I learn Russian because it's a beautiful language in my opinion, I love the sound of it. Secondly, it's a hard language, so I see it as a challenge, as mathematics! It helps to avoid future diseases such as dementia! :D Thirdly, Russian might not be "very rich" as you say but it plays an important role in the world and nowadays with this " Obama vs Putin " and all the problems that are happening with Ukraine vs Russia and the powerful Soviet Union that was in the past, Russia has its mark! Russians are monolingual. Those who work in the foreign affairs, international relations and etc have a HUGE advantage if they speak Russian.

Hello Pavel, as a native English and French speaker learning Russian, I agree with your statement about Russian being a complex language, however, I take exception to the rest of what you say. Yes, in general, Russia may not be the wealthiest country in the world materialistically (even that is changing), but when seen culturally, Russia makes most other counties appear bankrupt. I would argue that the number one reason people learn Russian is actually (most likely and most recently) economically motivated! I would assume the second reason to be culturally motivated whether it be for love, family or curiosity. Do not forget of Russia's extremely rich literary history and a city with a museum that easily rivals the Louvre (and also plenty of magnificent palaces).I hear Sochi is nice too! ;-)

I teach Russian to non-native speakers. My students have very different reasons that motivate them to learn Russian - from "I want to know what my in-law says about me" to "I want to find a job in Russia". The reasons can be personal - cross-cultural marriage, adopted children, family heritage (immigrants' children and grand-children want to speak the language of their family). There are people who need Russian for practical reasons, because it opens new employment opportunities for them. Also some people just want to challenge themselves and learn Russian out of curiosity.

I started learning Russian by chance. At first I wanted something that was foreign, but not too foreign. Russia is very different from the US but it is European. Now I continue to learn Russian because I want to connect with people here and really find out what they think. A lot of those cultural things are lost in translation when expressed in English. Russians with super advanced proficiency have already lost some of their cultural perspectives because in order to reach that proficiency they consume a lot of English language books, movies and TV shows. Finally, Russia is actually very good for my health. The food is more natural here than in the US (or at least the food I could afford as a student). The work culture is also much more relaxed. Many cities in America were very stressful for me but in my experience, only Moscow, has the high-paced high-stakes stressful work environment with high expectations that I experienced in mid-sized cities and universities in my country. I'm not sure why I started learning Russian but I am glad I did.

I think you meant "few tourist centres (centers if you prefer AmEng). Little tourist centres means "маленькие туристические центры."