Perhaps this helps to pick up their language a bit?
absolutely not but this has everything to do with me and how I simply cannot learn languages. This has always been the case with me. IT took me 10 damn years to become conversationally fluent in Thai and children can easily confuse me if they want to.
Question: Why so many non-natives in your neighbourhood?
I think because Vietnamese is such a difficult language to the point where almost zero non-natives speak it. It can be quite difficult to get things done when you are completely lost as soon as you leave your apartment. I think it is flocking together for the same reason that there is a "chinatown" in almost every major city in the world, people are more comfortable around their own I guess.
For me, when I could speak Thai, I preferred to be NOT in the unofficial foreigner areas but realized that this was only the case because I could speak the local language. I would be completely confused here in Vietnam because I speak NONE of the language.
I would really like to travel to Russia one day, perhaps with some of my Russian friends so they could be my guides.
True, expats and immigrants tend to flock together.
Am always surprised when discussions happen in my country about why immigrants from the same background live together in the same area. While what I've seen with Dutchies living in other countries, they always have a Dutch bar, club and whatnot, and usually they live in the same area/district. They are telling: We like to stay connected with our own.
I do hope you'll make it to Russia at some point in your life.