Should you learn to speak Russian?

[oso]

Okay, I would like to get the opinion of the forum members about the subject of learning Russian language.
Will learning the language help you in finding (or living with) a FSUW?

[dragonkid]

Living , yes, not all women can speak english, but if you are dependent on sites to meet women, probably won't need it. The women there already accepted that their partner will speak no english at all, they will be more interested in your monthly disposable income, how fast you want to get married, and future family plans. For me , i plan on staying in fsu for some time, so i will need to learn the language to be able to approach women. i know the basic introductions,ask someone out for a drink, directions, few other things that an audio book will teach you. The scary thing is the only compliment i know is "ya lyublyu tvoi volosy", which is i love your hair, and i know the word for eyes, so how far i can get by charming a girl with eyes and hair has yet to be seen.

[Trenchcoat]

Your a man living in the Ukraine and you ask this? Were you born there?

Anyway difficult one. It's a good idea if you can I think, but beyond the basics is time consuming and difficult to learn for many guys I think. Handy as an aid and will probably increase your chances, but chances is just that I think someone without the language could just as well find someone and many have. The time consuming nature is a problem for many western guys myself included - you have to hold down a full time full on professional job while also finding time out to write to all these women continuously and learn the language? Often I find there is not time for it.

[ML]

Huge waste of time to learn any language other than English . . . unless you are going to live and work full-time in a country where English is not the language.

If you are planning to pursue foreign women from anywhere in the world . . . far better to use any spare time you have to increase your business (or whatever your profession) education and your earning power.

If you want to show that you respect and are interested in the history and culture of a country . . . study the history and culture of that country.

[tfcrew]

Your a man living in the Ukraine and you ask this? 

Maybe Oso is a MOH.
Incidentally, 'oso' is Spanish for mishka

[GatoMoon]

Okay, I would like to get the opinion of the forum members about the subject of learning Russian language.
Will learning the language help you in finding (or living with) a FSUW?

Unless you found a woman from say, Colombia, then you would need to learn Spanish.   I wouldn't be too worried about learning the language until you've found your Miss Right.  If you are going to enjoy learning new languages, then why not go for it as you've nothing to lose.

[GatoMoon]

Maybe Oso is a MOH.
Incidentally, 'oso' is Spanish for mishka

oso is Spanish for BEAR   (if it is Mishka is Russian for 'bear', then yes lol)


By the way, you know tennis player in the 1970s, Bjorn Borg.  It translates into 'Bear Castle'  LOL     Bjorn = Bear   Borg = Castle

[JayH]

Oso is an English speaking man married to a Ukrainian lady and lives in Kyiv--no secret-he has written that again recently in the open forum threads.

To address the question he posed-- and many posters ask about.
Unless you have a lot of spare time on your hands-- my view is that you are better off applying yourself to something else. To become fluent enough to make it worthwhile requires a lot of effort-- and for most-beyond their capability.You will never be good enough to get to conversational level of understanding in a fluent way.
Better to put the time into improving her English capability.
For those that can spend a lot of time in an FSU country-- (like Oso) you do pick up parts of the language to carry out basic life chores.eg eating out, shopping,traveling etc so it is possible to do very basic things.
I can often get the gist of a sentence without being able to translate every word.
Today in Ukraine-- many people have learnt English at school-and often if a situation arises someone will be able to help you- at least enough to solve the immediate problem.

In summary--for most-make an effort to learn the most basic words-- but put your time and energy into something more productive.

[cc3]

For westerners in Ukraine...learn some Ukrainian!

[Larry1]

I'm one of those who believes it is a waste of effort to try to become fluent or even extremely proficient in Russian. For those of you who have taken foreign language classes in school or university in the West, Russian is a much more difficult language to master than the ones you probably studied.

I suggest learning enough Russian to get along by yourself in-country - ask for directions, talk to taxi drivers, deal with shopping, and talk to waiters, etc. And by all means learn the Cyrillic alphabet. You won't be able to read signs and Russian menus without it (although restaurants in the cities guys usually visit have English menus).

This advice doesn't apply if you are able to spend extended periods of time there.

[JayH]

I suggest learning enough Russian to get along by yourself in-country - ask for directions, talk to taxi drivers, deal with shopping, and talk to waiters, etc. And by all means learn the Cyrillic alphabet. You won't be able to read signs and Russian menus without it (although restaurants in the cities guys usually visit have English menus).

Learning to decipher signage,road signs etc--is something that makes life a lot easier is you can read Cyrillic alphabet.
It also enhances to overall experience when you can understand what the shops,business's are etc
On menus-- in bigger cities- they often do have menu in English as well-- and more and more o that seems to be the case. Some of the best and cheapest places to eat the local cuisine will not be in English- so learning basics can make life a lot easier.

For westerners in Ukraine...learn some Ukrainian!

This has become another complication in the last 2 years. I can usually tell the difference when spoken to. For those in western Ukraine that would need to be a consideration.

[Boethius]

The scary thing is the only compliment i know is "ya lyublyu tvoi volosy"

No native Russian speaker would say this.  A girl will understand what you are saying, but it's poor Russian. 

[BillyB]

Will learning the language help you in finding (or living with) a FSUW?

Of course it will but unless a guy has an unlimited ability to learn with unlimited time on his hands, I suggest he focus on advancing his career. No matter how much an expert he is with language, if he has little earning power, he's going to be lonely.

[dragonkid]

No native Russian speaker would say this.  A girl will understand what you are saying, but it's poor Russian. 

Indeed, i been told to say it in a different way, but i couldn't say it incorrectly, so i stuck with that. My aim is just to be able to say things at a level which is understandable, but not necessarily correct. i spend around 30mins per day listening to an audio book, 5 days a week. My Russian is slowly developing, when i do return on russia, i doubt i will be able to hold a conversation,without asking the person to slow down when talking. i heard of a few stories where some guys could barely any russian at all, but were still successful in what they wanted to accomplish.

[Anotherkiwi]

I suggest learning enough Russian to get along by yourself in-country - ask for directions, talk to taxi drivers, deal with shopping, and talk to waiters, etc. And by all means learn the Cyrillic alphabet. You won't be able to read signs and Russian menus without it (although restaurants in the cities guys usually visit have English menus).

This advice doesn't apply if you are able to spend extended periods of time there.

Pretty much what I've been saying for ages - learning the alphabet is an absolute must, and a bunch of key phrases would be highly recommended.  So they've got 34 letters in their alphabet, and only four are actually the same as the English letters, but so what?  It's really not that hard, and in most situations you won't have to be speed-reading - you can take your time figuring out the name of the street or business or railway destination (when you're looking at the departure board in the station).

[Chicagoguy]

Agree with ML. English is now the language of the world. My good Russian friends who moved here with zero English skill 20 years ago have told me to skip it. They say it is difficult plus it has never been necessary for me in 17 visits. Whenever I return her daughter and nephews speak passable English. Last time in Moscow our cab driver spoke decent English and told us his son was at U. of Chicago getting MBA. Cab drivers brother lived on Michigan Ave. $$$

Nearest school to me is U. of Chicago. Can't imagine old me in with all those 18 and 19 year old near geniuses. My Russian friends have son who moved here at age 2 so is naturally fluent in Russian. BUT he can't read it. So at Northwestern he was taking Russian !  Couldn't even read a menu. I  asked who were people in his class and he said mostly people like him.

My wife used to push me to learn Russian but has now given up. Plus she has become just about fluent in English. Wasn't easy for her but she has persevered. Now waiting for citizenship test.

[2tallbill]

I suggest learning enough Russian to get along by yourself in-country - ask for directions, talk to taxi drivers, deal with shopping, and talk to waiters, etc. And by all means learn the Cyrillic alphabet. You won't be able to read signs and Russian menus without it (although restaurants in the cities guys usually visit have English menus).

This advice doesn't apply if you are able to spend extended periods of time there.

Yeah, I agree.

You can and should learn enough Russian to find milk or bread in a store, ask for
directions and to say excuse me, please and thank you etc.

[2tallbill]

No native Russian speaker would say this.  A girl will understand what you are saying, but it's poor Russian. 

Very few if any of the men here are going to learn Russian past the basic cave man
level. Russian is too difficult and too different from English and the men here have jobs,
and girls to chase.

[2tallbill]

The scary thing is the only compliment i know is "ya lyublyu tvoi volosy", which is i love your hair, and i know the word for eyes, so how far i can get by charming a girl with eyes and hair has yet to be seen.

Go to this site and learn at least half the phrases

http://www.meighan.net/alexander/Chapter1.htm

[jone]

My son and I banter in Russian all of the time.  One of my favorite phrases with him is potomu chto tak skazal
(Потому что так сказал).  When he was seventeen I sent him to live in Russia and he came back semi-fluent.  It was a springboard for learning other languages for him.  He still claims that Russian is the hardest language that he has had to learn and he is fluent in four, including Mandarin, and semi fluent in two others.  I asked him, today, if he would recommend someone in this endeavor to learn Russian.  He scoffed at the idea.  His take was that unless you know Russian really well, trying to speak it in Russia or Eastern Europe will only get you laughed at.

But he also says that you should know the basics so that you can read signs and order things from stores.  He would also like to warn anyone reading these posts that salo is not to be consumed, under any circumstances.

[cc3]

"...salo is not to be consumed, under any circumstances."

Tell that to Fraucha, at expatua!!! 

[Larry1]

He would also like to warn anyone reading these posts that salo is not to be consumed, under any circumstances.

I tried salo once. Unless it is served to me at a fsuw's home I don't think I will ever again try it. I would like to cook with it though.

[Изумруд]

So they've got 34 letters in their alphabet, and only four are actually the same as the English letters, but so what?

There are actually 5 the same: A, K, M, O, T - I disagree about learning the language; you'll never understand the country and the people if you don't speak the language.  Of course, if the only goal is to find a wife and return home, that is a different matter and you could do without.

[GregfromGa]

Put me in the camp of yes I think you should learn it. If you do meet a girl and maybe you will, of course you'll want to talk to her family one day. My kids are there now, I cant talk with my sons coach. I mean what is the worst case, you learn another language. My old friend Matthew Schwartz RIP, learned the language. He took private lessons but there are other avenues. He talked to more women, met more women, got more women on his way to the market everyday than all these guys here saying not to do it put together. He wasn't a good looking guy either but as I said the guy learned it, was very outgoing with it and non threatening. The ladies loved him because he could actually talk to them and I would guess they respected the fact that he put in the effort to learn it.  I wish I would've learned it.

[Boethius]

I tried salo once. Unless it is served to me at a fsuw's home I don't think I will ever again try it. I would like to cook with it though.

As I have posted, you have to know your salo source, or you could end up with subpar salo.