Why is it so rare to be perfectly bilingual in English and a Slavic language?

[vonPeterhof]

Also here's a video of Milas Kunis speaking Russian (her native language). I'll leave it to native speakers to judge her accent, but I thought it was pretty obvious that she's American because the way she talks sounds the way a lot of American girls speak. It's kind of strange listening to her because it doesn't sound quite like a native Russian speaker who has spent their whole life in Russia, but it also doesn't sound anything at all like an American who has learned Russian as a second language.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhMQhMFgE-Y

A couple of tiny bits may have sounded a bit off, but otherwise she sounded like a native Russian speaker from certain parts of Ukraine to me. She definitely sounds a lot more native than Milla Jovovich (another native speaker of Russian from Ukraine).

[tarvos]

And to be honest with you, Ukrainian variants of Russian are still... Russian.

[vonPeterhof]

And to be honest with you, Ukrainian variants of Russian are still... Russian.

Yeah, definitely. In case I wasn't clear, I was taking issue with the idea that Kunis' Russian sounds "American" or "non-native". I thought that maybe the Ukrainian elements in her speech were what made her sound not quite "like a native Russian speaker who has spent their whole life in Russia" to Dylan95.

In contrast, Milla Jovovich does actually have a noticeable American-ish accent in how she pronounces certail vowels and palatalized consonants, as well as difficulties with grammar.

[kulaputra]

A very simple reason: the slavic languages are not viewed as prestigious ones ... I will agree here: it's a peculiar humiliation typical for slavic mentality (perhaps, for every slavic ethnicity) ... Why does it even exist? It's a pretty difficult matter, perhaps, it's somehow connected with unfortunate events in the history of those nations ?

No, it's all about the Golden Rule. When a language owns the gold, it makes the rules ... because of its "economic clout."

Image: This is "clout"

This doesn't check out, or at least, it's over simplistic. There are more L2 speakers of Hindi/Urdu, French, or Malay-Indonesian, then there are of Mandarin, yet if you compare the sizes of the countries that speak each of those languages in your own graph- well, that's not what we would expect, if what you claimed were true. Italian has far more L2 speakers then Japanese (again, see pie chart). Swahili has far, far more L2 speakers then Japanese. And so on.

Anyways, OP: I don't see any evidence that what you're claiming is rare, is in fact particularly rare at all. Three anecdotes doesn't make for data. I imagine if you studied the situation concretely you would find it was not rare at all. The alternative, that Russian and Polish have some je-ne-sais-quois quality that French, Chinese, and Hindi lack just seems very unlikely.

I disagree with Cavesa’s assertion that the Slavic languages lack prestige. For many of the Germanic-and-Latinate-speaking peoples (sensitive, intelligent individuals), the Slavic languages represent an almost irresistible source of intellectual and cultural wealth. The question is not one of “prestige”, it is one of “economic clout.” The same holds true for Spanish; great language, great cultures, but not much clout. Finally, where I would most definitely not deny the vast cultural richness and attraction of the Chinese languages, what is “really” driving the sudden surge in desire to learn Mandarin? Prestige? Nope, remember the Gold Rule! Despite the limited opportunities for learning and practicing Mandarin in the English-speaking nations, we can all be sure that the number of bilingual English-Mandarin speakers will surpass that of English-Slavic speakers in no time at all. As soon as a Slavic language assumes the economic clout of China, its speakers will be able slack off. Until then, ...

What makes you think Spanish-speaking countries lack clout? Spanish speaking countries account for ~7% of the world's GDP. That's about half of China's GDP. Yet, finding native English speakers who fluently speak Mandarin (not those who merely study it, those who are fluent in it) is exceedingly rare. Spanish-speaking Anglophones, however, are not at all uncommon.

[aaleks]

In contrast, Milla Jovovich does actually have a noticeable American-ish accent in how she pronounces certail vowels and palatalized consonants, as well as difficulties with grammar.

Her Russian is better than I used to think. For some reason I thought that she couldn't say anything coherent besides a couple of well rehearsed phrases but it looks like she's actually able to hold a conversation in Russian.

About her accent, I know almost nothing about phonetics so this is just an inexpert opinion. I hear her accent and grammar mistakes but there's something natural in the way she's speaking. Maybe all those little words, I don't know.

[IronMike]

A very simple reason: the slavic languages are not viewed as prestigious ones, therefore the language of the new home country is strongly preferred, with the "a child should have only one native language or they'll speak them both wrong" myth still being well alive.

I don't find this in the US. I've met a large number of Russophone-Americans, and every single one of them spoke Russian natively, maybe with a slight American-ish accent. (Frankly, I met many Russian teens in Moscow through my daughters and they all spoke with the same American-ish accent, probably due to internet and tv.) Every one of these Russophone-Americans had parents who were insistent on their kids speaking Russian AND English fluently. In fact, son #2 is dating a Belarusian-American, and she was born in the U.S. and her only input was her parents and family friends, and summer "camps" where she went to one of those Russian embassy "dachas" (haha) and spoke Russian while doing activities with peers. When she switches to Russian with her parents (as opposed to speaking to me or my son), she all of a sudden gets very Russiany with her speech. It's incredible. You wouldn't even know she was American.

[Cavesa]

A very simple reason: the slavic languages are not viewed as prestigious ones, therefore the language of the new home country is strongly preferred, with the "a child should have only one native language or they'll speak them both wrong" myth still being well alive.

I don't find this in the US. I've met a large number of Russophone-Americans, and every single one of them spoke Russian natively, maybe with a slight American-ish accent. (Frankly, I met many Russian teens in Moscow through my daughters and they all spoke with the same American-ish accent, probably due to internet and tv.) Every one of these Russophone-Americans had parents who were insistent on their kids speaking Russian AND English fluently. In fact, son #2 is dating a Belarusian-American, and she was born in the U.S. and her only input was her parents and family friends, and summer "camps" where she went to one of those Russian embassy "dachas" (haha) and spoke Russian while doing activities with peers. When she switches to Russian with her parents (as opposed to speaking to me or my son), she all of a sudden gets very Russiany with her speech. It's incredible. You wouldn't even know she was American.

Russian is different from the rest of the slavic languages, as I've said. There tends to be more pride in the language, more media, larger communities abroad. Hey, there are even tons of monolingual Russians living in Prague. Just as many as the English ones I dare guess. Those not monolingual can still stay bilingual without losing touch with the language. Something like this is not possible for a bulgarian or a pole abroad.

When it comes to the central european nations (which are not purely slavic by far), basically the people proud to be of slavic origin don't move abroad and don't learn foreign languages much and are not too ambitious in general (just last week, I heard how we should stick to being czechs and slavs as to not being important or well known for anything. Really. From a czech.) Those who are much more interested in the outside world and more likely to move abroad are usually those much more connected to the other parts of our genetic or cultural origins. A czech or slovak going abroad is much more likely to let the ties to the previous country and language rot and become member of a different nation (just yesterday, I heard a successful czech having lived in Germany and now living in both countries talk about the German team losing as about "our team" and emotionally, and you can notice stuff like this all the time).

The poles are something in between. They tend to be proud, but their opportunities to live in their language while abroad are smaller than those of the Russian natives.

As was said by others: yes, lots of people from other regions admire the Russian classical authors or music (I love those composers too) and sometimes a person from another "slavic" country too. But it is not shared by the natives of some of the languages, actually panslavism has already caused a lot of damage (everytime it spread). I highly doubt many people from non slavic countries would desire to adopt any of them as their own nation instead of their original one. Among the people with slavic roots, it is common to want to get rid of this, it is often one of the best signs of being a successful person.

It is one of my life goals too. I want a nationality I could be proud of and feel a part of. My children will have to be bilingual though, as all their future grandparents (if everything goes right with my current partner) are monolingual.

You can't be surprised that so many lose their language abroad and/or don't teach it to their children too much.