The interest of Russians in learning foreign languages has increased dramatically since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The peaks were in March, the beginning of a full-scale invasion, and October, after the announcement of mobilization. The Russians are intensively learning Hebrew, Georgian, Serbian, Turkish, writes RBC with reference to the data of the Profi service.
The demand for tutors in these languages has grown exponentially. In spring, the demand for tutors in Hebrew increased by 206% (compared to January-February), Georgian – 198%, Serbian – 184%, Chinese – 109%, Bulgarian – 70%, Turkish – 55%, Armenian – 29%.
And if we compare October with August, then in autumn the demand increased for tutors of Serbian (plus 221%), Turkish (plus 69%), Hebrew (plus 68%), Armenian (plus 60%), Georgian (plus 51%), Bulgarian ( plus 50%) and Chinese (plus 15%).
At the same time, if we compare the data year by year, then this year the demand for Serbian has grown the most – almost four times, Georgian – almost three times.
All this indirectly speaks of the scale of emigration and the countries to which Russians leave.
In November, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said that 700,000 Russians entered the country after the start of mobilization, but 600,000 of them had already left for other countries. Another popular destination (especially in autumn) was Kazakhstan. According to the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Kazakhstan, Tamara Duysenova, more than 400,000 Russians entered the country after the start of mobilization. At the same time, more than 320 thousand people left the country. About 100 thousand Russians remained in the republic.
The Agency noted that more people would leave Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine than during the entire Cold War.