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Russian or French: help me choose | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Luigi Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6931 days ago 113 posts - 135 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 16 26 April 2007 at 2:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Which one would be a better investment? Which one would be the most rewarding, especially in the long run?
Russian is so difficult, but French, on the other hand, is so wide studied everywhere that it's more or less like following the frock. If you were forced to choose only one of the two, not taking into consideration their level of difficulty but considering only their usefulness and their foreseeable role in the future, what would your choice be? Thanks in advance for your replies. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6694 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 16 26 April 2007 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you had been new to both languages I would have suggested that you do French first, - for you as an Italian it should be fairly easy to learn it (many words in common), and with France inside the EU and Russia outside there can be little doubt about which language will be more common in your neighbourhood. Furthermore French would be a good language to know when you study Russian: apart from German and English it is the main source of loan words in Russian.
But there is another aspect which shouldn't be minimized: you have already started your Russian studies, and opting out now because you make slow progress would set a bad example for further studies in other languages. If you do continue now and get Russian up to a decent level within a reasonable time, then French will be an easy target for you afterwards. If you shift to French now you may never get back to Russian. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7147 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 3 of 16 26 April 2007 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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It depends on what you want to do.
There isn't an absolute choice for "better investment" here. If you were itching to work in Russia, then Russian would be logical. If you were itching to work in France or somewhere where French is used often (i.e. Francophonie), then French would be logical. If you force me to choose on the basis of their forseeable role in the future, I'd flip a coin and make my decision based on that. As you can tell, I'm not terribly optimistic about a Russian or French resurgence in my lifetime. English's status has taken a few centuries to grow. I'm not sure if French or Russian will become so presitigious in our lifetime that you can start considering those languages as "better investments" in the absolute. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| IbanezFire Senior Member United States Joined 6685 days ago 119 posts - 124 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Russian | Message 4 of 16 26 April 2007 at 4:00pm | IP Logged | ||
Frock? You mean Flock? Look at what you want to determine which would be more practical. Look at your motivation towards each and desire to learn, etc., etc. Personally, I would say Russian over French, but it's not my choice. Good Luck. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Luigi Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6931 days ago 113 posts - 135 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Russian | Message 5 of 16 26 April 2007 at 5:19pm | IP Logged | ||
Sorry... just a little typo! IbanezFire, Why would you choose Russian over French? Would it be because you like the challenge of a difficult language or because you foresee a more significant role of Russian and Russia in the future? Iversen, I've already studied French for several years (it was mandatory in school) and I'm at an upper-intermediate level. This fact hasn't been mentioned because everybody would have suggested to continue with french and my dilemma is instead whether it isn't better to drop French (at least for now), and start a more advantageous language (taking for granted that being Russia a growing economy, and the language quite difficult to learn, a good knowledge of it could turn to my advantage). However, you are perfectly right when you say that French would be more useful, at least beacause France is inside the EU, as Italy is. But here is my problem: in Italy too many people have French on their CV (it doesn't mean they can really speak it well, of course), anyway the study of French is widespread, while Russian would set me apart from the crowd, and this is a part of its charm (and maybe part of its uselfulness). Chung, I agree with your pessimism when you don't see an immediate Russian or French resurgence in the future, especially when the role of these languages is compared to that of English. On the other hand, an investment on French would require little effort (at least in my case, since I speak another romance language, and have already studied French in the past) while Russian looks like a big challenge to me. I wonder whether it would be worth it, and yet, I find it so fascinating. I thank everybody for your opinions and suggestions. Edited by Luigi on 26 April 2007 at 5:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| IbanezFire Senior Member United States Joined 6685 days ago 119 posts - 124 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Russian | Message 6 of 16 26 April 2007 at 6:38pm | IP Logged | ||
Russia definitely has potential. Russia is the largest country, has huge resources, if the economy pickups it could be a real contender, spoken in other eastern european countries (although not as common anymore), has great literature, etc. As for personal reasons, yes I do like challenge, but French has nothing that interests me really. I'm not really interested in the language, nor the culture. Plus many people do not study russian because it is so "hard" and often (80%) choose German, French, or Spanish in the USA. The only way I would learn French is if I had to for a job or survival. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6541 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 7 of 16 26 April 2007 at 9:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Luigi,
These are my next 2 languages also. What a coincidence:)I decided on French, because I've been putting it off forever, and it should be a fairly easy language for me. Japanese and Mandarin are wearing me out, so it will be a sweet break. Here in the states, there are so many Russians I come in contact with. They are really nice people, and I overhear them a lot. I have to learn the language to improve my evesdropping, which is a very strong motivation for me. Good luck! Edited by leosmith on 27 April 2007 at 10:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Magnum Bilingual Triglot Retired Moderator Pro Member United States Joined 7108 days ago 359 posts - 353 votes Speaks: English*, Serbian*, French Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 16 27 April 2007 at 3:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I love French and would encourage anyone I know to study it. Knowing French has given me much pleasure. I like their literature and their movies (Rent the Dinner Game and prepare to laugh).
But I do not wish to knock Russian. There is always an advantage in finding a niche. Russia has excellent food and some of the best authors the world has ever known. I love Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky has forced me to think in ways other writers have not. Both are good choices. Perhaps a better question would be- "If I gave you 1 free airline ticket and 30 free days in a hotel in Paris or St. Petersburg, which place would you rather go?". Answer that question and you will know what language to study. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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