Kudos to these curious students but the good professor has tried unconvincingly to put a good spin to why a country of over 300M people- and as the self-proclaimed number one global power, that today only 20 thousand students in U.S colleges are studying Russian! Russia is more than the Cold War. I find it frightening that so many Americans see Russia as the enemy of the United States. The U.S failure to produce enough students who can speak Russian has nothing to do with supposed identity crisis of Russia- it is true the American neocons thought that Russia was over with the end of the Cold War but the good professor should know better than the neocons and Hollywood. Let us look at American inability to learn Arabic. Despite, the ME being key to the U.S economy geopolitical objects, not many Americans can speak Arabic. I am more than certain thousands if not millions of Russians can speak Arabic. At end, the best way to learn foreign languages is travel and see different parts of the world and experience different cultures and societies but only 18% of Americans hold passports.

I have been a lover of everything Russian since the old Soviet Union days; music, literature, language and culture. My interest started with Radio Moscow and Mayak ( on shortwave radio ). Today it is the internet and US public television ( RT News, Centre TV and NTV ). I like what I see in Russia today, political, cultural and economic. I respect and like President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin more than president barack obama! Russia has great music, literature, athletes, food and WOMEN! All the best to the Russian Olympic team, especially ice hockey!!!!

I am 19 years old and because of my last History class I took and a show/web-comic called Axis Powers Hetalia, I have now switched my major from Elemantry Eductation to Russian History! I love Russia so much: their culture, history, language, etc and now am currently delving into reading books such as Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (I have already watched the 1930's movie based on the book) and hope to find more great books and authors to learn/read from! (^.^) I'm not sure what job I can do with my new-found major but I hope it will be fun and interesting!

I would say it is not solely generational. I am 65 and grew up with the shiver of the cold war. In the 1950's as a child we had the "duck and cover" training. "The Russians are coming!!" However, I have come to deeply appreciate Russia and the Russian people. I was able to visit St. Petersburg in 2006, performing with a barbershop chorus. The people were gracious and warm to us. Today, I have established some friendships via the internet and Russian chat rooms. These friends are in Moscow and Siberia. I would love to learn Russian and hope someday to travel to this great country once again. Poka, Ron