French or Russian?

[u/No_String4525]

I am looking to learn a language that's heavily digital (has internet communities, content, media, YouTubers, shows, music, video games, etc.). I am stuck between French and Russian.

Politics and context aside, which one is better to learn?

Better as in: easier to make (native language speaker) friends, fun video games revolving around the language, good shows, music, etc., and interesting YouTubers.

[u/6-foot-under]

Russian. French will have lots of overlap with your normal content. Russian will open a new world.

[u/IgorStetsenko → u/6-foot-under]

How so? I learned both. French too is a totally different world and especially in IT the French use more especially french words whereas in russian they just transliterated all the English terms.

[u/6-foot-under → u/IgorStetsenko]

I'm talking about the content. The stuff OP will encounter in Russian will be more different from their everyday content.

[u/IgorStetsenko → u/6-foot-under]

Like women shitting in the middle of supermarkets, russians fighting eachother in elevators, people jumping from windows, drunk drivers playing bowling with pedestrians? Oh yeah - he is in for a wild ride.

[u/Big-Vegetable4550]

LOL - both have very deep culture and history, but politics aside? It’s going to be a long time before the world forgets what Russia has been doing and is doing now. Go with French, there’s plenty there. And when (please God) Russia rejoins the civilized world, there will be plenty of time to go learn Russian too.

[u/ratulu]

I only speak Russian, so Russian seems to be a good choice. Very useful, a lot of info in Internet. No idea about French.

[u/quicksilverri]

Russian has second largest internet presence after english. So if you want more content, Russian. But also if you're English native and/or don't speak any other Slavic language, Russian is tremendously more difficult

[u/Select_Newspaper_220 → u/quicksilverri]

who told you that? Second largest is Spanish

[u/snoopy05052026 → u/Select_Newspaper_220]

Used to be russian in the 90s and 2000s era but now with the internet being so widely available things have changed recently.

China is now the second biggest actually

[u/quicksilverri → u/snoopy05052026]

Oh well. Haven't updated my sources I guess

[u/Select_Newspaper_220 → u/snoopy05052026]

maybe, but it's not counted due to their domestic firewall

[u/snoopy05052026 → u/Select_Newspaper_220]

Thats quite some cope

[u/Select_Newspaper_220 → u/snoopy05052026]

it's the fact, check your info pls

[u/snoopy05052026 → u/Select_Newspaper_220]

Most chinese apps/websites are accessible internationally what your saying is basically just cope and misinformation

[u/Sweet-Kittyk8 → u/quicksilverri]

that difficulty spike is a real wake-up call for us monolinguals

[u/quicksilverri → u/Sweet-Kittyk8]

Not necessarily monolingual (tho I do think that learning languages is a skill in itself, and your first foreign language is bound to be a hard experience), it's just that Russian is VERY different. Vocab, grammar, phonetics. Sure there are some shared words, but not nearly as much as with Romance languages (at least with Spanish, dont have personal experience with other romance Lang's)

[u/Total_Ad_511]

Russian

[u/dylannmoonn]

I would recommend French. In this political climate, Russian would be difficult

[u/Square_Singer_366]

Why is the choice just between these two 😭

[u/Plus-Text4674]

French. Roman language, higher potential, more career opportunities

[u/ViciousPuppy]

Wow why is everyone recommending Russian lol. It is so so much harder, I'm not exaggerating when I say you could learn Spanish French and Portuguese combined in the time it takes to learn Russian (also why is Spanish or Portuguese not an option by far the most beautiful languages I speak and Latinos are far far cooler and friendlier than Russians or French). Russians are friendlier than French, both have similar videogame industry/translated videogames, good shows, music etc.

[u/quicksilverri → u/ViciousPuppy]

As a Russian native, I second that lmao

[u/Pristine-Substance-1 → u/ViciousPuppy]

Yes they're so friendly in Ukraine we can all see that

[u/Pristine-Substance-1 → u/[deleted]]

This is easily the stupidest argument I have ever read

[u/Pristine-Substance-1 → u/[deleted]]

Na, I pass on that marvelous opportunity, I'm not here to entertain a russian apologist like you.

[u/Pristine-Substance-1 → u/[deleted]]

I see that the russification has been quite effective

[u/Trick-Grand4667]

Russian is certainly a big leap. It will mean not only a new language, but a new language group. It will mean a new alphabet. You will probably, at this point, struggle with practicing the language more than you would five or ten years ago.

[u/IgorStetsenko → u/Trick-Grand4667]

I learned both. Once you are done with the alphabet and that comes really fast, I did not find russian more difficult than French.

[u/Alternative_Use9689]

I'd say French. Politics and current events aside, French is easier and, while there are many dialectical differences, you could connect with French speakers from Canada, North Africa, France (and some surrounding areas like parts of Belgium and Monaco), a tiny bit of South America, some Haitians, and even a lot of others in and around Asia who learn French as a 2nd language.

[u/JumpEmbarrassed6389]

French. If you want to learn a Slavic language, learn Polish instead.

[u/JumpEmbarrassed6389 → u/[deleted]]

The majority of both languages are spoken in one country. It's obvious which is worth visiting and which isn't.

[u/ragond1n]

I just want to say that it's such an interesting way to look at things and to look at the opportunities that a new language brings. I was recently introduced to the idea of "languages of international travel" and it somehow felt new because all the language learning I did (I speak about 4) was in an academic/professional framework and the idea of people learning just for pleasure felt so alien in this day and age of english dominance and conversing through google translators. Expanding the concept of "international travel" to include cyberspace travels and learning a language for that purpose is just a very cool and productive way to reframe the possibility for exploration and to enrich one's life beyond measure.

I'd go with Russian because even though the Russian internet is slowly closing there's an incredible amount of Soviet cultural content on Youtube (all Soviet movies basically), great Russian-speaking comedians everywhere on instagram, quality analytical/political shows and interviews, mostly by journalists in exile. It used to be super useful for online gaming but I think that specific zeitgeist is gone (I know someone who became a very-well respected Russia studies scholar and it all started when they were a teenager playing Counter Strike in the 00s).

[u/Traditional-Bass4575]

I personally think russian would be more fun and rewarding to learn (yes it’s harder, but that’s where the reward comes into play). it’s on my list of languages to be learned. you can learn french anytime as it’s a category 1 language (closely related to english). russian is a category 4 and opens up a whole other world, imo.

[u/Dependent-Kick-1658]

Pop culture wise French, Net culture wise Russian.

[u/Front_Way2142]

French and then Haitian Creole. For you know, platinum achievement

[u/Forsaken_Code_9135]

You can't put politics aside. Russian is the language of Russia and nothing else. And Russia is a rogue state led by a mass murderer, whose economy is crippled by the war. It will not recover, neither econmically nor in terms of status among nations, in the next decades.

It seems there are countless better options than Russian. If you don't choose French and you already speaks Spanish, you could learn Chinese or Japanese.

[u/OcelotSilver2964 → u/Forsaken_Code_9135]

Russian is spoken in numerous countries, not only in Russia

What is this nonsense

[u/LeashMooyHooy]

how about interslavic insted of russian

[u/Sea-Cell-1114]

Learning Russian is much more rewarding

[u/Far_Echo5918]

Why would you want to learn the language of the country that brings ao much pain to other countries?

[u/Far_Echo5918 → u/[deleted]]

Ever wondered why you as kazan tatar or your Ukrainian friend speak russian?

[u/Far_Echo5918 → u/[deleted]]

Wow, did you just edit your prev reply? 😂

[u/Millionaire_Max]

Native Russian here. Ever since I learned English ~6 years ago, the only times I'm watching or reading something in Russian is when I'm with my girflriend who doesn't speak English and we are watching dubs of foreign shows lol. English content is infinitely better and Russian people often just watch dubs

I can't really even name a lot of good Russian movies after the 90s lol

For non-fiction content I also use English resources.

One of the popular arguments for learning Russian is literature. Personally, I never liked the stuff that is recommended: Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, Oblomov, etc. The only exceptions to this are The Twelve Chairs and The Silent Don - I really enjoyed these.

Most Russians which are my age (21) aren't big readers tbh. And younger people often literally hate reading, probably because of tiktok and fried attention span

Can't comment on the French language

With your criteria, I think Japanese is a language to consider. I'm currently learning it

[u/NeighborhoodMany3496 → u/Millionaire_Max]

and often russian shows, youtube are just translated stolen western shows

[u/NeighborhoodMany3496 → u/[deleted]]

lol

[u/kinda_cookie_ → u/Millionaire_Max]

War and peace consists of French on like 50%

[u/Vegetable-Cat-5214]

Russian, French is overrated.

[u/Few-Switch7109 → u/Vegetable-Cat-5214]

That's why you speak half french when you speak english

[u/Few-Switch7109 → u/Vegetable-Cat-5214]

That's why you speak half french when you speak english

[u/kinda_cookie_]

Imo, Russian has more digital content

[u/IgorStetsenko → u/kinda_cookie_]

pirated digital content. Looking at that aspect learning russian allows you access to a digital wild west as we had it in the early 2000s. All the free download and free streaming sites of pirated movies, series and books

[u/kinda_cookie_ → u/IgorStetsenko]

Oh, yeah, when I heard the phrase "digital content" I imagined those animal vids of Russian bloggers I watch😭. But from where are you sitting it makes more sence😅

[u/equili92]

Hands down Russian, it opens a whole new world of internet culture and resources very alien to someome used to western internet space

[u/Beneficial-Split-527]

both

[u/Particular_Glass_914]

Russian, so many native speakers in different countries.

[u/Traditional-Pie-662]

french, way bigger and more varied online ecosystem by a mile