Yesterday, 6 June, we celebrated the UN Russian Language Day. This day was established in order to highlight the importance of cultural diversity and multilingualism, as well as to promote equal use of all of the six official working languages of the United Nations throughout the organisation. Aside from Russian, the other five working languages of the UN are Spanish, French, English, Chinese and Arabic.
Russian is a Slavic language, whose closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn (Ukraine and Slovenia). In the 19th century, what we now classify as modern Russian was known as “Great Russian”. Belarusian was known as “White Russian,” and Ukrainian was called “Little Russian”. Nowadays over 170 million people speak Russian.
With hundreds of millions of speakers worldwide, Russian is anything but endangered. However, to most of us, its alphabet makes it look too difficult to learn. To encourage you to take up the challenge, Russian Language Day, proclaimed by the UN in 2010, provides a focus for cultural events, readings, plays and music. The day also marks the birthday of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), whose genius spanned novels, drama, poetry, and much more.
There is no better way to celebrate the Russian Language Day than by practising your interpreting skills on Russian speeches. For this, enter the Speech Repository and you will find 74 speeches on a variety of topics. Get started now!
Happy practice,
Your Speech Repository Team