Steve: Good morning, good afternoon. Ari: Good morning Steve. Thank you. Steve: Thank you, thank you.
Very glad that I am going to have a conversation with Ari today. He is a Dutchman who studied Russian and we are going to talk about the reasons why.
Why he decided to study Russian and why I decided to study Russian and why it is a very good and attractive language that more people should study.
Ari: Yes. Steve: Ari, first of all, where do you live, tell a little bit about yourself.
Ari: Okay my name is Ari Orman, I live in Holland and I am Dutch. I am 28 years old.
If we talk about why I decided to learn Russian, it is because I have been dating a Russian girl for five years.
That is probably the reason for a lot of young guys. For example, here in Holland I know guys who have the same reason because they have a Russian wife or a Russian girlfriend.
And because of her I started learning Russian. We were at university and then we had been dating for a few months and she asked me if I wanted to go to Russia, to Moscow to meet her parents.
Then I thought well why not. It is very interesting because I have never been to Russia and Russia is such a big, interesting country and I want to see what is really...
Well not through television, but just to see with my own eyes. But then she also said that level of the English language in Russia is not very high so we started to speak a little bit in Russian just for fun.
Then I bought the tickets to Russia and I thought I should seriously study Russian.
And that was at the beginning of 2016 so somehow 5.5 years ago the first time I went to Russia I really liked it.
Russian people are very hospitable, everyone was welcomed with joy, and especially the Russians really liked that I as a foreigner tried to speak Russian.
Well, maybe because of the fact that I got such a good feedback and it inspired me to study Russian.
Then my girlfriend and I started living together in Holland and we are still together which is very good.
We`ve been living together for three and a half years and we speak a little bit of Russian at home and now we speak Dutch too, because we live in Holland.
And for difficult themes we speak English, for example if she speaks about how much to pay the rent and all that about electricity and gas better to understand each other and not to have any questions.
This is somehow my history with the Russian language. Steve: A very, very nice way or motivation to learn a foreign language.
Unfortunately, in my case, I am learning or have learned 20 languages and it is not very easy to have 20 girlfriends. Ari: ha ha ha.
Steve: But I started to learn Russian 16 years ago when I was 60 years old.
Because when I was 17 years old, I was reading books and novels from 19th century Russian literature by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and things like that.
And another reason is because I always thought that to learn languages you have to focus on grammar, and my friends said that it's not possible because Russian is a complicated language and grammar is complicated...
Well and I said we will see. Of course, I cannot say that I deal with all the complexities of Russian grammar, I speak with mistakes, but nevertheless I can communicate, and I understand everything.
So it was a very pleasant experience for me. Today in the world, we see that a lot of people study Korean, Japanese or Chinese and Spanish, but less study Russian.
Why is that so? And what to do to get more people to start learning Russian. Ari: That is a good question.
I think Russian is the coolest language in the world and it is because I speak it too.
But mostly because it sounds so cool. Steve: Yeah I agree.
Ari: I think Russian sounds cooler than German, for example, because I live in Holland and there is always this little war between Germany and Holland.
Russia is also the biggest country in the world and because of that, it was closed for a long time in the Soviet time. Steve: Yes.
Ari: Now a lot of people don't know what's going on in Russia yet because... of course there's a lot about Russia on television especially in the west.
But how much you can trust it is of course another question. But I think that because of that very many people already have some interest in Russia.
Here in Holland many people read Russian literature and I read "Crime and Punishment" in English when I was 20 years old.
It is one of the best books of those times. That is why a lot of people want to learn Russian, but unfortunately, a lot of people think it's very difficult.
And like you said, there's so much complicated grammar and so many complicated words that just don't look like English words or Dutch words.
So a lot of people don't have that kind of courage to start learning it.
I think that if we can talk about the reasons why the Russian language is so easy to learn, then maybe more people will want to try to learn it.
And when people start and get some results, then there's a better chance that they'll continue to learn it.
Steve: I think that Russian is easier than Korean or Japanese. Of course, between German, Dutch, English, French, Spanish there are a lot of similar words and so it's easier.
But still Russian and even Cyrillic are not very difficult. Ari: No, it is not.
Steve: It's not complicated at all, and I think if we don't start with the grammar, but make it so that people can start hearing, reading, having a sense of how this language works.
Then slowly start with the accuracy of Russian grammar. I think what we are doing is making the Russian language seem more complicated than it really is.
But maybe if I lived in Russia I should talk without mistakes.
But if you're a foreigner, it's impossible. It does not bother me to order I speak with mistakes so what.
But if a Russian speaks better English we'll speak in English. If he cannot speak English, we will speak Russian.
So I think that demanding accuracy and correctness of grammar I think is not a good way.
Ari: No, not at all. Steve: We have to go to Russia, be with a Russian, see this country and start listening and reading and get to know Russia, the Russian language.
And not so much focus on grammar which is difficult, but you can speak with mistakes too, as I do.
Ari: The most important thing is that the person is understood. Steve: Yes.
Ari: If a person only knows the words and, for example, if he's in a store somewhere and just says "bread two" well that's not right grammatically, but everybody understands that he wants two bread.
Actually, there are some reasons why speaking Russian is actually relatively easy.
It is because, first of all, it's that there are no articles, for example, in English there are, but there are no articles in Russian at all.
You do not have to think about that at all. In some languages like Dutch and French, you have to think very well what word should be in front of each word, but in Russian, you do not.
In addition, the very flexible word order helps a lot, because you can start talking first, and then you can think what is going to happen next.
And I think it helps a lot that everything sounds more flexible and a person can start talking more quickly.
And another reason is that if you're in Russia you must speak in Russian. And you mustn't say, "Well, let's speak English because people better understand English, but no, in Russia you must speak Russian.
If you have to do something, it is easier to make yourself do it. Therefore, I think that Russian is not the most difficult language.
Steve: Yeah, I think if you take Russia, it is a huge country. Ari: Yes.
Steve: Neighboring Chinese, Mongols, Turkish tribes or ethnicities or Tajiks I do not know everything is there and it is the whole world.
And when I was in Moscow we saw that. People with Asian, Turkish appearance are all there.
Of course, it is the former empire, that is what we see, and that is the Russian world. I think there is a lot that attracts us to study Russian.
If we did not have this concept of saying that the Russian language is complicated, complicated... It does not matter what is complicated.
Motivation is important. Ari: Yes, if a person wants to do it, he can do it.
There are difficult and not difficult things in every language and with Russia, there is that if a man is interested in Russia, then he is usually very much interested in Russia - it means that he is more motivated to learn Russian.
Because Russia very much polonaises people, that is on spirit. For example, in Holland you can say that half of the people do not want anything to do with Russia and they are afraid of it.
And the other half is very interested in Russia because it is such a closed and mystical country. It helps a lot with motivation.
Steve: Yeah, if we take Japan or Korea, they have a very strong and soft cultural power.
It is very easy to get there without a visa. They have anime in Japan and many aspects of modern culture that has its influence in the world.
I think that if Russia develops with this softness, for example, in pop music.
Well of course, it exists, but nobody knows about it except Russia and in the Russian world in the neighboring countries.
I think by doing that it will be easier to visit Russia; it is a little bit difficult now. Ari: Yes.
Steve: Yes, let us hope so. Ari: I hope that after the pandemic when it has open again they will make electronic visa in Russia because now you have to do so much paperwork and it is not fun anymore. Steve: Yeah.
Ari: But if then you can just go into the website and write there... Steve: Maybe if it is mutual.
Ari: Yes reciprocally so that Russians can easily come here too. But now it seems to me that more people before the pandemic could go to Russia than before because there was the World Cup.
A lot of people who otherwise would never have been to Russia they were going to Russia to watch soccer there.
I recently saw a Russian TV series called "The Lakes" and Netflix bought it out of Russia and made it all in English and you can see it in other countries now.
And maybe it helps with that there's more interest. If Russian cinema becomes much better then maybe there will be more interest in Russia.
Steve: Yeah I think Netflix shows are a great way to learn languages and it is a kind of softness.
My wife and I watch Turkish series and there are some very good series from Denmark. Series are a way to get to know each other and learn a little bit about other countries.
Well thank you, thank you. Russian is one of the most beautiful languages all languages are beautiful. For me the most beautiful language is always the one I am doing right now.
Great language and hopefully more people will learn Russian. Thank you very much for the conversation and all the best.
Ari: Thank you very much Steve it has been a pleasure to talk to you on the channel, thank you very much. Steve: Okay, thank you very much. Ari: Goodbye.