Bilingualism; Diglossia

It's possible that the most interesting thing about Strana is the language situation. Like most of the FSU, the official language is no longer Russian, but it is still widely spoken and sometimes better understood than the indigenous tongue. The situation must vary by region, but Viburnum is well and truly bilingual. When we observed an English class, the teacher told the kids to speak in Russian, for our benefit, and they switched without so much as blinking. When I buy vegetables from the babushkas next to the train station, I ask in Russian and they answer in Stranian. I can usually understand what they mean, though it requires some pantomime.
For me, these circumstances are startling. I know of no other country where people switch so easily between languages, and with such little significance. In Canada, though all government services are bilingual, citizens are completely segregated by language. I knew a Welsh girl when I was studying in England and she could speak both languages, but Welsh was for school and writing poetry and English was only for speaking. To be fair, A** prefers to read in Russian, but simply because it's 'easier.' From what I've seen, Strana is not diglossic, where languages are used in certain situations. Obviously, since Stranian is the national language, it's more often used in official settings, but Russian seems to be far more widely spoken. It is the most unusual state I can imagine.