Is it better to learn russian before learning how to speak other foreign languages?
Saturday, October 24th, 2009 at
1:37 pm
I know some other languages but not much and I don't remember most of the stuff I learned back in hs. i took spanish in hs. should I try to learn french fluently instead?
stfu this is yahoo answers it's not a paper dumba**
Home | Contact | About | Privacy Policy | Sitemap
Tagged with: hs • languages • yahoo • yahoo answers
Filed under: Russian Language
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
I know my opinion might sound odd at first, but personally, I think Russian is the perfect language, or at least as close to it as I’ve ever seen. It’s perfectly logical, and makes sense in ways that most other languages make none.
But that’s not why I recommend learning it. No… actually, the number one reason I believe that you should study Russian first is because it’s completely different from French and Spanish, and learning Russian will make you better at those others (and at English, too).
Why? Because in order to understand Russian, you have to understand grammar. Unlike the "romance" languages, which tend to be parsed in a linear manner, Russian (and other Slavic languages) hold their grammatical meaning in the word endings, not in the word order.
For example, the following sentences all have the same meaning:
- Ya chitayu knigu.
- Knigu ya chitayu.
- Ya knigu chitayu.
- Chitayu ya knigu.
Sure, there are slightly nuanced differences in what each implies, but the meaning is the same.
However, in English, these phrases mean different things:
- The book I am reading.
- I am reading the book.
And any other combination is basically garbage:
- I the book am reading.
- The book am reading I.
Learning Russian will make grammar a natural process in your head. Subjects, predicates, direct objects, indirect objects, participles, noun gender, verb aspect, reflexiveness… these things will all become natural and subconscious, and that will make languages like French and Spanish ridiculously easy for you to learn.
It will also, as I said before, make you a better English speaker, helping clear up those common confusions, like where to use who and whom, or who’s and whose.
But as you learn it, you’ll no doubt find that the logical design of the language is to be envied by all other languages. It’s difficult, but precise and efficient.
It depends what you ultimately want to do with these languages.
You would probably get more benefit out of learning french because it is fairly similar to english and spanish and has (mostly) the same alphabet system, so you will find it a bit easier. french has the added benefit of being one of the most commonly spoken langauge in the world, and it is spoken in many different countries.
Well, if you’re learning Russian be prepared to learn a new alphabet.
Is it better to learn it before learning other languages. It depends what other languages you want to know. If you want to learn other languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet, then maybe. If you want to learn French, then not so much.
I’ve seen a good amount of companies request that you know Russian. Probably more-so than French.
Which one do you imagine using the most? You need to think about how you are going to use what you learn. Think about which lang will open doors for you and also with whom you will be having the most contact.
For example: I speak German as a second language because I live in Germany right now, but do a Spanish/English tandem with a friend every day. I am using what I have learnt and so, it is more difficult to forget.
Enjoy your language journey and fun learning!
I would say yes it is better to learn Russian frist
the reason is Grammar Russian is inflected so to speak it well you must know how grammar works- making it easier to learn other languages.