Is russian a good language to study in the U.S?

i want to work with the language (is that being a linguist?) but im unsure if alot of people speak it in the U.S and Canada. if so how much would i have to study it to be a linguist/translator/interpreter?Is russian a good language to study in the U.S?
Here's some interesting facts on where Russian is most popular in the USA.



http://answers.google.com/answers/thread鈥?/a>





You should know it almost fluently if you want to be a translator/interpreter.Is russian a good language to study in the U.S?
For North America, you should study Spanish (Latin America) since most people in this continent speak Spanish (after English). Next you can study, French (Canada) and Chinese (a lot of Chinese in San Francisco and New York).