I've always been a bit of a Russophile. Partly from being the annoying communist kid in high school, but even since then I've had an appreciation for Russian culture and language.
I've been hanging out more on Gemini since I caught myself slipping back into going on reddit, mostly just scrolling the front page, but I don't want to get into that bad habit again. I see a lot of Russian language posts on Gemini and would love to be able to read them.
I've half-heartedly tried to learn it in the past but never put in much effort. I'm pretty good with languages, I took Latin for a year in high school and since Latin is based so much on case and declination, not word order, you have to change how you think about language to really begin learning it.
Of course, I don't remember much Latin at all, but having an abstract understanding of language helped when I switched schools and switched to German. I love German, it's a beautiful language and naturally made a lot of sense coming from English.
I would love to keep learning German but I don't see any real point. I can already make out most of what a German post is saying online and since my plans to move to Germany have changed there really is no benefit. Plus most Germans have a good grasp on English so it's easier to just use English.
Russian is different; Russia was fairly isolated from The West (TM) and thus didn't adopt English as a widely spoken language.There are massive sections of the internet that are solely in Russian and that don't interact much with the Anglo-sphere. I'd love to be able to understand what the other side is saying. With the dawn of the multi-polar world being upon us I foresee communication between the various spheres becoming far more useful than it was before.
If anyone has any good resources, point me to them please.