What can you say about learning russian? Is it hard to learn it?

5 Comments

1. Rina says:

   November 5, 2009 at 11:14 pm

   i really want to learn it but
   i think it is difficult in writing
   SO,wt do y think bout French
   cuz it is my 1st year to study it
2. Lucas K says:

   November 5, 2009 at 11:14 pm

   i’m learning russian right now. it’s more difficult than latin based languages like english because some parts are different like the alphabet and some pronunciations. but it’s a fun language.
3. sayonara617 says:

   November 5, 2009 at 11:14 pm

   I tried and gave up.
   It is so confusing that the same letter has different pronunciations from English, such as p is pronounced as r.
4. upyr1 says:

   November 5, 2009 at 11:14 pm

   it is dificult due to the grammar and vocabulary.
   First the grammar Russian is inflected meaning the role of a role is determned by sufixes and prefixes. For example I read the book
   in Russian it is ya chetau knigu- may be typical however knigu ya chetiu, chetitu ya kinigu, and kinigu ya chitau are all correct just weird and would only be seen in poetry.
   Next grammar English is a germanic language with a lot of Latin loan words while Russian is Slavic so there are few congantes and while you might be able to guess a word in German or the western Romance languages- in Russian most likly this will not be the case. The alphabit is easy and Russian is bassicly phontic
5. ramashka_ramesh says:

   November 5, 2009 at 11:14 pm

   Many people perceive the Russian language as being difficult to learn, perhaps because it is written in the unfamiliar Cyrillic script or because it has more complex grammar than English. However, any familiarity with other European languages will help the Russian learner greatly, and the unique challenges of Russian are well worth the access it provides to the culture, literature and business worlds of Earth’s geographically largest country.

   Alphabet
   Russian is written in a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet, which has 33 letters and is loosely based on the Greek alphabet. Most of the letters correspond to sounds that English speakers are familiar with, but there are difficult letters like ж (zh), … (kh), щ (shch), ы (roughly y), along with ь and ъ, which are silent but influence the way other letters are pronounced.

   Pronunciation and Stress
   Pronunciation can be difficult at times in Russian because correct pronunciation is based on where the stress is located in the word, and Russian lacks predictable stress. Russian words each have only one long vowel, and the other vowels are shortened based on their relationship to the stressed syllable.

   Case System
   Russian has a system of six cases, which are endings used to show how nouns, adjectives and pronouns relate to each other within a sentence. Russian’s six cases are nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, prepositional and instrumental, and it is these instead of word order (though that, too, is important) that largely determine Russian syntax.

   Verbs
   Russian has only three verb tenses, but Russian verbs are marked for aspect, which is unfamiliar to speakers of English. Imperfective verbs are used to talk about actions that are, were or will be in progress, while perfective verbs are used to talk about actions that were or will be completed (perfective verbs have no present tense).

   Colloquial Language
   Russian colloquial speech is highly efficient and leaves out many pieces of information that English speakers consider important; consider the expression "что ты?" which is an incredulous way of saying "what are you talking about?" but is composed only of the words "what" and "you." Familiarity with colloquial language will happen through time.

   Organized Instruction
   Any organized form of Russian learning, such as taking a class or getting a tutor will greatly decrease your difficulty. These experienced speakers can introduce information in a logical fashion and help you correct your mistakes while giving valuable learning tips.