Why do Mongolians Write and Speak in Russian?

Question

Whatever happened to Mongolian!?!?!

Answer 1

Mongolian is still a vibrant and thriving language. Mongolians tend to use Russian in order to communicate with the outside world. A lot of technology is also supported by Russian and supports Russian. Mongolian was not the language of government for so long that there is not a lot of technology that will support either the language or the writing system (which is vertical, top to bottom, left to right).

Answer 2

Mongolia have been under "protectorate" of Soviet Union and that times they were "advised" to learn Russian.Mongolia and Russia had the same border and Russian language has allowed Mongolians to get in touch with Russian and European culture which made a great breakthrough for Asian country.By 90's almost 60% of Mongolian people have been speaking Russian.

Answer 3

Quite simply they DO NOT. They all speak Mongolian, but they write it, since 1929, with Cyrillic characters, in an alphabet similar but not identical with the Russian one. This was imposed by Sukhbaatar, a Communist warlord who worshipped Lenin and hated Buddhist monks. He eventually became leader of Outer Mongolia (ie what we now call Mongolia proper) and thought teaching the hitherto illiterate Arats (herdsmen) in an alphabet different from the Mongolian one (derived from Tibetan script and only known to Buddhist monks) would lead to a rift between the 2 social groups. He partly succeeded in that. After 1992, both alphabets are in use. Religious texts are mandatorily written in Mongolian script only but for all other purposes the alphabets are equal. Most people prefer the Cyrillic one. Mongolians in China (Inner Mongolia/Nei Menggu and other provinces) have always used the Mongolian alphabet and cannot read Cyrillic.There are more Mongolians in China than in Mongolia, actually.
As for Russian, no, they don't speak it very much either. It is in regress in favour of English, German and Chinese as a foreign language. Russians were oppressors in Mongolia, just as they were in other Communist countries. Mongolians are a proud nation and don't forget easily.
One of the recent Congresses of WESU , the World English Speaking Union (the international association of all English teachers and experts in the English language) was held in Ulaan Baatar, the capital of Mongolia.

Answer 4

Most people in Mongolia do speak Mongolian as their mother tongue. However it is written in two different scripts, a traditional, vertical Mongolian script and the cyrillic system, like Russian is written. Mongolia had a pro-soviet government since 1925 (The soviet union/russia was partly responsible for Mongolia's independence from China in 1924) and adapted their writing system to the cyrillic standard to mesh better with their neighbors to the north. The government abolished the use of the traditional alphabet in 1941, and after the fall of the Soviet Union, Mongolia tried to reintroduce widespread use of their traditional alphabet, but after several years the plan was abolished.

Answer 5

It's a payback for the Mongolian invasion of Russia in the Dark Ages. ;-)

Answer 6

because Russian's a cool language!!!
go-go Russian!!!