The reason I now speak Russian is that I used to speak Turkish “too well” as a child. (I don’t speak Turkish at all right now.)
Until age 3, I spoke Turkish better than Azerbaijani or Russian, so much so that I spoke Turkish to my parents.
My parents found it outrageous that I spoke Turkish better than Azerbaijani and worried it might be troublesome for me to later learn Russian.
The next day, technicians came and fully removed Turkish TV channels, replacing them with Russian ones. I was then enrolled in a Russian-speaking kindergarten class.
Within 2 years, when I had to choose the language of education in my future primary school, Russian had grown on me so much that I wouldn’t choose any other language.
14 years later, I speak no Turkish.
On a related note, forcing me to learn Russian was, in my opinion, one of my parents’ best decisions.
- Nihad Badalov