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Russian : why so popular ? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Itikar Groupie Italy Joined 4670 days ago 94 posts - 158 votes  Speaks: Italian* | Message 9 of 107 24 February 2012 at 8:20pm | IP Logged | ||
Dutch has the same scary aspects of German, it has the same convoluted syntaxis, and its vocabulary is not really less alien. In addition to this I found almost impossible to pronounce even relatively simple Dutch words or names (never heard of the Huygens' theoreme?) when i tried, because of the many vowels which are often associated to aspirated consonants. When I say "convoluted syntaxis" I mean that the elements of a sentence must be in a certain order, and the speaker cannot say them in the order she wishes. This is especially true and painful for the position of the verb. Moreover Dutch, like English, French and German doesn't allow subject drop. Regarding the other Slavic languages I noticed more difficult phonologies and more confusing grammars. About Bulgarian, although it is often said it has a simplified grammar, I think its noun inflection is more deceptive than a pure declension. Moreover Bulgarian verbs have many more tenses than Russian ones. Bulgarian has even the aorist! On the Slavic languages anyway I am less sure, since I didn't go deeper than learning some sentences on a phrasebook and reading the grammar notes there. Edited by Itikar on 24 February 2012 at 8:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6440 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 10 of 107 24 February 2012 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | ||
We could talk about Chinese and Arabic "dialects" all day. My point was simply that Russian has a lot of speakers: it's not Mandarin, but it has more native speakers than French, German, Italian, etc, much less the Scandinavian languages. (Of course, going for understudied languages by this criteria, Punjabi probably tops the list). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ellsworth Senior Member United States Joined 4958 days ago 345 posts - 528 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Irish | Message 12 of 107 24 February 2012 at 10:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Russian is probably the coolest language in movies(basically any action movie), has
amazing literature, is a beautiful country, plays a large part in global politics, many Russians are very good looking, it sounds nice, great music, fascinating history, widely spoken in a broad range of regions because of Russia's size and influence,... The question should be rephrased, Russian: why I am I not learning this language? 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 13 of 107 24 February 2012 at 10:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Because I already have my hands full with Finnish and Northern Saami while Hungarian, Latvian, Polish, Slovak, Turkish and Ukrainian pace impatiently on the side. Russian, stand in line like everyone else! ;-) 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 14 of 107 25 February 2012 at 12:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hmm. Why are they said to be that extremely good looking? Sure, I have seen pretty
Russian women (even though too many Russians should use one third of the make up only to look good) but I wouldn't say there is that many of them in comparison with other nations. But the truth is, most Russian women take more care about what do they look like than others. But I cannot remember any really handsome Russian man, except for one or two in a movie. Sure, some are sympatic, quite good looking, but nothing that special. This is not meant as an offence, I just think it is partially a myth. But there are many other good reasons to learn the language. No surprise is the litterature, which surely didn't die with Dostoyevsky generation(sorry, hard for me to spell Russian names in English transliteration). And not that long ago, I accidentally found some really good Russian music (for exemple Fleur). It's sad that it is not that easy to find such things, there must be much more. And Russian cinema, I have seen only one modern Russian film-the Inhabitated Island, but I loved it. Any tips? And there are many immigrants from Russia all around the world, so you are very likely to meet than at your work or school and make friends with some. The result is, that even though I am not learning Russian now, I definitely plan to. I have learnt the cyrillics already and bought a nice textbook (25% cheaper, I couldn't resist, no matter that it is now gathering dust on a shelf). And I heard books are very cheap in Russia. Is it true or myth? (Even though the sending fees are probably high) 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5057 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 15 of 107 25 February 2012 at 12:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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And I heard books are very
cheap in Russia. Is it true or myth? (Even though the sending fees are probably high) They are probably cheaper than in Europe. I bought a French textbook for 300 rubles (7 euros) last year, I think. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ellsworth Senior Member United States Joined 4958 days ago 345 posts - 528 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Irish | Message 16 of 107 25 February 2012 at 1:41pm | IP Logged | ||
Well I said "many Russians are very good looking." Obviously I wasn't meaning that Russians are the most beautiful people on earth or something but there are many good looking Russians. Do you disagree with that? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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