I have several excuses. Firstly I arrived just in time for the financial crash of 1998. Unfortunately this meant that I had to cancel my lovely lessons to save cash. This was a pity as they reminded me of all the joy I had struggling to learn German at school. I told my teacher Nina that if she could teach me jokes I would be more motivated. She thought I was joking.
Secondly I never imagined that I would still be here a decade later. I therefore only learnt restaurant & taxi Russian.
But thirdly & most crucially Russian is difficult to learn. It's not an especially hard language like Arabic or Mandarin Chinese. It is simply no fun to speak.
I have spoken French in France, German in Germany, Polish in Poland and Turkish in Turkey... and I can honestly state that speaking Russian in Russia is a miserable experience. Russians constantly correct you. They also fail to understand you if you make the simplest mistake in accent. This is in contrast to Ukraine, where most people understand Ukrainian even if they don't speak it. In Kiev if you mix Polish with Russian/Ukrainian you will be understood... and they will appreciate the fact that you are trying. In Moscow the usual response to my attempts to communicate are met with - "why do you speak with a pre-Baltic accent?" or "Why do you speak like a stupid Kazakh?"
Turkish was the easiest to speak. So few tourists learn even a few simple phrases that any Turkish is met with astonishment & joy. This only makes you want to learn & speak more.
I was once asked by a group of colleagues at a conference why I didn't speak Russian. I pointed out that they had been in the Netherlands for 3 days & had failed to learn the Dutch for "Thank you."
