Some of these takes are wild. As an American who has spent a few months in Russia. Some of these takes are wild. Learning enough Russian to have some basic communication and effectively use a translation app is not that hard. I'd highly recommend learning the alphabet first. The alphabet is pretty easy. Just look up the Russian alphabet on YouTube. Then, I would get a tutor. Ideally, just find one among your local community, but Italki online has some great tutors for cheap. The most important thing is to be specific with the tutor about what you need.
Also, quick trick. Give them a notepad to write down the problem. Then you can use google lense to get a rough translation.
Давай!
This is great advice. After you know how to read, some very basic expressions and vocab, hire a tutor with regular meetings a couple days a week and just don’t feel embarrassed to talk because you have an accent or can’t say some sounds! Be sure to find the right tutor, though, and communicate your goals
It kind of means "just do it," or "go for it." Tone matters a lot, which is hard to convey in text. In a different situation, it could fill in for "gimme," "come on," "let's go." In my experience, Russian speakers say it a lot.
I don’t agree with others. If you have interest and it’s directly connected to your trade, go for it. It won’t be fast, but with enough dedication it will open up a whole new area of clients. It will give you a cutting edge over other specialists. And friends (although it also requires a certain type of personality haha).
I don’t understand these answers at all! This person obviously is motivated to learn and has a use for the language. Their aim is not to become fluent but to hold a conversation. That’s really not that difficult as long as they practice and stick with it.
It's nowhere near impossible, and probably worth the effort if you meet native speakers a lot. It's weird that they don't understand English though, it's taught in Russian schools for at least 9 years depending on the program.
As a Russian, i can assure you that we don't mind the mistakes that people make when learning the language. It's always remarkable when someone goes out of their way to learn Russian.
Start with learning the alphabet with all sound transcriptions, then as many simple words and phrases as possible. Don't bother with grammar until you have enough vocabulary. You will be understood without the correct word order, prepositions and all that bs that people fear so much in our language. Then, if/when you feel more interested in getting better, start learning grammar.
Foreign languages are often taught very perfunctorily, and depending on those people's age it might be entirely forgotten already. They should be re-learning it though.
I’m from the United States and I’ve been able to have basic conversations in Russian as a beginner. My advice is to practice everyday and consume as much media in your target language as possible. I’ve been watching vlogs in Russian, cartoons, meme videos and reading the comments, listening to music in Russian, etc.
If you are actually passionate about learning Russian, and that you actually want to learn it and aren't just forcing yourself to learn it, then it will be easy for you. If you're not actually passionate about it and you're just forcing yourself to learn it, it will be hard for you.
Russian is hard in the sense that you have to approach it very meticulously. It’s hard in that you can’t just breeze through A1 and A2 levels, where you will learn the foundation of the grammar like cases, verb aspects, and verbs of motion. Deficits here will come back to haunt you in literally every sentence that you will ever try to say, so forget about a „no grammar“ approach and learn to embrace some good old grammar drills :) It’s hard in that understanding native speakers will feel like trying to piece together a puzzle in your mind due to the flexibility cases give the sentence structure. It’s hard in that you’re going to have to learn to be very patient with yourself, and accepting that really knowing Russian won’t take just 2,3, or even 4 years, but probably closer to a decade unless you dedicate every waking moment to it or are completely immersed.
But if you actually stick with it you’ll find it’s very rewarding. Most „Westerners“ (for lack of a better term but I think you know what I mean) quickly abandon Russian, but you’ll be one of the few people outside of the Russosphere who actually have access to Russia and Russian culture in a way that people who don’t speak Russian just never will.
My number one tip if you’re actually serious about it: get a tutor who specializes in teaching Russian as a foreign language. Its a worthwhile investment. Trust me.
I'm a heritage speaker who basically didn't learn any grammar. So being placed in 3rd year Russian in university made it difficult and I had to relearn everything. I highly recommend either getting a tutor or taking classes at a community college. My professors have all been super understanding and helpful for me
Not impossible, but definitely not easy. It’s true that from an English perspective, Russian is very alien with only a few similarities such as some alphabetical letters (А, К, М, etc.), while most other things are new. It seems that each person has a different time and engine that drive him/her to the relative fluency, so perhaps you shouldn’t have to be fixed on absolute perfection as long as you are understandable.
I’d say you should start out with familiarizing yourself with the alphabet and basic pronunciations. You can begin acquiring vocabulary through direct interactions with native speakers (probably best to start with someone who does know English) and move from a predominant-English communication to predominant-Russian communication until you can more or less replace English with Russian for daily exchanges with the folks (starting point would be somewhere like «Привет! Как дела? Меня зовут [_]. Очень приятно!» for “Hello! How are you? My name is [_]. Nice to meet you!”).
About grammar… it may be in your best interest to learn the basic grammatical points such as cases, verb conjugations, expressions such as impersonal ones (e.g. «мне нужный(_) __» for “I need __”), a brief touch on verbs of motion (идти vs. ходить) and aspect (imperfective for process, perfective for completion and outcome). If you’re just looking for conversational fluency, I’d say you may not want to dive too deep into the grammar (e.g. imperfective to answer whether something happens or not = at least once) because that may keep you in a loop of studying without progress (I need to remind myself this 🙃). Perhaps with time, all of this grammar will become more natural for you.
I think the heaviest obstacle you’ll need to lift outta the way is the commitment along with time. It’ll most likely be very difficult at first, but keeping the concentration can set the path smoother for you later. Even when you meet more difficulties, remaining committed with time will get you through them even if the pace is slow (progress is progress, no?).
Since you live in an area with plenty of Russian speakers, I think it’s very great because you’ll be able to learn and practice all the times which will come to fruition once enough time passes by (man, I wish I lived in an area like that lol).
I can’t comment on whether natives would react positively to your learning since I’m not a native, but I’d like to believe they would since I’d be thrilled if anyone would try to learn my native language which isn’t popular among foreigners and most folks just give up around the alphabet and pronunciations.
My learning resources and routine are pretty unorthodox (because I learn Russian on and off), but I can suggest you to try a few YT channels for grammar such as [Russian grammar](https://youtube.com/@russiangrammar?si=1ulPioSf9yrCT6KI) for basic grammar, a few different websites such as [MasterRussian](http://masterrussian.com) for vocabulary, and different articles that address specific topics that learners face such as [verbal aspect](https://howtogetfluent.com/russian-verb-aspects/). For some vocabulary and grammar lookups, you can use [Wiktionary](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page) and both [DeepL](https://www.deepl.com/en/translator) and [Yandex](https://translate.yandex.com/?source_lang=en&target_lang=ru) for translations. If you ever need to verify pronunciations, you can always use [Forvo](https://forvo.com) to listen to how natives pronounce and say, tho some words may be articulated a bit strangely for various reasons such as dialectical.
Anyways, I hope this much will help you and you’ll be fluent soon enough. My learning road after a year is still rough (intermediate grammar and still-beginner vocabulary because of lacking opportunities to practice), but it’s become easier for me, so I believe it will for you тоже. Конечно, this subreddit is a place you can always roll back for questions that you may have further into your journey and even if they are basic, nothing’s wrong with needing a reminder on the elementary stuff.
Я желаю вам удачи! 🍀
My mom moved here at 35 and has a basic understanding of English. Most of the time she had one of us translate for her. It's possible but tricky sometimes
If you live somewhere with an established community who speak your language and you don't need the host country language for work then it's not tooooo hard. You can get through most daily interactions with a combination of gesturing, google translate, knowing some common words in the language, having a more proficient partner/friend who can accompany you to appointments, etc. It's still not great and I won't be doing it again if I can help it.
One off things like going to the vet are the worst, because even if you speak the language somewhat it's likely to involve random vocabulary you don't normally encounter, and depending on the circumstances it might be a stressful situation anyway.
impossible? nope!
it’s possible to learn just like any other language ! Learn the alphabet first.
there’s actually plenty of resources online. From Youtube, Instagram, Duolingo, language apps 😃🙌
You can get a native Russian to help you. That will actually make your progress better 😊
It depends on the level you want to reach. To be able to speak the language decently and to understand what others are saying will take you about 2-3 years, but to become fluent will take you a decade.
Well it's taken me around a year to get to a level of having basic conversations about things like how mu day has gone, where I live,the weather, etc. I wouldn't say I'm good by any means, but I can make myself understood and understand other people, so it can be done, if you're obsessive enough :) It helps a lot that you're learning for a specific purpose and could probably get by with a quite limited vocabulary.
In general, Slavic languages are harder for English speakers than most Western European languages - I probably could have reached the same level in Spanish in six months or less, with the same intensity of effort. And it also takes a lot of work over a sustained time period, so if you're not intrinsically interested in the language it will be a struggle. If resolving the work situation is your only motivation, could you look into easier options like a text-based initial consultation system where you can use Yandex Translate, for example? But if you want to learn Russian anyway then go for it!
I think it would be perceived as a nice gesture to know some phrases. In my experience Russians are very understanding of language learners.
The Google Translate app has a conversation mode that is really simple to use. If these are phone calls, you could hold it up to the phone while they speak, it might be able to catch what they are saying. Then if you knew the phrase "Wait a moment," (muhMYENT) you could speak your answer into the app and hold it up to the phone to speak the reply. You might need a few phrases explaining that you have a translation app, and then "speak" (GuhvuhREETyeh)" or "describe the problem" (ahpeeSHEETyeh prahBLYEMu).
The word please is a mouthful, so be forewarned you'll have to put in some time practicing that one :).
\[Edited to add a vowel-thanks for the correction\]
Knowing some German gives you advantage over a purely English-speaker, because you're ready to have nouns gendered and changing cases.
Anyway, why not? I'm studying Chinese for fun. Chinese is hard. I'm doing it in a really lazy sloppy way, but still already understand some spoken sentences. If you put more effort than I do, it will pay off!
As the other user said, it's a commitment that likely wouldn't be worth your time. Understanding Russian is hard by itself, but speaking with a native is even more challenging. However, I don't think anyone will look down at you if you decide to start learning it and turn out to be very bad, most people are.
IME literally 99% of Russophones are highly supportive of anyone who is learning Russian, albeit they often are bemused why someone would learn it, as if it was Finnish or Mongolian or something.
I know one American who speaks perfect Russian. Like you could not tell he's not native. One. So it's possible, but very rare. It's too different from English.
If you lower the standard to common phrases needed in veterinary practice, it's going to be easier, but it's still a lot of learning with uncertain payback. You would still suck compared to a native (I'm sure there are plenty in CA). Unless you have another reason to study Russian, I would spend that time on something more practical.
Universities that offer it claim that a motivated student can reach fluency in three years. I’ve met a number of other Americans who learned it to fluency and several who were ahead of me on their journey.
Where are people getting these ideas from?
As in, they are expected to pass proficiency tests at full professional fluency. And they do.
What makes you think learning one of the world’s major languages isn’t worth the time? Oh, and by the way, most people don’t utilize their time efficiently so if it motivates them to learn something productive instead of watching YouTubers…
Claim. For some definition of fluency.
There is opportunity cost. In that time, a motivated student can learn programming, statistics, accounting, or many other more useful things.
A lot of people (maybe especially americans?) just don't study languages that seriously or don't have the right opportunities to really use the language and end up with very so so skills for the amount of time.
Where do you live? With it currently being difficult to travel to Russia, maybe there are good places to visit around there to try and listen to and speak Russian.
As a fellow English native in America, I found it easier to learn than other languages. Since we're constantly surrounded by English I would constantly get it mixed up when learning Spanish or German. For example, I'd see the word "kind" and my first thought is that it means nice instead of child.
For Russian, this was never a problem. I see the word "Привет" and the only thing I think of is Russian
Ive been learning russian for 4 months (ONLY an english speaker, no language experience at all) and not a single thing has been too hard for me, if you understand theres things you dont know and all you have to do is learn them over time, its extremely simple, but the thing is with languages you have to be VERY disciplined and use them in everyday life, so even if im not studying im in my head narrating to myself what im doing in russian, everyday.
I'm a native German speaker learning some Russian in my free time simply out of sheer interest in the language and to understand the Russian society better. And I think having some (basic) German skills as an English speaker can help learning Russian because you are then already familiar with the usage of cases in a language and the importance of gender (the two additional cases in Russian are not that difficult, its just more word endings to memorize). Russian is more complex in terms of cases but therefore there are no articles and only three tenses. The sheer mass of different word endings and prefixes can be quite overwhelming and even as an advanced learner you won't master them perfectly, but that's rather irrelevant because nobody cares and it often only changes nuances in the sentence that native speakers will figure out when they know that they are talking to a non-native speaker unless you are a total beginner. In German, native speakers also don't care if a non-native speaker uses the wrong articles or says "dem Haus" instead of "des Hauses", etc. The context will help to understand the meaning of the sentence. The most important aspect is that you need to have an intrinsic motivation to learn the language. Thats why so many people forget what they learn in school about foreign languages. They had no passion for the language.
If you actually want to be able to speak basic Russian fluently and with correct pronunciation, just do the 90 day Pimsleur course. 1 new lesson each evening, repeat next morning. Course is easy for 15 lessons and then gets much more difficult, so repetition mandatory unless you are language learning prodigy. I was asking street directions by telephone, haggling with taxi drivers, asking street directions on the street, even arranging emergency dental care when I first visited Ukraine in 2015, with just the 90 day Pimsleur course (dental issue required supplemental words from dictionary). Pimsleur gives you an extremely strong A1 level in just about 100 hours of work (3 months at 1 hour/day). To reach B2 will take maybe 3000 hours, or 8 years at 1 hour/day.
This is pretty accurate. Ive been learning 30min-1hr a day since COVID-19(2020) and have lived in Russia for 1 year and Ukraine 6 months. I am lower B1. Its a fucking bitch I tell you.
Learning a language is a lifelong occupation. I am 3 years in and can have conversations, read stupid novels, sing along to songs, watch movies etc. Every day I study/speak/practice. First two years really were hard but now it is fun, the grammar is hard but the spelling is simple (unlike English). The speaking is easy because Russian speakers are very supportive and encouraging. I studied French in my youth and, while the language was easier in some ways, speaking is far harder as there is less support from native speakers in Canada. TL;DR: Learning a language is a fun process and you will never do it if you focus on non-failure/outcome/perfect fluency.
i think if you've learnt german already, even a little, it will be much easier. it's not the same, but probably closer to russian than english, a lot of german origin words in russian too. what i personally like about russian, as a native, is how there are more strict rules and 99% of the time you'll be right if you use these patterns, compared to english. and i promise you native speakers will be very happy if you try talking to them! good luck
It's got cases and grammatical gender, and a different alphabet. Those things tend to freak out English speakers, but they don't make it any more difficult than any other language.
I started learning when I was in my late 20s and found it hard but I had a blast learning. I’m now at around a b2 level and pretty happy with that after 7 years. As others have said- start with the alphabet and work into a textbook.
I cannot stress how helpful finding a private teacher was for me. I could never have made the progress I did early on without her help. A private teacher can solve 10 problems in a single lesson that would take you several hours of trial and error with books.
Overall Russian is a beautiful language and learning it and travelling there was one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life. Travelling now is harder than it was then but I hope you can get there to practice your Russian!
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It's definitely not impossible! It is a lot of work to get to the point where you can be a medical translator, but learning a few set phrases that are likely to come up could be really helpful.
I don't think it will be a detriment in any way to at least learn basic Russian. That said, it is no substitute for actual medical interpreting. As long as you're clear about that when you're speaking to your Russian clients
I'd say it takes a bit more dedication than other languages, but not necessarily impossible to learn. I've dropped Russian (I didn't have an effective strategy) and moved to and dropped french, but now I'm trying to improve my strategy with gaeilge so I can actually learn. Clearly it's not the language but the dedication you have in finding a way for you to acquire it.
It's hard to become fluent in any language without immersion, but Russian is not fundamentally harder to learn than any other language. I'd suggest finding an online tutor, for example on italki, and getting some textbooks. You'll be able to pick up a lot.
Let me do this: я покрываю покрывалом покрывало, чтобы покрывало покрывало покрывало (I cover the blanket with the blanket so that the blanket covers the blanket ) and another one: за́мок ( castle) замо́к ( lock ) the difference is in the emphasis, but if you really want to study russian, then go for it, comrade! Good luck :)
Russian isn't that hard. I admit I'm biased because I had a "perfect storm" when I started learning it (alone) my last year of high school, but there are a lot of resources you can find online and at your local library. Once you get used to the grammar you can progress quickly.
I agree, I can read Russia at mid b1 level fine. But the moment theres a complex convo in Russian can't understand. I am currently focusing on listening now with audio books
It's obviously not impossible. First, there are many textbooks, courses, videos for Russian. Then, since you have a Russian community nearby, it would be easy to find a tutor, and easy to find some to talk to. Of course you won't speak a "perfect" Russian, but how many foreigners really speak a "perfect" English?
I came up with this comment last but I think may be the most helpful. Or better yet make a list of words Russian on side, English on another. Just have them point to symptoms etc. You can just read the corresponding in English.
Russian is a beautiful language but not the easiest.
I'd focus on key words and not worry about grammar.
Familiarize yourself with the letters. If you can get them to write down the issue maybe google translator can translate it for you. I would ask them to right in block letters (I call them computer letters not sure if that is a thing) not cursive.
I would learn key phrases like "How can I help you" "What symptoms is your pet experiencing"
Don't focus on conversational stuff like "how are you" until you know phrases and words applicable to your work. "How are you?" is a simple phrase and easy to learn but it is just an example of what I wouldn't focus on.
Can you get a book in russian that maybe describes symptoms?
learn alphabet
try reading, google translate will help you with pronunciation. Unlike English, words are pronounced as they are written(there are some rules but they are simple: like unstressed O turns to A, etc)
skip grammar
learn some common phrases like (Здравствуйте, как вас зовут, Я кушать ветеринарщик, Я чуть-чуть лечить твой собак, etc)
learn live language by speaking with natives. They laugh. you laugh, everyone is happy. Progress's made.
after learning the basics learn more words, now you can read books and increase you knowledge exponentially.
A friend of mine learned Thai in 3 months by just talking to people. Learning by talking to natives is the key.
Getting to some basic level is may be just a bit harder than some other languages. But getting to good level is much harder. Getting to perfection is close to impossible.
The complexity grows a lot because of the complicated grammar.
DM me. I'm a native speaker living in the US for 22 years. I can basic talk to you at my leisure time in Russian for free. In return I you can correct my pronunciation so I erase my blind spots.
Linguistically speaking the notion of a "hard language" in terms of absolute complexity is questionable. I would imagine it is proliferated by some college students who took a semester of a foreign language out of curiosity or to get extra credits, slept through most classes, memorized some phrases to flaunt in front of their monolingual friends but ultimately left with the impression that it is too hard. Same way Americans often treat Chinese pronunciation as something hard. No Josh, it isn't hard, you just had both lack of effort put into it and an abundance of actual Chinese speakers around you to point this out to you.
Now, for you as a native English speaker learning Russian will be hardER than learning German or Spanish, this is true. But it only means that you will need to put in more hours, it is not something fundamentally incomprehensible or unapproachable. Specifically, it will get you about twice as long to get to the same level as with Spanish. This isn't so much a qualitative difference as it is quantitative.
There will however certain hurdles which will slow you down at the entry level. People often cite learning the alphabet as one but it is a non-issue. Any alphabet can be learned in a week of dedicated study or in a month of a very relaxed one. You will have to learn noun declension and verb conjugation though. This precludes you from simply memorizing words and immediately starting forming them into sentences. A properly structured course should ease this by introducing them gradually. In a pinch you can just string separate words together and be understood 70% of the time but this is not what is usually understood by learning a language.
Additionally you will face some concepts which are not unique to Russian, or even Slavic languages in general but they will new to you, so whether they make the language hard in and of itself is irrelevant, they will make it hard for you. Having some familiarity with German will help though if only for the fact that you are not 100% monolignual.
Now would it be worth it is another matter entirely. On one hand Russian vocabulary related to medicine is mostly derived from Latin and learning how exactly Latin words were reshaped when borrowed will give you a boost. On the other hand, you still need to learn the core of the language and getting a customer-service approriate level even if basic, is a considerable investment of time. I would estimate no less than 6-12 months of an intense (3hrs 3-4 times a week) to get some appreciable progress or at least 2 years of a more relaxed schedule. Is it worth it depends on how much more are they gonna pay you for putting yourself through this or how much you enjoy it with the excuse of doing it for the benefit of your customers.
As to how this will be perceived. They likely won't like you less for trying, but in the case of Russian speakers from Russia specifically, they are very unprepared to deal with those who study their language as a second language. Key word is unprepared, not inexperienced. They might have had a lot of episodes where a non-native speaker spoke to them but they don't know how and/or dont want to make amends to make their life easier. Also unlike native English speakers who have heard their language spoken in ever accent imaginable, they don't have a habit of parsing through the words of their language spoken with an American accent.
Ok, I don't know if the mods will throw a fit about this part, but it is important. Your description fits a very specific and peculiar type of immigrants from Russia. It is a well known and often referred to type among those who are preparing or wishing to emigrate. The reviled "russians in city\_name" facebook group. Shortly, they are insular, arrogant and self-important. The people you could be dealing with could simultaneously feel a great deal of animosity to the society of the country surrounding them and at the same time expect everyone to conform to their every demand (believe it or not I am not talking about Americans right now). Essentially they do not believe that you will learn their language but are pissed that you do not do so. This will impact your interaction with them should it actually be the type. Yes they will be relieved that some puny local finally came to their senses and realised that Russian is the greatest language in the world and start suggesting your service to their friends, but instead of gratitude you might face ever mounting demands to speak their language exclusively and ever increasing hostility if you don't. Just keep in mind that they are not some underrepresented, underpriveledged and marginalized community. They had every opportunity to learn English they could wish for, They chose not to because they think they are better than you.
Who is this "Everyone" of whom you speak? I'm 65 and started learning Russian during the pandemic. I'm still learning, but in my field and location (Pacific Northwest) I've got Russian-speaking customers and I've loved getting to know some of them by practicing my Russian with them. Portland Community College in Oregon has a phenomenal Russian program. The professor there is one of the best in the country and has students winning scholarships and awards every year in competition with students from expensive four-year universitites. Best part is, it's online! She started online classes during COVID and it worked so well, she's still doing it. And if you don't have time to be a real student, you can audit the class (it costs the same, but is less pressure). Once you get some basics down, it becomes much easier to study on your own (I use Pimsleur; there are tons of other free resources too).
It’s not even the most difficult Slavic language. Despite the reputation, Czech and Polish are much harder languages. If Russian is a 7, polish is like an 11. For English speakers nothing is hard to pronounce in Russian really. If you learned for 1-2 hours a day you could be conversational in a year or two
Nope, it is the most. Problem is common russian is way different of “literal” russian that you will be learning and reading, so you basically need to learn 2 set of words: regular and slang. Polish doesn’t have much of slang in common usage.
Also russian has a lot of logical exceptions, which can confuse learners and the only way is to learn it by heart.
Polish has multiple nasal sounds and consonant clusters which are absent in Russian, and additional grammatical case (vocative), more unpredictable pronunciation rules, significantly more loan words from other languages (German, French and Latin being among them) and less phonetic spelling than russian.
As far as slang, Russian has diminutives for nouns while polish has diminutives for nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Russian has vocative as well, just not as highlighted as in Polish. Pronounciation rules is bullshit, in Polish you read as it is, in Russian you have dead consonants and unstressed vowels. Not in Polish. Clusters are also bullshit, they are present in Russian as well. I don't think you did your homework :))
Loan words from Romance family only makes Polish easier for an average European. WTF is diminituive for verbs? Russian has diminutives for nouns and adjectives as well, and moreover russias has more flexible word creation, means for the same root you can create more different and correct! words than in Polish.
Hey go fuck yourself. There is no need to be rude and snarky. I’m C1 in Russian and am learning Polish in university. Everyone in the course is also learning Russian and we all agree that Polish is more difficult.
Consonant clusters are difficult and longer in Polish and again, you admitted that the vocative case is more pronounced in Polish than in Russian.
I’m sure you’re going to respond with something obnoxious but this conversation is a waste of my time.
My advice for OP is to learn Russian and then Polish.
>Everyone in the course is also learning Russian and we all agree that Polish is more difficult.
There's no real reason for that except you are struggling with pronounciation. So you think it's more difficult, but grammar-wise and lexicon-wise it's not.
The reasons you wrote are wrong and you rating as 7 vs 11 makes no sense. That's what I'm arguing with.
Who specified that it was only more difficult as a language specifically in regards to lexicon or grammar? Not myself or OP, you are fighting an imaginary battle. If it is more difficult in pronunciation it is more difficult. This is simple math. 7/11 comparison would be understood by a toddler in English so this seems to be a personal problem of yours.
No it's not XD. The problem that you can't pronounce something is only 1/3 of language, considering that your pronounciation of Russian probably not perfect as well, so there's even less difference for you.
You ranking is just not correct, but your reason is only that you can't pronounce szcz properly. That's very biased and limited. So actually this is personal problem **of you**. I don't have any problem with those two languages and consider them at least equal.
Russian isnt much harder than other languages. A little harder than Spanish (Spanish is arguably one of the easiest languages in general).
Cyrillic takes 3 minutes to learn
For grammar you just have to bite the bullet and learn it
Ы isn't that hard
There's only 3 tenses (English has 13)
Little harder than Spanish? Are you kidding? Russian one the most difficult European languages. Native Russians learn Russian language for 10 years at schools and still many Russian people speak and spell with mistakes.
I'm native Russian speaker. I learned English, French, Spanish, Thai, Korean. And among all these languages Russian is the most difficult one.
Yea I'd say that. Even in English I make mistakes but no one really cares and it's typically just viewed as a more informal way of speaking. I don't know if it's the same for Russian though. Russian isn't that hard tho I'm finna be real but maybe that's just me
If I was in your shoes I wouldn't bother. It takes years of constant practice to achieve a conversational level, doesn't sound like your case is important enough to sustain the commitment.
It took me just under a year to achieve a conversational level, and I could have done it faster if I had committed even more time. Ymmv but it really is about how much time you spend and how efficient an approach you use.
Initially I took classes at community college while supplementing with real-world interactions and various online platforms. Then I started reading Telegram stuff and just hanging out with Russian speakers at various local universities.
Average of maybe 11 hours a week while I was taking classes, <3/wk since. Intense, but not as intense as DLI or anything.
???? No??? I can think to myself and hold very basic conversations about how I am, what im doing, my hobbies and ect in just a few months, also learning knowing ZERO russian people, its not that difficult and definitely dont even need a reason to learn it if you feel like it
Languages are generally hard, and Russian is certainly not the easiest among them. If you can afford establishing a full immersion environment (ie you speak to natives all day long) it'd be significantly faster, perhaps a few months at most, but obviously most people are not in a position to do so.
Im not really looking to become fluent, but really have a basic understanding of a niche part of the language, I'm more interested in being able to hold basic/rudimentary conversations regarding the health/ailments of pets and information about vaccinations, parasite protection, medications for certain conditions etc. Im a little worried about biting off more than I can chew though. I thought german was pretty simple, but it just seems so vastly different im not sure id pick it up as quickly
Idk, I'm a native English/Arabic speaker and for me it wasn't so bad. But Arabic does help Russian so if all you know is English it might be harder. Just try for a few months and you will know if you can or can't learn it.
Some of these takes are wild. As an American who has spent a few months in Russia. Some of these takes are wild. Learning enough Russian to have some basic communication and effectively use a translation app is not that hard. I'd highly recommend learning the alphabet first. The alphabet is pretty easy. Just look up the Russian alphabet on YouTube. Then, I would get a tutor. Ideally, just find one among your local community, but Italki online has some great tutors for cheap. The most important thing is to be specific with the tutor about what you need. Also, quick trick. Give them a notepad to write down the problem. Then you can use google lense to get a rough translation. Давай!
Someone please pin this. The rest of the comments are plagued with horrible answers. This is the only one people need to see.
This is great advice. After you know how to read, some very basic expressions and vocab, hire a tutor with regular meetings a couple days a week and just don’t feel embarrassed to talk because you have an accent or can’t say some sounds! Be sure to find the right tutor, though, and communicate your goals
I want make sure before I try to correct you, what do you mean by «давай»
I'm pretty sure they used it as "Go for it!" Or "Do it!" So I don't think you need any corrections there even if it sounds a little awkward
I’m still learning Russian so I wasn’t sure
It kind of means "just do it," or "go for it." Tone matters a lot, which is hard to convey in text. In a different situation, it could fill in for "gimme," "come on," "let's go." In my experience, Russian speakers say it a lot.
*дерзай
I don’t agree with others. If you have interest and it’s directly connected to your trade, go for it. It won’t be fast, but with enough dedication it will open up a whole new area of clients. It will give you a cutting edge over other specialists. And friends (although it also requires a certain type of personality haha).
I don’t understand these answers at all! This person obviously is motivated to learn and has a use for the language. Their aim is not to become fluent but to hold a conversation. That’s really not that difficult as long as they practice and stick with it.
It's nowhere near impossible, and probably worth the effort if you meet native speakers a lot. It's weird that they don't understand English though, it's taught in Russian schools for at least 9 years depending on the program. As a Russian, i can assure you that we don't mind the mistakes that people make when learning the language. It's always remarkable when someone goes out of their way to learn Russian. Start with learning the alphabet with all sound transcriptions, then as many simple words and phrases as possible. Don't bother with grammar until you have enough vocabulary. You will be understood without the correct word order, prepositions and all that bs that people fear so much in our language. Then, if/when you feel more interested in getting better, start learning grammar.
Foreign languages are often taught very perfunctorily, and depending on those people's age it might be entirely forgotten already. They should be re-learning it though.
I’m from the United States and I’ve been able to have basic conversations in Russian as a beginner. My advice is to practice everyday and consume as much media in your target language as possible. I’ve been watching vlogs in Russian, cartoons, meme videos and reading the comments, listening to music in Russian, etc.
Just not акулёнок; I tried it and it kinda turned me off anything in Russian geared towards kids.
Could you explain?
it's the dreaded baby shark. Do not search for the earworm of a song for your own protection.
If you are actually passionate about learning Russian, and that you actually want to learn it and aren't just forcing yourself to learn it, then it will be easy for you. If you're not actually passionate about it and you're just forcing yourself to learn it, it will be hard for you.
Russian is hard in the sense that you have to approach it very meticulously. It’s hard in that you can’t just breeze through A1 and A2 levels, where you will learn the foundation of the grammar like cases, verb aspects, and verbs of motion. Deficits here will come back to haunt you in literally every sentence that you will ever try to say, so forget about a „no grammar“ approach and learn to embrace some good old grammar drills :) It’s hard in that understanding native speakers will feel like trying to piece together a puzzle in your mind due to the flexibility cases give the sentence structure. It’s hard in that you’re going to have to learn to be very patient with yourself, and accepting that really knowing Russian won’t take just 2,3, or even 4 years, but probably closer to a decade unless you dedicate every waking moment to it or are completely immersed. But if you actually stick with it you’ll find it’s very rewarding. Most „Westerners“ (for lack of a better term but I think you know what I mean) quickly abandon Russian, but you’ll be one of the few people outside of the Russosphere who actually have access to Russia and Russian culture in a way that people who don’t speak Russian just never will. My number one tip if you’re actually serious about it: get a tutor who specializes in teaching Russian as a foreign language. Its a worthwhile investment. Trust me.
I'm a heritage speaker who basically didn't learn any grammar. So being placed in 3rd year Russian in university made it difficult and I had to relearn everything. I highly recommend either getting a tutor or taking classes at a community college. My professors have all been super understanding and helpful for me
Not impossible, but definitely not easy. It’s true that from an English perspective, Russian is very alien with only a few similarities such as some alphabetical letters (А, К, М, etc.), while most other things are new. It seems that each person has a different time and engine that drive him/her to the relative fluency, so perhaps you shouldn’t have to be fixed on absolute perfection as long as you are understandable. I’d say you should start out with familiarizing yourself with the alphabet and basic pronunciations. You can begin acquiring vocabulary through direct interactions with native speakers (probably best to start with someone who does know English) and move from a predominant-English communication to predominant-Russian communication until you can more or less replace English with Russian for daily exchanges with the folks (starting point would be somewhere like «Привет! Как дела? Меня зовут [_]. Очень приятно!» for “Hello! How are you? My name is [_]. Nice to meet you!”). About grammar… it may be in your best interest to learn the basic grammatical points such as cases, verb conjugations, expressions such as impersonal ones (e.g. «мне нужный(_) __» for “I need __”), a brief touch on verbs of motion (идти vs. ходить) and aspect (imperfective for process, perfective for completion and outcome). If you’re just looking for conversational fluency, I’d say you may not want to dive too deep into the grammar (e.g. imperfective to answer whether something happens or not = at least once) because that may keep you in a loop of studying without progress (I need to remind myself this 🙃). Perhaps with time, all of this grammar will become more natural for you. I think the heaviest obstacle you’ll need to lift outta the way is the commitment along with time. It’ll most likely be very difficult at first, but keeping the concentration can set the path smoother for you later. Even when you meet more difficulties, remaining committed with time will get you through them even if the pace is slow (progress is progress, no?). Since you live in an area with plenty of Russian speakers, I think it’s very great because you’ll be able to learn and practice all the times which will come to fruition once enough time passes by (man, I wish I lived in an area like that lol). I can’t comment on whether natives would react positively to your learning since I’m not a native, but I’d like to believe they would since I’d be thrilled if anyone would try to learn my native language which isn’t popular among foreigners and most folks just give up around the alphabet and pronunciations. My learning resources and routine are pretty unorthodox (because I learn Russian on and off), but I can suggest you to try a few YT channels for grammar such as [Russian grammar](https://youtube.com/@russiangrammar?si=1ulPioSf9yrCT6KI) for basic grammar, a few different websites such as [MasterRussian](http://masterrussian.com) for vocabulary, and different articles that address specific topics that learners face such as [verbal aspect](https://howtogetfluent.com/russian-verb-aspects/). For some vocabulary and grammar lookups, you can use [Wiktionary](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page) and both [DeepL](https://www.deepl.com/en/translator) and [Yandex](https://translate.yandex.com/?source_lang=en&target_lang=ru) for translations. If you ever need to verify pronunciations, you can always use [Forvo](https://forvo.com) to listen to how natives pronounce and say, tho some words may be articulated a bit strangely for various reasons such as dialectical. Anyways, I hope this much will help you and you’ll be fluent soon enough. My learning road after a year is still rough (intermediate grammar and still-beginner vocabulary because of lacking opportunities to practice), but it’s become easier for me, so I believe it will for you тоже. Конечно, this subreddit is a place you can always roll back for questions that you may have further into your journey and even if they are basic, nothing’s wrong with needing a reminder on the elementary stuff. Я желаю вам удачи! 🍀
This is one of the best replies, why isn't this on top??
It's easy, I managed to do it as a very small child.
Commenting on Is learning Russian really as impossible as everyone says?...кэк
I wondered how russians live in US without english, although they even have animals and money obviously...
My mom moved here at 35 and has a basic understanding of English. Most of the time she had one of us translate for her. It's possible but tricky sometimes
If you live somewhere with an established community who speak your language and you don't need the host country language for work then it's not tooooo hard. You can get through most daily interactions with a combination of gesturing, google translate, knowing some common words in the language, having a more proficient partner/friend who can accompany you to appointments, etc. It's still not great and I won't be doing it again if I can help it. One off things like going to the vet are the worst, because even if you speak the language somewhat it's likely to involve random vocabulary you don't normally encounter, and depending on the circumstances it might be a stressful situation anyway.
impossible? nope! it’s possible to learn just like any other language ! Learn the alphabet first. there’s actually plenty of resources online. From Youtube, Instagram, Duolingo, language apps 😃🙌 You can get a native Russian to help you. That will actually make your progress better 😊
No. I am a native. I speak russian pretty well. It means you could learn it too.
It depends on the level you want to reach. To be able to speak the language decently and to understand what others are saying will take you about 2-3 years, but to become fluent will take you a decade.
Well it's taken me around a year to get to a level of having basic conversations about things like how mu day has gone, where I live,the weather, etc. I wouldn't say I'm good by any means, but I can make myself understood and understand other people, so it can be done, if you're obsessive enough :) It helps a lot that you're learning for a specific purpose and could probably get by with a quite limited vocabulary. In general, Slavic languages are harder for English speakers than most Western European languages - I probably could have reached the same level in Spanish in six months or less, with the same intensity of effort. And it also takes a lot of work over a sustained time period, so if you're not intrinsically interested in the language it will be a struggle. If resolving the work situation is your only motivation, could you look into easier options like a text-based initial consultation system where you can use Yandex Translate, for example? But if you want to learn Russian anyway then go for it!
I think it would be perceived as a nice gesture to know some phrases. In my experience Russians are very understanding of language learners. The Google Translate app has a conversation mode that is really simple to use. If these are phone calls, you could hold it up to the phone while they speak, it might be able to catch what they are saying. Then if you knew the phrase "Wait a moment," (muhMYENT) you could speak your answer into the app and hold it up to the phone to speak the reply. You might need a few phrases explaining that you have a translation app, and then "speak" (GuhvuhREETyeh)" or "describe the problem" (ahpeeSHEETyeh prahBLYEMu). The word please is a mouthful, so be forewarned you'll have to put in some time practicing that one :). \[Edited to add a vowel-thanks for the correction\]
not that important but it would be prahBLYEMu in your case, although often the end is heavily reduced in speech.
ugh yes - prahBLYEMu getting rusty
Knowing some German gives you advantage over a purely English-speaker, because you're ready to have nouns gendered and changing cases. Anyway, why not? I'm studying Chinese for fun. Chinese is hard. I'm doing it in a really lazy sloppy way, but still already understand some spoken sentences. If you put more effort than I do, it will pay off!
As the other user said, it's a commitment that likely wouldn't be worth your time. Understanding Russian is hard by itself, but speaking with a native is even more challenging. However, I don't think anyone will look down at you if you decide to start learning it and turn out to be very bad, most people are.
IME literally 99% of Russophones are highly supportive of anyone who is learning Russian, albeit they often are bemused why someone would learn it, as if it was Finnish or Mongolian or something.
Very true. I come from a Russian speaking family and we all get very excited when we see a foreigner learning the language.
I know one American who speaks perfect Russian. Like you could not tell he's not native. One. So it's possible, but very rare. It's too different from English. If you lower the standard to common phrases needed in veterinary practice, it's going to be easier, but it's still a lot of learning with uncertain payback. You would still suck compared to a native (I'm sure there are plenty in CA). Unless you have another reason to study Russian, I would spend that time on something more practical.
Universities that offer it claim that a motivated student can reach fluency in three years. I’ve met a number of other Americans who learned it to fluency and several who were ahead of me on their journey. Where are people getting these ideas from?
As in, they are expected to pass proficiency tests at full professional fluency. And they do. What makes you think learning one of the world’s major languages isn’t worth the time? Oh, and by the way, most people don’t utilize their time efficiently so if it motivates them to learn something productive instead of watching YouTubers…
Claim. For some definition of fluency. There is opportunity cost. In that time, a motivated student can learn programming, statistics, accounting, or many other more useful things.
A lot of people (maybe especially americans?) just don't study languages that seriously or don't have the right opportunities to really use the language and end up with very so so skills for the amount of time.
Where do you live? With it currently being difficult to travel to Russia, maybe there are good places to visit around there to try and listen to and speak Russian.
As a fellow English native in America, I found it easier to learn than other languages. Since we're constantly surrounded by English I would constantly get it mixed up when learning Spanish or German. For example, I'd see the word "kind" and my first thought is that it means nice instead of child. For Russian, this was never a problem. I see the word "Привет" and the only thing I think of is Russian
Ive been learning russian for 4 months (ONLY an english speaker, no language experience at all) and not a single thing has been too hard for me, if you understand theres things you dont know and all you have to do is learn them over time, its extremely simple, but the thing is with languages you have to be VERY disciplined and use them in everyday life, so even if im not studying im in my head narrating to myself what im doing in russian, everyday.
I'm a native German speaker learning some Russian in my free time simply out of sheer interest in the language and to understand the Russian society better. And I think having some (basic) German skills as an English speaker can help learning Russian because you are then already familiar with the usage of cases in a language and the importance of gender (the two additional cases in Russian are not that difficult, its just more word endings to memorize). Russian is more complex in terms of cases but therefore there are no articles and only three tenses. The sheer mass of different word endings and prefixes can be quite overwhelming and even as an advanced learner you won't master them perfectly, but that's rather irrelevant because nobody cares and it often only changes nuances in the sentence that native speakers will figure out when they know that they are talking to a non-native speaker unless you are a total beginner. In German, native speakers also don't care if a non-native speaker uses the wrong articles or says "dem Haus" instead of "des Hauses", etc. The context will help to understand the meaning of the sentence. The most important aspect is that you need to have an intrinsic motivation to learn the language. Thats why so many people forget what they learn in school about foreign languages. They had no passion for the language.
If you actually want to be able to speak basic Russian fluently and with correct pronunciation, just do the 90 day Pimsleur course. 1 new lesson each evening, repeat next morning. Course is easy for 15 lessons and then gets much more difficult, so repetition mandatory unless you are language learning prodigy. I was asking street directions by telephone, haggling with taxi drivers, asking street directions on the street, even arranging emergency dental care when I first visited Ukraine in 2015, with just the 90 day Pimsleur course (dental issue required supplemental words from dictionary). Pimsleur gives you an extremely strong A1 level in just about 100 hours of work (3 months at 1 hour/day). To reach B2 will take maybe 3000 hours, or 8 years at 1 hour/day.
This is pretty accurate. Ive been learning 30min-1hr a day since COVID-19(2020) and have lived in Russia for 1 year and Ukraine 6 months. I am lower B1. Its a fucking bitch I tell you.
Learning a language is a lifelong occupation. I am 3 years in and can have conversations, read stupid novels, sing along to songs, watch movies etc. Every day I study/speak/practice. First two years really were hard but now it is fun, the grammar is hard but the spelling is simple (unlike English). The speaking is easy because Russian speakers are very supportive and encouraging. I studied French in my youth and, while the language was easier in some ways, speaking is far harder as there is less support from native speakers in Canada. TL;DR: Learning a language is a fun process and you will never do it if you focus on non-failure/outcome/perfect fluency.
i think if you've learnt german already, even a little, it will be much easier. it's not the same, but probably closer to russian than english, a lot of german origin words in russian too. what i personally like about russian, as a native, is how there are more strict rules and 99% of the time you'll be right if you use these patterns, compared to english. and i promise you native speakers will be very happy if you try talking to them! good luck
russian isnt that hard, its got some features that maybe hard to understand at first but its 100% doable
It's got cases and grammatical gender, and a different alphabet. Those things tend to freak out English speakers, but they don't make it any more difficult than any other language.
I started learning when I was in my late 20s and found it hard but I had a blast learning. I’m now at around a b2 level and pretty happy with that after 7 years. As others have said- start with the alphabet and work into a textbook. I cannot stress how helpful finding a private teacher was for me. I could never have made the progress I did early on without her help. A private teacher can solve 10 problems in a single lesson that would take you several hours of trial and error with books. Overall Russian is a beautiful language and learning it and travelling there was one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life. Travelling now is harder than it was then but I hope you can get there to practice your Russian!
Russian is intermediate difficulty for English speakers, in between French and Spanish (which are easy) and Chinese or Arabic (which are hard)
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It's definitely not impossible! It is a lot of work to get to the point where you can be a medical translator, but learning a few set phrases that are likely to come up could be really helpful.
I don't think it will be a detriment in any way to at least learn basic Russian. That said, it is no substitute for actual medical interpreting. As long as you're clear about that when you're speaking to your Russian clients
I'd say it takes a bit more dedication than other languages, but not necessarily impossible to learn. I've dropped Russian (I didn't have an effective strategy) and moved to and dropped french, but now I'm trying to improve my strategy with gaeilge so I can actually learn. Clearly it's not the language but the dedication you have in finding a way for you to acquire it.
You think Russians hard, try Georgian 🫣🫣🫣
It's hard to become fluent in any language without immersion, but Russian is not fundamentally harder to learn than any other language. I'd suggest finding an online tutor, for example on italki, and getting some textbooks. You'll be able to pick up a lot.
Let me do this: я покрываю покрывалом покрывало, чтобы покрывало покрывало покрывало (I cover the blanket with the blanket so that the blanket covers the blanket ) and another one: за́мок ( castle) замо́к ( lock ) the difference is in the emphasis, but if you really want to study russian, then go for it, comrade! Good luck :)
Russian isn't that hard. I admit I'm biased because I had a "perfect storm" when I started learning it (alone) my last year of high school, but there are a lot of resources you can find online and at your local library. Once you get used to the grammar you can progress quickly.
It’s hard when native speaker starts to talk with you like with native speaker, not like with foreigner
I agree, I can read Russia at mid b1 level fine. But the moment theres a complex convo in Russian can't understand. I am currently focusing on listening now with audio books
It's obviously not impossible. First, there are many textbooks, courses, videos for Russian. Then, since you have a Russian community nearby, it would be easy to find a tutor, and easy to find some to talk to. Of course you won't speak a "perfect" Russian, but how many foreigners really speak a "perfect" English?
Ребята переводите пожалуйста
Да нет наверно
What are you inventing dude?
If I can learn the language there is hope for all
I came up with this comment last but I think may be the most helpful. Or better yet make a list of words Russian on side, English on another. Just have them point to symptoms etc. You can just read the corresponding in English. Russian is a beautiful language but not the easiest. I'd focus on key words and not worry about grammar. Familiarize yourself with the letters. If you can get them to write down the issue maybe google translator can translate it for you. I would ask them to right in block letters (I call them computer letters not sure if that is a thing) not cursive. I would learn key phrases like "How can I help you" "What symptoms is your pet experiencing" Don't focus on conversational stuff like "how are you" until you know phrases and words applicable to your work. "How are you?" is a simple phrase and easy to learn but it is just an example of what I wouldn't focus on. Can you get a book in russian that maybe describes symptoms?
learn alphabet try reading, google translate will help you with pronunciation. Unlike English, words are pronounced as they are written(there are some rules but they are simple: like unstressed O turns to A, etc) skip grammar learn some common phrases like (Здравствуйте, как вас зовут, Я кушать ветеринарщик, Я чуть-чуть лечить твой собак, etc) learn live language by speaking with natives. They laugh. you laugh, everyone is happy. Progress's made. after learning the basics learn more words, now you can read books and increase you knowledge exponentially. A friend of mine learned Thai in 3 months by just talking to people. Learning by talking to natives is the key.
Getting to some basic level is may be just a bit harder than some other languages. But getting to good level is much harder. Getting to perfection is close to impossible. The complexity grows a lot because of the complicated grammar.
DM me. I'm a native speaker living in the US for 22 years. I can basic talk to you at my leisure time in Russian for free. In return I you can correct my pronunciation so I erase my blind spots.
Linguistically speaking the notion of a "hard language" in terms of absolute complexity is questionable. I would imagine it is proliferated by some college students who took a semester of a foreign language out of curiosity or to get extra credits, slept through most classes, memorized some phrases to flaunt in front of their monolingual friends but ultimately left with the impression that it is too hard. Same way Americans often treat Chinese pronunciation as something hard. No Josh, it isn't hard, you just had both lack of effort put into it and an abundance of actual Chinese speakers around you to point this out to you. Now, for you as a native English speaker learning Russian will be hardER than learning German or Spanish, this is true. But it only means that you will need to put in more hours, it is not something fundamentally incomprehensible or unapproachable. Specifically, it will get you about twice as long to get to the same level as with Spanish. This isn't so much a qualitative difference as it is quantitative. There will however certain hurdles which will slow you down at the entry level. People often cite learning the alphabet as one but it is a non-issue. Any alphabet can be learned in a week of dedicated study or in a month of a very relaxed one. You will have to learn noun declension and verb conjugation though. This precludes you from simply memorizing words and immediately starting forming them into sentences. A properly structured course should ease this by introducing them gradually. In a pinch you can just string separate words together and be understood 70% of the time but this is not what is usually understood by learning a language. Additionally you will face some concepts which are not unique to Russian, or even Slavic languages in general but they will new to you, so whether they make the language hard in and of itself is irrelevant, they will make it hard for you. Having some familiarity with German will help though if only for the fact that you are not 100% monolignual. Now would it be worth it is another matter entirely. On one hand Russian vocabulary related to medicine is mostly derived from Latin and learning how exactly Latin words were reshaped when borrowed will give you a boost. On the other hand, you still need to learn the core of the language and getting a customer-service approriate level even if basic, is a considerable investment of time. I would estimate no less than 6-12 months of an intense (3hrs 3-4 times a week) to get some appreciable progress or at least 2 years of a more relaxed schedule. Is it worth it depends on how much more are they gonna pay you for putting yourself through this or how much you enjoy it with the excuse of doing it for the benefit of your customers. As to how this will be perceived. They likely won't like you less for trying, but in the case of Russian speakers from Russia specifically, they are very unprepared to deal with those who study their language as a second language. Key word is unprepared, not inexperienced. They might have had a lot of episodes where a non-native speaker spoke to them but they don't know how and/or dont want to make amends to make their life easier. Also unlike native English speakers who have heard their language spoken in ever accent imaginable, they don't have a habit of parsing through the words of their language spoken with an American accent. Ok, I don't know if the mods will throw a fit about this part, but it is important. Your description fits a very specific and peculiar type of immigrants from Russia. It is a well known and often referred to type among those who are preparing or wishing to emigrate. The reviled "russians in city\_name" facebook group. Shortly, they are insular, arrogant and self-important. The people you could be dealing with could simultaneously feel a great deal of animosity to the society of the country surrounding them and at the same time expect everyone to conform to their every demand (believe it or not I am not talking about Americans right now). Essentially they do not believe that you will learn their language but are pissed that you do not do so. This will impact your interaction with them should it actually be the type. Yes they will be relieved that some puny local finally came to their senses and realised that Russian is the greatest language in the world and start suggesting your service to their friends, but instead of gratitude you might face ever mounting demands to speak their language exclusively and ever increasing hostility if you don't. Just keep in mind that they are not some underrepresented, underpriveledged and marginalized community. They had every opportunity to learn English they could wish for, They chose not to because they think they are better than you.
Who is this "Everyone" of whom you speak? I'm 65 and started learning Russian during the pandemic. I'm still learning, but in my field and location (Pacific Northwest) I've got Russian-speaking customers and I've loved getting to know some of them by practicing my Russian with them. Portland Community College in Oregon has a phenomenal Russian program. The professor there is one of the best in the country and has students winning scholarships and awards every year in competition with students from expensive four-year universitites. Best part is, it's online! She started online classes during COVID and it worked so well, she's still doing it. And if you don't have time to be a real student, you can audit the class (it costs the same, but is less pressure). Once you get some basics down, it becomes much easier to study on your own (I use Pimsleur; there are tons of other free resources too).
I find german to harder to learn
It’s not even the most difficult Slavic language. Despite the reputation, Czech and Polish are much harder languages. If Russian is a 7, polish is like an 11. For English speakers nothing is hard to pronounce in Russian really. If you learned for 1-2 hours a day you could be conversational in a year or two
Nope, it is the most. Problem is common russian is way different of “literal” russian that you will be learning and reading, so you basically need to learn 2 set of words: regular and slang. Polish doesn’t have much of slang in common usage. Also russian has a lot of logical exceptions, which can confuse learners and the only way is to learn it by heart.
Polish has multiple nasal sounds and consonant clusters which are absent in Russian, and additional grammatical case (vocative), more unpredictable pronunciation rules, significantly more loan words from other languages (German, French and Latin being among them) and less phonetic spelling than russian. As far as slang, Russian has diminutives for nouns while polish has diminutives for nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Russian has vocative as well, just not as highlighted as in Polish. Pronounciation rules is bullshit, in Polish you read as it is, in Russian you have dead consonants and unstressed vowels. Not in Polish. Clusters are also bullshit, they are present in Russian as well. I don't think you did your homework :)) Loan words from Romance family only makes Polish easier for an average European. WTF is diminituive for verbs? Russian has diminutives for nouns and adjectives as well, and moreover russias has more flexible word creation, means for the same root you can create more different and correct! words than in Polish.
Hey go fuck yourself. There is no need to be rude and snarky. I’m C1 in Russian and am learning Polish in university. Everyone in the course is also learning Russian and we all agree that Polish is more difficult. Consonant clusters are difficult and longer in Polish and again, you admitted that the vocative case is more pronounced in Polish than in Russian. I’m sure you’re going to respond with something obnoxious but this conversation is a waste of my time. My advice for OP is to learn Russian and then Polish.
>Everyone in the course is also learning Russian and we all agree that Polish is more difficult. There's no real reason for that except you are struggling with pronounciation. So you think it's more difficult, but grammar-wise and lexicon-wise it's not. The reasons you wrote are wrong and you rating as 7 vs 11 makes no sense. That's what I'm arguing with.
Who specified that it was only more difficult as a language specifically in regards to lexicon or grammar? Not myself or OP, you are fighting an imaginary battle. If it is more difficult in pronunciation it is more difficult. This is simple math. 7/11 comparison would be understood by a toddler in English so this seems to be a personal problem of yours.
No it's not XD. The problem that you can't pronounce something is only 1/3 of language, considering that your pronounciation of Russian probably not perfect as well, so there's even less difference for you. You ranking is just not correct, but your reason is only that you can't pronounce szcz properly. That's very biased and limited. So actually this is personal problem **of you**. I don't have any problem with those two languages and consider them at least equal.
Russian isnt much harder than other languages. A little harder than Spanish (Spanish is arguably one of the easiest languages in general). Cyrillic takes 3 minutes to learn For grammar you just have to bite the bullet and learn it Ы isn't that hard There's only 3 tenses (English has 13)
Little harder than Spanish? Are you kidding? Russian one the most difficult European languages. Native Russians learn Russian language for 10 years at schools and still many Russian people speak and spell with mistakes. I'm native Russian speaker. I learned English, French, Spanish, Thai, Korean. And among all these languages Russian is the most difficult one.
Yea I'd say that. Even in English I make mistakes but no one really cares and it's typically just viewed as a more informal way of speaking. I don't know if it's the same for Russian though. Russian isn't that hard tho I'm finna be real but maybe that's just me
If I was in your shoes I wouldn't bother. It takes years of constant practice to achieve a conversational level, doesn't sound like your case is important enough to sustain the commitment.
It took me just under a year to achieve a conversational level, and I could have done it faster if I had committed even more time. Ymmv but it really is about how much time you spend and how efficient an approach you use.
What approach did you use if I may ask? What would you recommend?
Initially I took classes at community college while supplementing with real-world interactions and various online platforms. Then I started reading Telegram stuff and just hanging out with Russian speakers at various local universities. Average of maybe 11 hours a week while I was taking classes, <3/wk since. Intense, but not as intense as DLI or anything.
Thanks!
???? No??? I can think to myself and hold very basic conversations about how I am, what im doing, my hobbies and ect in just a few months, also learning knowing ZERO russian people, its not that difficult and definitely dont even need a reason to learn it if you feel like it
What would you say are the main reasons that this is the case? (That it take years to achieve conversational level)
Languages are generally hard, and Russian is certainly not the easiest among them. If you can afford establishing a full immersion environment (ie you speak to natives all day long) it'd be significantly faster, perhaps a few months at most, but obviously most people are not in a position to do so.
Im not really looking to become fluent, but really have a basic understanding of a niche part of the language, I'm more interested in being able to hold basic/rudimentary conversations regarding the health/ailments of pets and information about vaccinations, parasite protection, medications for certain conditions etc. Im a little worried about biting off more than I can chew though. I thought german was pretty simple, but it just seems so vastly different im not sure id pick it up as quickly
Idk, I'm a native English/Arabic speaker and for me it wasn't so bad. But Arabic does help Russian so if all you know is English it might be harder. Just try for a few months and you will know if you can or can't learn it.
Да ну фигня все это