Friday 13 February 2009

Estonias language ability

I guess and hope I already expressed in this forum a couple of time my respect from this small country with a hughe inferiou compley (what helps them to excel in a lot of things)

So I spent this week traveling the Baltic States.
Usually you come along with Russian. People understand, except in Estonia.

In Riga, Latvia one guy told me, that even during Sovjettimes Estonias where famous for NOT speaking russian.
Next day I went to the Estonias countryside. Somewhere in the middle I stopped to pick up a coffee.

Entering the place the propably not to high eduacated waitress welcomed me in fluent english.
And actually in 5 years I never meet anybody in estonia not speaking decent english.

So I wonder, how could Estonias refuse 50 years to learn any Russian but in 5 year they kick started themself to a truly multilanguage society ;)

The answer reveals the real power of an democratic and free EU and US versus controled regimes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Funny comment your last one, especially considering the foreign language knowledge in some of the largest EU countries. I guess it means they are "controlled regimes" as well.

About this blog

This blog is a close up on Russia and the CIS. I am not giving you the big picture.
I would anyway fail. I am too long here. So beauty & decay,
education & corruption, high culture & kafka-style administration are meanwhile normal for me.
So this blog is like a painting from from Roy Lichtenstein... when you are with your nose on it :) You will just see the dots, not gaining any understanding of the whole.

Most things will look strange in this blog. But you can be sure, I would not live here, if there would not be a lot of great things here. Unfortunately, the weired stories are more interesting to tell & read.
Don’t judge Russia on this blog, if you want to know the country, come over and take a look by your own.

Gilles