speak russian

My wife and love of my life was born and raised in Kazakhstan, a large nation in Central Asia. Kazakhstan was part of the Former Soviet Union, and is now working on becoming more of a capitalist powerhouse, yet struggling a lot on the way. Kazakhs have their own native language, but most younger generations are more comfortable speaking Russian or other languages from around the world. Kazakh, I am told, sounds similar to Turkish and looks similar to Russian Cyrillic. My wife’s parents speak very little else besides Kazakh, and I’d really like to be able to speak with them, but I would also like to speak Russian so I can communicate more effectively with the Russian-speaking community. I’ve met many members of this community over the past couple of years, and I would like to speak with them more effectively in the language they feel most comfortable speaking.