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Czech through Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| lenkadv Hexaglot Newbie Czech Republic Joined 7149 days ago 21 posts - 24 votes 3 sounds Speaks: Czech*, English, German, SpanishB2, Russian, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese | Message 9 of 13 29 April 2005 at 10:32am | IP Logged | ||
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Francois,
Your considering learning Czech made me register and reply after having been a lurker for some time :-). As a native Czech speaker, I obviously donīt have any experience with learning Czech after Russian (although I do speak Russian). However, I teach Czech to foreigners and one of my students is American who lived in Russia as a kid for 2 years. She never really mastered Russian, although she was able to read, understand and speak some. She started with Czech now when she lives in the Czech Republic and simultaneously went back to her Russian. I can tell her knowledge of Russian was a BIG help when studying Czech and she managed to improve both languages enormously during some 6 months. She is very motivated though and spent a lot of time studying, and of course, living in the country where the language is spoken is a big help. Feel free to ask me if you have more specific questions. Lenka 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7376 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes  12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 13 01 May 2005 at 4:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to the forum Lenka!
I would really appreciate some information about the typical difficulties Russian speakers face when learning Czech. What are their favorite mistakes? Would you say the declension and conjugation system in Czech is simpler or more complex than that of Russian? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lenkadv Hexaglot Newbie Czech Republic Joined 7149 days ago 21 posts - 24 votes 3 sounds Speaks: Czech*, English, German, SpanishB2, Russian, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese | Message 11 of 13 02 May 2005 at 4:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I asked my student what she thought and this is what she said: the grammar systems of Czech and Russian are closely analogous. Russian *azbuka* makes the language less accessible for a beginner, while she found Czech pronunciation more difficult. Most common mistakes: pronunciation interference (niekotoryi/niektery, brat/bratr, shestdiesiat/shedesat etc. - excuse my rough transcription) - but you can deal with that, can you not :-)?
My comment on problems: there are two parallel systems in Czech grammar, as somebody already mentioned here somewhere, the General, mostly spoken Czech, and the Standard one, used on TV or in newspapers. To me it seems extremely confusing to conquer but my students arenīt really concerned - they probably struggle enough to make ANY sense of the whole thing. Another friend, Armenian/Russian native bilingual, who works as a Czech/Russian interpreter, commented that to her Czech was fairly easy up to a very proficient level but now she feels stuck and canīt get the final few percent right. She thinks that itīs the similarity of the languages that actually hinders her progress. But what sheīs dealing with now are real subtleties, like different emotional impact of putting a word here or there in the flexible word order that we have in Czech. Certainly a long way for anybody starting any language... Anyway, I tend to think that Czech is very complex and almost impossible to learn (hope this sounds challenging enough for you to go for it :-) but many people think the same about their mothertongue. When I told a Frenchman that after Spanish French is easy as pie for me, he held a long speech about the complexity of the French language, unequalled by any other language. So... Lenka 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| laxxy Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7119 days ago 172 posts - 177 votes Speaks: Ukrainian, Russian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 12 of 13 29 May 2005 at 10:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think Czech might be somewhat harder to learn than many other Slavic languages, if you are coming from Russian.
I am a native Ukrainian and Russian speaker, and I could always understand Polish texts easily without any formal study or prior exposure to the language, and after very little exposure the spoken Polish as well. Bulgarian and Slovak seem a bit more difficult but also understandable. Czech on the other hand is almost completely unintelligible for me, neither in speech nor in writing. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Magnum Bilingual Triglot Retired Moderator Pro Member United States Joined 7117 days ago 359 posts - 353 votes Speaks: English*, Serbian*, French Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 13 01 June 2005 at 2:14am | IP Logged | ||
Serbian is one of my mother tongues, and I can understand some Russian without ever having studied it. You will have an easier time learning Serbian if you know Russian. And if you get a chance, visit Serbia, you will love it. Beograd is a beautiful city, but the countryside is even nicer. People will open their homes to you and feed you like you were family. And while in Beograd, make sure to order a palacinke from a cafe or resturant. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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