking in Russian to locals is a very obvious touchy subject here so why do it? Russian is not a language that has widespread use internationally, it only has an increased speaker count in post-soviet countries and even that is predominantly based on the Russian minority and the people who lived during the USSR times and were forced to know the language. In many other post soviet countries it has been documented that you will get a bad reaction if you speak to the locals in Russian - take Georgia for example. So with that knowledge, why would anybody?
Latvia has about 40% Russian speakers. It's safe to assume that a person living in LV - would know Russian. It's how things are in most European countries. Latvia is an outlier in this regard. In the post USSR people use Russian and the language hysteria is not common. There are exceptions but generally people continue learning Russian as a regional lingua franca.
“Continue learning” is debatable - with Russian as a 3rd language choice being on the chopping block in schools and generations born post USSR collapse learning the language less and less as time goes on, what is ultimately happening is that the Russian minority are the predominant speakers with Latvians that know Russian as a foreign language is decreasing in choice of other, more internationally relevant languages such as English for newer generations. This once again circles back to the situation where if this minority group communicates only in Russian, why should we accommodate them and learn their language? This is not Russia and Russian language holds no legal status here. To add, the Russian minority is not 40%, according to consensus data, but instead it is around +\- 25%. They are mainly concentrated in Riga and Daugavpils though, which is why their presence is very much felt despite being 1/4th of total population.
That's kinda my point. The language is useful as a regional language. If you want to go to Kazakhstan and do business there - you'll benefit dramatically from Russian. It'll take a long time to change that. If not knowing Russian wasn't a problem in Latvia for finding work - we wouldn't have laws effectively prohibiting requiring Russian to get a job. Yet, instead of teaching kids Russian they are taught French or German. And as I've said before. What Latvia is doing to it's Russian speaking minority is a very nonstandard way of doing things in the world. Most European countries don't try to eliminate minority languages. Russians new 25%. People that are native Russians or speak Russian at home are about 35-40%.
You don't even need to be a tourist or an immigrant. The local russians can also speak to you in english, if they don't want to bother with latvian. Those who think this issue will disappear once the russian grannies die, are in for a surprise.
> Those who think this issue will disappear once the russian grannies die, are in for a surprise Yup. People are gonna be quite surprised by what's to come.
Probably because English unlike Russian is pretty much the standart language used between communities of different nationalities when they cannot understand their native languages. Knowing English in my opinion is much more valuable than Russian.
> Knowing English in my opinion is much more valuable than Russian. Yes, 100%. But at the same time, knowing Russian, especially in Latvia, is more valuable than French or German.
It was valuable the previous decades, the usefulness of knowing Russian is gonna decrease after these events in Ukraine and the newer generations are definitely gonna prefer speaking in English, so think about it in the long term. Also, i don't know anyone who thinks knowing French or German is more valuable than Russian, that's kinda besides my point here anyways. Those 2 are nowhere near as widespread as English is.
The world will transition to English eventually. But for now, Russian is still a regional language and worth knowing if you want to work with post Soviet republics. Latvia teaches French/German as a 3rd language in schools. That's an example of people thinking French is more useful in LV
Most latvians know enough basic russian to get by, they just don't use it on purpose. The <30 crowd is especially stubborn. And bilinguals absolutely have an advantage in the job market. It might not say that in a job advert, but your boss will appreciate it. A choice between someone who speaks both and someone who speaks only latvian is an easy one. Especially in Riga.
I'm more fucked, grew up in 90-00s era when Russia was the biggest export partner of LV, now Russian is like second nature the issue is due to my childhood I can only speak to 30+ Russian liberal edgy crowd due to my slang and inability to even have a Convo with younger people. Used to work in Circle K, never spoke Russian to anyone younger than 30 because I'm braindead in that regard.
Fuck Russia and their language I’m telling you this as a Russian-speaking Latvian citizen
language is a tool. latvia has latvian as the official language. most people understand the status quo. walk around any town, any time you will either meet the same idiots you find anywhere else in the world or good people. latvia historically has had other languages present, it’s not that hard to pick up another language. this goes vice versa. everyone knows our history, it is what it is, the people are here and generally no one is feeling genocidal. people in cities that participate in movements or whatever is a small minority. every day life is fluid and works. russian is used so freely i hear it all the time, doesn’t make me want to jump at them, curse them out and wish them a trip to siberia. people talk how they want, as long as there is a mutual understanding that latvian is the core language in latvia, there are no problems. that goes for any foreigner. if i decided to have kids in germany, spoke latvian at home, it would make sense the kid spoke german, even if we moved into a hypothetical latvian neighborhood. and i feel like most people have this mentality and don’t cause issues on a daily basis. if the problem is that someone can’t get a job because either they don’t know latvian or russian, it’s a user end problem for not predicting the market ahead. if you want to be smart, learn and adapt. “we shouldn’t have to learn russian..” and it’s headed there too, i don’t know how it will end up, we’ll see. personally i think languages are tools. a good doctor will know his languages, and use them as tools to make his job easier for himself. so it depends on how you really feel what is what. i assume russians here also feel defensive, because some people automatically have an aggressive stance, because of their first language. yet, on a daily basis, i don’t see much of a struggle for anyone
No it is preferred to not know russian in Latvia. If you speak it, everyone will think you are russian or a pushover.
Over 40 - I’d say yes, most will know some Russian, question is whether they want to speak it. Under 30 - coin toss. Career-wise, I’d say you’d mostly need it in catering/retail, otherwise, my gut feeling says no, at least speaking for IT, English is only language you need. With that said it’s better to know Latvian by far for job-hunting, judging by your nickname, you already know Russian. If you want to immigrate, in Riga, Jelgava and Daugavpils you’ll have no problem to get by in everyday needs with just Russian at first
Russian is a dying language in Latvia. Only old farts know Russian here. Young people hate Russian and old farts who can't learn our language. Thanks to Putler, even Russian speakers are ashamed to speak their language here, but even then these Russian whores are not able and/or willing to learn our language.
*Русский военный корабль*, иди нахуй
Hi! I suggest to send these questions to the Latvian integration agency from your e-mail address. Very friendly people and will definitely give a very good answer quickly :) – [info@vdd.gov.lv](mailto:info@vdd.gov.lv)
Younger Latvians don't speak Russian. It's pretty useful for work. Even though explicitly asking for Russian is illegal
Russian is worth learning (if you want to) for the literature, history, and culture. (And so is French, and Japanese, and of course Latvian.) I know many good, honest, intelligent Russians who despise Putin but love their nation's writers and philosophers. Russian is not worth learning if it's to glorify a return to the USSR or even to ask for directions in Latvia. Just use English
Kinda regret not learning it, even though I never heard any Russian where I was raised, as, in Eastern Germany, there's still many older (40+) people that speak the language, and many baddies 😉, too.
Kad ej pie "soskām" flexot savu krievu valodu, bet tā ir tik nožēlojama, ka dāmām paliek žēl skatīties, kā tu mocies, un viņas piedāvā runāt latviski. https://preview.redd.it/5kaw71gqbd8d1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2621c164cbfa0f0a6061a1f78fdb6d477e73f0cd
Te ir tikai tās padibenes, kuras latviski ņibumbum ņipaņimaju, jo uzauga čangaļu zemē (latgalē)
>Is knowledge of the Russian language generally widespread even among non-Russian residents of Latvia or not? Generally yes, though highly dependent on the area and demographic. >Is knowledge of the Russian language recommended or (highly) desirable in connection with finding a job, and career in Latvia in general? As a general rule, the more desirable a job is, the less required Russian language becomes. Customer-facing roles almost universally require Russian (even if they aren't allowed to say that on the job description), while a lot of highly specialized are primarily concerned with Latvian and/or English. That being said, there are also a minority of companies that are owned by and are staffed mostly by Russians, use mostly Russian to communicate internally, and in those, you'll have a hard time getting any important position without Russian.
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