Sunday, 6 June was Russian Language Day (День русского языка). Created in 2010 by the United Nations, Russian Language Day celebrates Russian literature, art and traditions. The date, 6 June, was chosen to coincide with the birthday of Aleksandr Pushkin, who is generally considered to be the father of Russian literature.

What makes Russian interesting?

Russian is spoken by around 2.33% of the global population and is the official language of six countries: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. It is also one of the six United Nations languages and is considered an “international language of space”. Russian uses a Cyrillic script and has 33 letters in its alphabet, two of which are unvoiced (Ъ and Ь). There are only 500,000 words in the Russian language, and only about 2,500 of these are used frequently by native speakers. Compare this to the English language: 171,000 active words, but most adult native speakers use 20,000–35,000 words.

Something that often confuses Russian language learners is how easily the meaning of a word can change. For instance, я плáчу, with stress on the first syllable, means “I’m crying”. Я плачу, with stress on the second syllable, means “I’m paying”. Context is key, especially when translating between languages!

One of the things we pride ourselves on at Creative RSK is how we communicate important messages across languages and cultures. Because RSK is a global company with clients on every continent, translating text is part of our regular work. At Creative RSK, there’s no such thing as a language barrier!

До скорого!