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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 9 of 16 28 April 2007 at 6:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Leosmith, Magnum, thank you for your posts.
What follows is a list of pros and cons about choosing either Russian or French. Obviously they are all related to my situation. I study foreign languages at univeristy and I have to take a third language (besides the ones I have already chosen: English and German). PROS FOR FRENCH I'm at an upper intermediate level and I can continue my study directly with movies, novels and audiobooks (I really like this possibility). It's an easy language, related in many ways to my native tongue, so I'm positive I can reach a native level of fluency (this is a strong motivation to me). I could easily get a certificate (level C2); there's even an examination center in my town. Many people study French at school, so the possibility of finding a job as a teacher is high (it's also possible to give private lessons, since many school students of French seek help). French tourists seem to like the place where I live (even though Germans and British are far more numerous). I think French is a nice complement to English and German (they are all important official languages in the EU). CONS FOR FRENCH Too many people in Italy study or have studied French in middle and high school. This doesn't necessarily mean that each one of them knows the language at a decent level. They always include French in their CV though. I really fear that the chic factor for French is very low (at least here). PROS FOR RUSSIAN As already said, Russian might have a potential as a language, especially if Russia continues to improve its economy (i.e. Touristic flow from Russia is on the rise). It's a very cryptic and fascinating language and Russian culture is very exotic. I like Russian literature, especially Dostoevsky; Very few people study Russian, even at the faculty, not more than 15 students per year choose to study it; so becoming expert in Russian could be like finding a niche (not sure though). when you say you speak Russian everybody stares at you in disbelief (ok, I supose that's quite a stupid reason for taking a language). CONS FOR RUSSIAN Very hard language; I had a look at a grammar handbook and I got very discouraged. I'll have to learn it from scratch, and I don't like basic courses where you learn greetings, how to order food and the likes. It will take years and years to get to a decent level. requiring so much effort and time, I fear that the study of Russian might seriously interfere with that of English and German (I do want to perfect these two languages). I suspect it might not be possible to reach a native level of fluency; I know people who have actively studied Russian for twenty years and still make many mistakes. Edited by Luigi on 28 April 2007 at 3:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MarkTime Newbie United States Joined 6410 days ago 30 posts - 29 votes Studies: Russian | Message 10 of 16 30 April 2007 at 3:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Luigi, let me agree about the CONS of Russian. I have studied Russian for 5 years. When I was in the military I tested at 99% for foreign language aptitude on the army intelligence tests. Whether those tests were just plain wrong, or Russian is hard, or I've gotten too old :-) I don't know but Russian has been hard for me. 5 years later, I'm not fluent. However, I can say that I think if I had to start over, and have 5 fresh years, I would come alot further along... it reminds me of the person who wrote the book and said learn any language in one year. Yes! But, it takes 5 years to learn how to do it in one year! I start to type letters in Russian and make sense. I correct my sentences using Google (the whole internet is my example)....and I find that it isn't impossible, but it took me a full four years to stop testing at the 'beginner' level (I'm a proud intermediate right now!).
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| Luigi Diglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6931 days ago 113 posts - 135 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: German, Russian | Message 11 of 16 30 April 2007 at 4:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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MarkTime,
thank you very much for your reply, can I ask you why you chose Russian over other foreign languages? I'm reading all your posts on this forum, you seem pretty expert in Russian culture and language. why do you think one should choose to study Russian today? And again, some experts say that Russia is now on a long inexorable path toward decline and consequently, Russian language has taken a backseat in the world of languages. Yet, other experts affirm just the contrary, saying that Russian economy is doing well, and if that trend is confirmed we can expect Russia to become the second economy in Europe within few years. Thus Russian is expected to resurface as a popular language. From your knowledge of Russian situation, what can you say about these statements? And what do you think the future of the Russian language could be? Thank you in advance for your reply. PS: I too correct some of my sentences in English using Google; you're right when you say that the whole internet is an example for us. Edited by Luigi on 30 April 2007 at 4:43pm 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 12 of 16 01 May 2007 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm still confused on your motives? Is your motive for learning another language to earn more money or something more like culture, etc?
"Russia contains the world's largest oil and natural gas reserves, the largest diamond reserves, and the second largest coal reserves. Nearly a third of all tin and iron ores are in Russia, as are over 40% of all platinum group minerals and over a third of all nickel reserves." I also read a article on BBC that in poland the Russian language is making a comeback, slowly though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| WFU03 Groupie Norway Joined 6666 days ago 62 posts - 70 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian, French | Message 13 of 16 02 May 2007 at 6:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree...what are your motives?
I could think of reasons to learn either or neither depending on your motives. If you just want a versatile, growing language that will be influential in your lifetime, pick Mandarin. 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 14 of 16 04 May 2007 at 8:40am | IP Logged | ||
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IbanezFire, WFU03, thank you for your replies.
My motives are most job related even though I'm also attracted to Russian culture and literature. I would like to learn an Asian language, such as Japanese, but in the place where I live in Asian languages are not useful. On the other hand, Russian is becoming, if not important, at least of moderate use, because the flow of tourists from Russia has grown in recent years. It's obvious that this tendence will increase if Russia's economy and Russian life style improve. Edited by Luigi on 04 May 2007 at 8:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arti Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 7003 days ago 130 posts - 165 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: French, Czech | Message 15 of 16 04 May 2007 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Luigi, as I'm from Russia and I work in international company I can say that we have very many expats here and salaries of those foreiners who work in Russia are much higher then salaries in EU or US. Personally I've never met any Italians in Russia, mostly Germans and Americans, those of them who speak Russian at least on basic level have more advantages, I mean, attitude of local Russian employees and general assimilation in society, people don't feel themselves as total strangers.
I don't want to say in which company I work, but in worldwide respect, Russian projects are ones of the most profitable for the whole company. Of course working in Russia is harder probably, but many of our foreign colleagues live and work here, though I'm not sure that it is easy to find job in Russia, so probably you should try French as you'll have more chances to use your language knowledge as an advantage. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hernanday Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 4535 days ago 18 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 16 17 June 2012 at 12:36am | IP Logged | ||
-Better investment? For an Italian, probably French. -Russian, more rewarding in long run. -I think Russian has more first language speakers. French is widely studied, but its usefulness as a second language is highly questionable imo, because often it is just studied at a beginner level. Ie. In Canada it is study widely at the beginner level outside Quebec, but it'd be of very limited use outside Quebec and some parts of Ontario and New Brunswick. -I'd pick Russian IF you ignore difficulty, but that's a pretty big IF. Any language that involves a new alphabet will be difficult IMO, which is why I stick to indo european languages 1 person has voted this message useful |
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