Russian on the rise

Russian is gradually replacing German as a second foreign language in Latvia's schools. The daily Latvijas Avīze is critical of this development: "In the first years of independence many people decided against Russian on the grounds that they could get by without it on our march towards Europe. For that reason pupils were eager to learn other EU languages. In addition they believed that sooner or later everyone in Latvia would speak Latvian. But that has proved an illusion. Well-educated youths have a hard time finding a job without a knowledge of Russian, with the result that many believe you can't get by in Latvia without speaking it. And it's not just people who are for a post-Soviet Latvia who think this way. Many of those who support our membership in the EU thinks so too. ... Nevertheless this idea forces us to believe that Latvia's economic future lies in Russia or elsewhere in the east, while the figures show just the opposite: we do far more business with the EU."

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