[Glennb51]

Back when I was in college (many years ago),the conservative history professor suggested that we learn Russian while it was still an elective.

I guess now it would be Chinese.

[hanamizu]

Back when I was in college (many years ago),the conservative history professor suggested that we learn Russian while it was still an elective.

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Hmm. My freshman registration, I had to take a language (thanks h.s. Spanish teacher who told me not to bother with Spanish 4!!). So I show up at the foreign language desk and was told “Chinese is open, but Russian has a short waiting list”.
So I sat in on the Russian class which thinned out quickly. Ended up with 8 units of D my freshman year. But I passed the language requirement!

Having played around with Mandarin a bit, I now see what a mistake I made. Chinese has its quirks, but there is virtually no grammar to master. Russian has lots of grammar!

It was not a total loss. I can write out my wife’s Christmas list using Russian letters. Drives her nuts.