Not all Slavs are Russians

[Dr Yoshimasa Tsuji]

Alina Israeli <aisrael at american.edu> wrote
  >>Russian is passe and old hat and all that.  The other Slavic
  >>languages appear to students as new and fresh and exocic.
  >
  >I would like to point out that not all Russians are Slavs, that's why the
  >citizens of Russia are called "rossijane", and there are many "fresh and
  >exotic" languages out there: itel'menskij, mansijskij, udmurtskij and many,
  >many, many others.

Hmm... The dictionary at hand (four volumed AN edition of 1983) says,
"rossijanin -- ustar. russkij". That is, "dated. Russian." I am aware
that people distinguish "rossijskij" and "russkij" as in "Rossijskaja
Imperija"/"govorit po-russki." If Alina is right, I must mention that
there are many, many Ukrainians in Russia proper. Are they also "Russians"?

  People with little knowledge about Russia and its nearest "overseas"
countries tend to confuse Russia and ex-USSR, Russians and ex-USSR
citizens. For example, we often read newspapers reporting "new Russians"
spending money extravagantly in Mediterranean resort hotels when
a significant portion of them may be from now independent Transcaucasian
republics. Anyway, they all look the same, perhaps.

There is nothing wrong in taking interest in things that are "passe,
old hat", exotic, little known, or of no practical use. That is one of our
civil rights, of course. What was definitely wrong was the fact that
the original poster forgot to prepend "In my personal view, ".  I have
seen many people who took interest in Russian culture and soon changed
their interest to something else. They might have said "passe and
old hat" to themselves but not to the public.

The students need to be aware that what is interesting is not always
most lucrative. I would ask my children how they would make a living
if they took interest in most unlucrative subjects, but wouldn't ask
my students because I am not their father.


Cheers,
Tsuji