(no subject)

[brody-pixie.livejournal.com]

I'm about to start to learn Russian. Any advice? Also, is Russian harder to learn than say english? Most people say english is the hardest language...just wondering.

Comments

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

If English is hard for someone, then Russian is going to be pure hell. :)

No, honestly. The only thing that is easier in Russian compared to English is the relative simplicity of spelling. The rest is much, much harder and more complicated.

[brody-pixie.livejournal.com]

No, I mean I speak english but how difficult is Russian. I can do polish and I basicly was self taught, is it harder than that?

[zufall.livejournal.com]

Dude, English is supereasy compared to most languages. The finer, sublime aesthetics and some metaphysical worldview kinda stuff can be a pain (for foreigners and most native speakers - or rather beyond the grasp of most native speakers to begin with) but technics-wise, English is a piece of cake.

Russian's a fun language to learn if you're a masochistic aesthete. I am, so I liked it.

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

A bit harder, I think.

[shellesie.livejournal.com]

I think english is very easy to learn, as compared with other european languages, i.e. german etc. There's no genders, there's no cases (they ARE, but we use only prepositions for distinguishing them), the grammar is quite rigid...
I can't say much about learning russian, because I'm a native speaker, sorry :)

[brody-pixie.livejournal.com]

What is the most difficult thing about it?

[procrastino.livejournal.com]

russian is quite difficult, while english is easier than most european languages. i suggest that you start with the russian alphabet and few basic expressions from a phrase book. than you can buy youself an elementary study guide and get going with it. if you're enthusiastic about it, you'll learn it.

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

It's kinda like asking what is the most difficult thing in pentatlon. :)

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

pentathlon, sorry

[procrastino.livejournal.com]

co??? rozumiesz po polsku? jestli tak, to nie ma problem, mysle ze polski jest trudnej.

[ocelotkitten.livejournal.com]

it won't be as easy as french or spanish, but it won't be as hard as mandarin chinese or korean. But then, it really depends on you and how well you pick up languages.

[gordin.livejournal.com]

If you feel comfortable with cases and tense system, you'll do just fine.
But you'll have to work on phonetics a lot, I guess. It's further from English than the Polish sounds.

[brody-pixie.livejournal.com]

Wy poznajecie Rosyjski także?
Rosjanin

[andrewus.livejournal.com]

In Russian you have more freedom... You can construc t phrases as you like, and everybody will understand you:-)
But there is very difficult pronunciation for foreigners. But we have really interesting obscene Russian:-)

[jooniper91.livejournal.com]

Russian is hard since it's so different than English. German would be easier as it is closer to English. There's a completely different alphabet, etc. Still, if you know Polish, I think they have some commmonality since they are both Slavic languages, so it may be a touch easier for you.

Jen

[brody-pixie.livejournal.com]

such as?

[fishity.livejournal.com]

Having learned English as a second language and currently learning Russian, I can say the following: English = piece of cake in comparison. But like the poster above said, if you can manage the alphabet and are still enthusiastic about it, you can do it.

It simply requires a lot of mental gymnastics in the beginning because some Cyrillic letters look exactly like Latin ones and represent the same letter while others only look the part but are a different letter...

[brody-pixie.livejournal.com]

But I'm really into Russian, so German just wouldn't satisfy me.

[jooniper91.livejournal.com]

I wasn't recommending taking Russian..*g* I was just explaining. First of all...I didn't like German, gender messed with me. In Russian you can pretty much always tell gender, and only have to memorize a few word's gender. In German I had to memorize them all. I'm saying Russian isn't all that hard, it's only hard because you speak English. It makes a lot of sense.

Chinese, now that is a HARD language. See, there you go, I'm encouraging you to take Russian, it's great!

[jooniper91.livejournal.com]

ER..I meant German..I wasn't recommending German

[brody-pixie.livejournal.com]

thanks for the encouragement

[brody-pixie.livejournal.com]

So any advice on how long it takes to become fluent or any previous expierence on that one?

[procrastino.livejournal.com]

nie, tylko trochu, ale rozumie bardzo dobrze.

[procrastino.livejournal.com]

5 years of deliberate practice, or 6 months in russia.

[brody-pixie.livejournal.com]

so to be pretty good how long would you say?