Honest question to RW

[I/O]

My choice would depend on language I'm able to learn So no Frenches, and no Italians and it's only such crazy woman like Kvina can learn Sweden 

Elen:  You raise an interesting point which I had never before considered.  With regard to learning another language, I know just a little Russian and can therefore appreciate just how difficult it is for a Russian person to learn English.  Most here speak English as their native language and therefore tend to assume many things. 

My question is, for a Russian speaking person (Or Slavic languages generally) which would be the eaiser foreign language for her/him to learn?

I/O

[Kvinna]

My question is, for a Russian speaking person (Or Slavic languages generally) which would be the eaiser foreign language for her/him to learn?
I/O

I studied deutsch in school, after this any language is easier

[Elen]

what about Poland? Or maybe Czechia?

Poland??? you are kidding - here is "principle political" issue for me  t
As for Czechia - then ... now English I know better than Czech language
For me it's not about how close language is to Russain but about what I have learned already Because i'm old dog which could not learn too many new tricks ( and I was always rather "dumb" in a matter of languages )

[Totoro]

My question is, for a Russian speaking person (Or Slavic languages generally) which would be the eaiser foreign language for her/him to learn?

I'd like to know that, too. There are some structural similarities between russian and german... but the way they sound are completely different. I think that, first thing, it's important to be able to speak with the correct sound (I could never speak french or chinese, for example). Unfortunately, how can one answer without knowing some of the language already? ^_^
As a native italian (and having studied russian for 1 year at university ^_^), I find that russian language is not very difficult to pronounce (grammatical rules are a different matter, especially declinations and verbs of motion ^_^). Certainly easier than english for an italian speaker... therefore, I'd assume that italian would be easier than english for a native russian.
Ranking languages for the similarities of their sounds with italian, I'd say my preference order is:

1) Japanese (99% similar sounds)
2) Spanish (92%)
3) Russian (80%)
.
.
.
Nth) English (approx 30%)

Wonder if this works the other way round, too... ladies? Your opinions on this?

[Lily]

My question is, for a Russian speaking person (Or Slavic languages generally) which would be the eaiser foreign language for her/him to learn?

I/O

For a Russian native, every foreign language that does not use Cyrillic script is diffucult, because Russian language is very distinct from all others. The so called 'sign based' languages like Chinese, Thai, Hindu are even more difficult for a Russian to learn.

[Zmejka]

Answering the main question: i have to tear myself between the 1st and the 4th option (but i'm taking only part of that 4th that is "intelligent"). I would try to chose men from these categories. That would be my first preference. I wouldn't develop any relationships with much older men not to disappoint both parts in the future. As for men with kids - if i fail in my first search i can consider them too. I don't want monkey-look like men so i will avoid them
As for the second question i think the easiest languge to learn is English, then may be Italian or Spanish. I wouldn't want to learn Chinese or Japanese, or Farsi, i'm afraid of them
I don't think that for russian-speaking people other languages that don't use our script is difficult, i find many simmilarities between Russian and Dutch for example in grammatica. Also i can apply some english rules to it to remember. But i think if a person first learn English or German as a basic foreign language it's always easier to learn the 2nd foreign language.

[Lily]

Yes, there is a belief, apparently a well-founded one, that after one leans one foreign language (suppose it is about the European languages), every other language is less difficult to learn.

[ScottinCrimea]

I've spent a couple of years teaching English to Russian speakers, and I've found that English really isn't so difficult for them.  There are no conjugations to worry about, many Russian words have English origins, and the sounds are similar with only a few exceptions. In addition, English speakers like to keep things simple and efficient so whatever words aren't one or two syllables, we shorten, such as television - TV, refrigerator - fridge, advertisement - ad, etc.  We just don't like long words.
   Now Russian, on the other hand, is a tough one.  Besides the Cyrillic alphabet, the conjugations, declensions , use of perfect vs. imperfect verb forms and words of motion are killers.  As one person stated, "With most languages, the more you learn the easier it gets.  With Russian, the more you learn the more difficult it gets."  Just when I think I have something down, I come across a new form of a word and realize there's a whole area I haven't even touched yet.  And contrary to English, it seems the longer the word, the better they like it so they keep adding endings to their words ad infinitum.  It seems the average word in Russian runs about 7 syllables.  Driving down the road, sometimes I can't even finish reading the word on the billboard before I'm past it.
    I often wonder how things would have been different if I had met and married a woman from a Spanish speaking country, since I am fluent in that language.  The ability to learn the language is certainly something to be taken into consideration when considering a mate.

[Kvinna]

many Russian words have English origins

I would say, latin origin

[SANDRO43]

Since I have a rather long familiarity with foreign languages (let me boast : http://www.floriani.it/lingue-eng.htm ), I'll add my penn'orth. When learning a foreign language, you are faced with at least 4 major hurdles to overcome:

1. Script (alphabet)
2. Sounds (phonetics)
3. Grammar (syntax, morphology)
4. Vocabulary (lexicon)

The closer the new language is to your own in ALL 4 areas, the easier it will appear, and the shorter the time to learn it (however, frequent use is necessary to maintain it at a satisfactory level, similarly to playing a musical instrument: if you don't practice often, it will slip off).   

As far as script is concerned, languages use 3 basic approaches: phonetic, syllabic and logographic (a term nowadays preferred to ideographic, as more accurate). Languages with phonetic alphabets (Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, etc.) are easier to READ, syllabic alphabets less so (the Japanese made a royal mess with their script, 2 ugly-looking syllabic alphabets and a lot of Chinese characters thrown in, having 2 differen pronunciations ), and logographic the hardest : since each character represents a word, and basic literacy requires at least 5,000 words, you have to learn to recognise and draw quite a lot of those "squiggles". Here, having an eidetic memory may be very helpful.

Sounds: a discriminant ear is very helpful for good pronunciation (you cannot reproduce satisfactorily what you cannot hear, and musicians often appear linguistically gifted), as well as frequent exposure to the target sounds in the learning phase.

Grammar: this is often the most boring but essential aspect in learning a new language. We express our thoughts in sentences, and if we cannot string one together correctly, we can hardly expect to be understood. I found English to be the EASIEST language on earth from this point of view, having an extremely simple grammatical structure compared to any other language. Being younger, Totoro, you did not enjoy the benefit of having Latin as required study in our intermediate schools (11 to 14 y.o.), otherwise the 3 Russian declensions for masculine, feminine and neuter would have appeared simple, compared to the 6 in Latin . It usually takes longer to acquire than sounds but, once acquired, it is more "permanent", as when you learn the specific body movements required by a new sport. Noam Chomsky went so far as to postulate that syntactic structures are genetically imprinted in human brains.

Words: this is probably what takes longest to acquire (say, at least 10,000 words) and it, too, requires constant exposure to acquire and constant use to maintain. My major difficulty with Russian lies in the fact that its Slavic words bear practically no similarity with the words of the other Indo-Europen languages in the Latin or Germanic families, with which I am more familiar.    
Which brings to another consideration : when you have learnt a new language (say English), it's easier to tackle another language of the same group (say, German or a Scandinavian language), then shifting to a different group like French, Spanish or Italian.

In conclusion of this long post, let me add a final consideration : foreign languages broaden your mental horizons not only by letting you communicate directly with people from different countries, but at times also shedding some light on why they THINK differently. But this is a story for another time (possibly ).

[ScottinCrimea]

Kvinna, not only Latin, but English and (God forbid!) American.  For example, how do you say "cowboy" in Russian?

[Elen]

We say кавбой

( oops I should be shut up with Russian at this board)

[Daveman]

Since I have a rather long familiarity with foreign languages (let me boast : http://www.floriani.it/lingue-eng.htm ), I'll add my penn'orth. When learning a foreign language, you are faced with at least 4 major hurdles to overcome:

1. Script (alphabet)
2. Sounds (phonetics)
3. Grammar (syntax, morphology)
4. Vocabulary (lexicon)

The closer the new language is to your own in ALL 4 areas, the easier it will appear, and the shorter the time to learn it (however, frequent use is necessary to maintain it at a satisfactory level, similarly to playing a musical instrument: if you don't practice often, it will slip off).   

As far as script is concerned, languages use 3 basic approaches: phonetic, syllabic and logographic (a term nowadays preferred to ideographic, as more accurate). Languages with phonetic alphabets (Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, etc.) are easier to READ, syllabic alphabets less so (the Japanese made a royal mess with their script, 2 ugly-looking syllabic alphabets and a lot of Chinese characters thrown in, having 2 differen pronunciations ), and logographic the hardest : since each character represents a word, and basic literacy requires at least 5,000 words, you have to learn to recognise and draw quite a lot of those "squiggles". Here, having an eidetic memory may be very helpful.

Sounds: a discriminant ear is very helpful for good pronunciation (you cannot reproduce satisfactorily what you cannot hear, and musicians often appear linguistically gifted), as well as frequent exposure to the target sounds in the learning phase.

Grammar: this is often the most boring but essential aspect in learning a new language. We express our thoughts in sentences, and if we cannot string one together correctly, we can hardly expect to be understood. I found English to be the EASIEST language on earth from this point of view, having an extremely simple grammatical structure compared to any other language. Being younger, Totoro, you did not enjoy the benefit of having Latin as required study in our intermediate schools (11 to 14 y.o.), otherwise the 3 Russian declensions for masculine, feminine and neuter would have appeared simple, compared to the 6 in Latin . It usually takes longer to acquire than sounds but, once acquired, it is more "permanent", as when you learn the specific body movements required by a new sport. Noam Chomsky went so far as to postulate that syntactic structures are genetically imprinted in human brains.

Words: this is probably what takes longest to acquire (say, at least 10,000 words) and it, too, requires constant exposure to acquire and constant use to maintain. My major difficulty with Russian lies in the fact that its Slavic words bear practically no similarity with the words of the other Indo-Europen languages in the Latin or Germanic families, with which I am more familiar.     
Which brings to another consideration : when you have learnt a new language (say English), it's easier to tackle another language of the same group (say, German or a Scandinavian language), then shifting to a different group like French, Spanish or Italian.

In conclusion of this long post, let me add a final consideration : foreign languages broaden your mental horizons not only by letting you communicate directly with people from different countries, but at times also shedding some light on why they THINK differently. But this is a story for another time (possibly ).

Sandro, what the heck planet are you from??  No one should know this much about phonetic envelopes used to convey mental images from one cognitive being to another... sheesh!!!   

[Admin]

We say кавбой

( oops I should be shut up with Russian at this board)

Actually, there are two forums at RWD which welcome communication in your native Russian.

There is the Ladies Forum -- http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?board=59.0
And there is the International Forum -- http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?board=29.0

In all the rest of the forums - an occasional comment in Russian if probably OK - provided it is NOT an insult. However, it is probably best to post in English.

- Dan

[SANDRO43]

Sandro, what the heck planet are you from??  No one should know this much about phonetic envelopes used to convey mental images from one cognitive being to another... sheesh!!!

I must admit I got a bit carried away, but I love languages (among other things ).

[Daveman]

I must admit I got a bit carried away, but I love languages (among other things ).

Carry away all you want.. I think it's interesting as hell..  nice to see someone else dissect and analyze something down to the core..  it's kinda like looking in a mirror, on with a different topic. 

[ScottinCrimea]

And the Russian word кавбой is derived from which Latin word?

[SANDRO43]

Carry away all you want.. I think it's interesting as hell.. 

Careful with your enthusiasm, I might next offer you a taste of my universally-acclaimed Psammothermophonetic Theory (http://www.floriani.it/teoria-eng.htm) .

[Elen]

And the Russian word кавбой is derived from which Latin word?

What? Are you going to make generalisation about which roots international words used in Russian language have basing at this one word? 

[SANDRO43]

And the Russian word кавбой is derived from which Latin word?

That's simple, from cavus buius, a corrupted form of cavus huius, meaning his cavity (otherwise unspecified ).

[wxman]

English is an easier language to learn. Why?  It is more like caveman talk.

Most can learn to speak with one syllable words.       
 1      1     1     1    1      1     1      3       1

Even much easier for men to learn: I want sex. I want beer. I want food. I want tv.     

[ScottinCrimea]

Elen, you refused to acknowledge that some Russian words were based on English words, trying to imply that they were instead based on Latin words, which for some reason you find more acceptable. I gave only one example to show that, again, you are wrong.  I could have given many examples, like Интернет, ксерокс, баскетбол, etc.

[Totoro]

Very informative post, Sandro, thank you.
Actually I'm familiar with Latin and ancient Greek, having studied at Liceo Classico ^_^
But while studying I always knew they were dead languages... there's quite a difference between learning a language only to read ancient texts and understand a previous culture, and actually speaking it on a everyday basis!
At the time I thought "it must have been a mess, speaking latin. Good thing language has evolved, and we don't have declensions anymore". It was only later that I learned about German and Russian... ^_^
I agree with english being the simplest, overall, but if we only look at the grammatical structure (and do not consider "courtesy levels") japanese is even more Tarzan-talk!
I work with it on a daily basis, since my job is to adapt manga into italian for a publisher, and I'm always amazed at how basic it is.
But I think we're really going off-topic here... ^_^
Back to russian, when I studied it my teachers pointed out that several words of common use (дочь, сын, сестра for example) have a germanic origin, and are in fact closely related to english. It all boils down to one's willingness to learn, after all, and frequency of exposure/use of the language.

[Elen]

Elen, you refused to acknowledge that some Russian words were based on English words, trying to imply that they were instead based on Latin words, which for some reason you find more acceptable. I gave only one example to show that, again, you are wrong.  I could have given many examples, like Интернет, ксерокс, баскетбол, etc.

Who's wrong?  me? Nope it could not be simple because I asked a question but didn't make any statment  So if "you" in your English which does not make difference like (it's in Russian)  was  "Вы" then you were wrong

Anyway whatever you say here and however you demonstrate your knowledges in variouse languages and how many import words Russian language would have not many of you ( I wish to find even one) who could be able to learn Russian to be able to communicate before making a decicioan to marry somebody So a choice of "fiance" would depend on language he speaks on

Could we now return to discussuion 4th criteria    ?

[Kvinna]

ксерокс

just 2 cents
xerography
The name xerography came from the Greek radicals xeros (dry) and graphos (writing), because there are no liquid chemicals involved in the process, unlike earlier reproduction techniques like cyanotype.