spell czech

[Makkin]

  Sando Ime just looking for a Czech-Mate..lol 

[Mir]

Ste, you forgot one, Slovenian

And Slovak (or Slovakian)

[Makkin]

  Sandro,

  In your opinion what language is harder to learn...Czech or Russian?Or is there some other European language that is very difficult in your experience? Is there one language (european) that really causes "YOU" to wonder wtf?

Makkin

[Ste]

  Sandro,

  In your opinion what language is harder to learn...Czech or Russian?Or is there some other European language that is very difficult in your experience? Is there one language (european) that really causes "YOU" to wonder wtf?

Makkin

Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian are weird.

[Blues Fairy]

In my opinion, having a hard time writing cannot really be an indication of the level of the lady's interest but surely an indication of her level of development.  Easy written expression has a lot to do with a person's powers of abstract thinking.  That said, a slow writer can be very "into" her guy - she is simply... slow.  :-) If that's not a turn-off, there's no need to read other things into it.

[jb]

I have a rather different take on this whole letter writing thing. 

Writing letters is something of a cultural thing for many Americans, our families are scattered from hell to breakfast and we are used to writing letters from an early age.  Our mothers encouraged us to write to cousin Jenny, or to grandma, because it helped us develop writing skills.   In the case of Russian families, they tend to not be so scattered, communication is easier if grandma is living in the same flat.  I think the average RW just doesn't have a lot of experience with letter writing.  Now throw in the next problem for her, all these letters are not in her native language.  Especially if she is not fluent in English because now she has to go through the whole translator thing.  There would be no comfort in having someone strange reading your personal and private mail.  Sort of puts everything at the arms length distance if you see what I mean.  That's why we view mushy love letters from someone we haven't met to be such a huge red flag.

I think it's pretty easy to see why many women would prefer a man who simply called her frequently rather than cover her up with words on paper she has trouble reading. 

Of course, I may be wrong about this.

[SANDRO43]

In your opinion what language is harder to learn...Czech or Russian?

I haven't tasted Czech yet, but since it uses the Latin alphabet, it should be slightly easier than Russian for Westerners .

Or is there some other European language that is very difficult in your experience? Is there one language (european) that really causes "YOU" to wonder wtf?

Euskara (Basque): a non-Indo-European language whose origins are little known. Among its many oddities, it uses a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) syntactic construction rather than our normal SVO.

[jb]

Finnish and Hungarian are perhaps the strangest languages spoken in Europe today.  Although Basque may be right up there as well.  We have many Basque who come to the US west each year to work, I've never heard one speak.  They tend to be a strange and silent bunch as they tend to their flocks of sheep.

[SANDRO43]

Finnish and Hungarian are perhaps the strangest languages spoken in Europe today.

One might also add their "cousin", Turkish.

[Turboguy]

Czech is much easier to learn than Russian.   I made a trip there about a dozen years ago and got tapes from the library and in a week know more Czech than I did Russian in a year or two of trying.   It was still far harder than learning something like Italian or one of the other Latin based languages.   I can't vouch for a lot of the languages.   I have tried to learn French and played around with Spanish, Italian, Russian, Czech, Japanese, and German.   I would rate French, Italian and Spanish a 3 on a difficulty level,  Czech a 6, Russian an 8 and Japanese a 10.

[jb]

Is Turkish a cousin language to Finnish?  Amazing~!  The written languages look nothing alike for some reason.  Duh...

[SANDRO43]

Is Turkish a cousin language to Finnish?

Still a debated question among linguists, with some maintaining both exhibit a common Turkic heritage. To a wider or lesser extent, Hungarian, Finnish and Turkish are all agglutinative languages, i.e. they use postfixes to indicate meaning/grammatical function, that is "postpositions" rather than our prepositions, and such a morphological trait is usually indicative of some relationship, albeit distant. The lack of an early written literature is, as always, a major difficulty in establishing definite "language family" links. 

[SANDRO43]

I would rate French, Italian and Spanish a 3 on a difficulty level,  Czech a 6, Russian an 8 and Japanese a 10.

I wouldn't say Japanese is terribly difficult grammatically, but they certainly made a royal mess in the Vth century when moving from illiteracy to writing .

[Shadow]

Turkish may be a 'cousin' in terms of construction, however in vocabulary it is closer to Latin and Arab (the main influence on their culture)
Russian also contains a number of Latin influences, just as a number of other languages you might not expect. I remember I was able to translate some Urdu by matching Latin.

[Mir]

I think it's pretty easy to see why many women would prefer a man who simply called her frequently rather than cover her up with words on paper she has trouble reading.

Well you are assuming that it is much easier to overcome the language barrier on phone then on paper. I think this is not really true.

[SANDRO43]

Turkish may be a 'cousin' in terms of construction, however in vocabulary it is closer to Latin and Arab (the main influence on their culture)

Whatever Latin/Arabic-like words may be present in Turkish, they were probably later acquisitions and not from the "core" language. When you compare vocabularies for "family" similarities, you look at "basic" words first: for instance, IIRC 'house' in Turkish is evle, and it bears no resemblance whatsoever to either that, or to 'domus' or 'daar/bayit'.

I remember I was able to translate some Urdu by matching Latin.

In this case, both being Indo-European, there may well be some similarities.

[jb]

Mir;

Well you are assuming that it is much easier to overcome the language barrier on phone then on paper.

I'm assuming that a man is smart enough to choose a woman he can at least communicate with on a level higher than grunts and gestures.   Why do you always take a contrary view to accepted axioms?  Could this be why you've spent so much time and money in this endeavor and are still unsuccessful?  For someone who is supposed to be an educated man, you sure do say dumb things.

[Mir]

Turkish may be a 'cousin' in terms of construction, however in vocabulary it is closer to Latin and Arab (the main influence on their culture)
Russian also contains a number of Latin influences, just as a number of other languages you might not expect. I remember I was able to translate some Urdu by matching Latin.

Urdu is a Turkish word meaning army or army camp. Under the Muslim rulers of India the army had Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Hindi speakers so a new language was born that took words from all these languages.
I am not sure how Turkish has been unfenced by Latin, influence by Greek is more likely.
I find it hard to believe that Turkish has any close links with Finno-Ugric languages. Funnily there is a theory that the Finno-Ugraic language was born in what is now Ukraine! However the languages that derived from it (mainly Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian) are not related to any other language so cousins are unlikely.

[Jumper]

Now throw in the next problem for her, all these letters are not in her native language.  Especially if she is not fluent in English because now she has to go through the whole translator thing.  There would be no comfort in having someone strange reading your personal and private mail.  Sort of puts everything at the arms length distance if you see what I mean.  That's why we view mushy love letters from someone we haven't met to be such a huge red flag.

I think it's pretty easy to see why many women would prefer a man who simply called her frequently rather than cover her up with words on paper she has trouble reading.  

Of course, I may be wrong about this.

Some will refuse a translator around ,and prefer to work thru things with what english they have for the same reasons. A third wheel is just not comfortable...



BF- decent point,
and i'm rather slow

but i've known people who are quite clever, who simple would not corresponde.
As mentioned there are a lot of reasons,
being a bit slow or less developed could be some of them..  

but i seriously doubt it's the main reason for most people who do not consider
 long correspondence *options* ....

just because i fit that scenerio ,doesn't mean most RW do  

[SANDRO43]

I am not sure how Turkish has been InfLUenced by Latin, influence by Greek is more likely.

I doubt that, either, geographical proximity is of little linguistic consequence, when no love is lost between neighbours (and house is oixia in Ancient Greek ).

Funnily there is a theory that the Finno-Ugric language was born in what is now Ukraine!

Actually, they are usually classified as Uralic (or, more debatedly, Ural-Altaic/Turanian), which would be further east.

[jb]

Sandro,

I don't pretend to be a language guru, I'm just a simple traveler who has observed first hand a number of differing tongues as spoken by the natives.   I was under the impression that Turks spoke a language from the Turkic language family, somewhat similar to Persian and with a lot of loan words from Arabic mixed in.  Up until 1928 the Turks written language was the older Ottoman script, a version of Perso-Arabic script, which can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Turkish_alphabet  based on that, I'd be guessing the language roots were other than what you wrote.

Of course, I'm not nearly as educated as you are, so it's just a guess on my part.

[ScottinCrimea]

In my opinion, having a hard time writing cannot really be an indication of the level of the lady's interest but surely an indication of her level of development.  Easy written expression has a lot to do with a person's powers of abstract thinking.  That said, a slow writer can be very "into" her guy - she is simply... slow.  :-) If that's not a turn-off, there's no need to read other things into it.

I had to read this a couple of times to be sure I wasn't missing something.  If I understand correctly, if someone writes less often, it is most likely due to the fact that they are "slow" mentally, they have lesser powers of abstract thinking and a lower level of development.

Before I make any comments on this, BF, please tell me if I have understood you correctly.

[Mir]

JB

Although there are individual variation between people but generally if a women or man can communicate well on telephone then she/he can communicate well by written word as well.
IMHO talking on phone is not the same as talking face to face, we get a lot of what other person is saying by facial expressions, by gestures etc. all this is lost on phone.
In many such situations a letter is a better form of communication.For with a letter there is time for reflection and responce.
Бума́га всё сте́рпит
Epistula non erubescit
A letter does not blush

Why do you always take a contrary view to accepted axioms?

What accepted axioms?
Why is it that if I give my openion it is according to you a contrary view to accepted axiom and when you do it is is according to you pearls of wisdom.
What evidence do you have to prove that women in Russia/FSU find communication by phone easier then by letters?

Could this be why you've spent so much time and money in this endeavor and are still unsuccessful?

How do you know what I have spent?
As regards being successful there is good chance I will be as successful as you when I am 60 or as big a failure as you depending at how one judges success.

For someone who is supposed to be an educated man, you sure do say dumb things.

People who get grumpy when someone disagrees with them are unhappy and bitter, I would not class them as success stories.

[jb]

Mir,

If you can't blind them with your brilliance, it's best you try to baffle them with your BS.  You may just be the worst example of what the RWD has to offer. 

[Mir]

Actually, they are usually classified as Uralic (or, more debatedly, Ural-Altaic/Turanian), which would be further east.

Yes but the theory by Klevi Wilk about the area now Ukraine was its birthplace is interesting in the context of this forum, it is controversial but then what isn't?

The theory that the Finno-Ugric birthplace originally covered a very large area in Northern Europe has been supported more by archaeological and genetic data than by linguistic evidence. Notably, the controversial Finnish academic Kalevi Wiik has argued that Proto-Finno-Ugric was the original language in most of Northern and Central Europe, and that the earliest Finno-Ugric speakers and their languages originated in the territory of modern Ukraine (the so-called "Ukrainian refuge") during the last glacial period

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finno-Ugric_languages