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Russian is not hard

  Tags: Difficulty | Russian
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
47 messages over 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>
Préposition
Diglot
Senior Member
France
aspectualpairs.wordp
Joined 5114 days ago
186 posts - 283 votes 
Speaks: French*, EnglishC1
Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Arabic (Levantine)

 
 Message 33 of 47
11 January 2011 at 2:59pm | IP Logged 
chucknorrisman wrote:
I've found the cases, perfective/imperfective, and the verb conjugations quit easy, although there are quite a bit of irregularities in the conjugations. Now what's giving me a bit of trouble is vocabulary, multidirectional/unidirectional, and mobile stress. Directional issues may be resolved soon, but vocabulary and stress would continue to be difficult probably.


Aren't multi-directional and uni-directional other names for perfective and imperfective (that apply to prefixed verbs of motion)?
1 person has voted this message useful



Mooby
Senior Member
Scotland
Joined 6105 days ago
707 posts - 1220 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 34 of 47
11 January 2011 at 3:53pm | IP Logged 

"Aren't multi-directional and uni-directional other names for perfective and imperfective (that apply to prefixed verbs of motion)?"


No you're confusing it with determinate and indeterminate modes of action.

Determinate > expresses a single journey, something specific, one direction.
                'John walked to the museum last week'

Indeterminate > expresses habitual, repetitive journies, return journies,
                   frequent action.
                   'Every morning John walks to the shop and buys a newspaper'.


Perfective and imperfective are verb aspects indicating whether or not an
action is completed or ongoing (a simplified explanation for a tricky concept to
native English speakers like me!)
1 person has voted this message useful



polyglHot
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5066 days ago
173 posts - 229 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 35 of 47
11 January 2011 at 5:39pm | IP Logged 
Russian pronunciation is easy. I've had worse struggles with certain Javanese words
starting with NJ or consisting merely og NG NG NJ.
The problem with Russian is that the locals demand you pronounce their language
perfectly, and with perfect stress. Even as a complete beginner they expect this of
you. They CAN understand your 80 % correct pronunciation, they just don't want to.

The vocabulary is easy. I have found more than 40 words that are the same or have the
same base in Norwegian. I am guessing they are also the same in German. Not in English
though. Thus, these words you get for free as a Norwegian/German/etc. speaker. Of
course the rest of the vocabulary has to be acquired, and of course learning German for
a native Norwegian speaker would mean even more free words....

Stress is used in other languages as well. It will come naturally in the learning
process, unless of course you base your studies solely on reading from a Dostoevski
book alone in your room. You'd need to acquire it naturally and hear it being spoken.

The Cyrillic alphabet is easy. One can get a Cyrillic keyboard for the computer and a
Cyrillic cellphone. After a while typing is effortless. The alphabet is just that, an
alphabet! It starts with a, b, v, g, d instead of a, b, c, d. Just a few new letters
and sounds need to be learned and c is an s sound that comes later than usual. After
having used a dictionary, keyboard, and cellphone for a while this is not a problem.

I have only been in Russia 3 months and plan on taking my sweet time learning it. I
found pronunciation, stress and vocabulary to be very easy. I haven't dived into the
grammar yet but I have a feeling it will be pretty bad.   
1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5334 days ago
4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 36 of 47
11 January 2011 at 5:59pm | IP Logged 
polyglHot wrote:
Russian pronunciation is easy. I've had worse struggles with certain Javanese words
starting with NJ or consisting merely og NG NG NJ.
The problem with Russian is that the locals demand you pronounce their language
perfectly, and with perfect stress. Even as a complete beginner they expect this of
you. They CAN understand your 80 % correct pronunciation, they just don't want to.

The vocabulary is easy. I have found more than 40 words that are the same or have the
same base in Norwegian. I am guessing they are also the same in German. Not in English
though. Thus, these words you get for free as a Norwegian/German/etc. speaker. Of
course the rest of the vocabulary has to be acquired, and of course learning German for
a native Norwegian speaker would mean even more free words....

Stress is used in other languages as well. It will come naturally in the learning
process, unless of course you base your studies solely on reading from a Dostoevski
book alone in your room. You'd need to acquire it naturally and hear it being spoken.

The Cyrillic alphabet is easy. One can get a Cyrillic keyboard for the computer and a
Cyrillic cellphone. After a while typing is effortless. The alphabet is just that, an
alphabet! It starts with a, b, v, g, d instead of a, b, c, d. Just a few new letters
and sounds need to be learned and c is an s sound that comes later than usual. After
having used a dictionary, keyboard, and cellphone for a while this is not a problem.

I have only been in Russia 3 months and plan on taking my sweet time learning it. I
found pronunciation, stress and vocabulary to be very easy. I haven't dived into the
grammar yet but I have a feeling it will be pretty bad.   


Hi Justberta, nice to see that you are doing well in Russia.
1 person has voted this message useful



polyglHot
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5066 days ago
173 posts - 229 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 37 of 47
11 January 2011 at 6:42pm | IP Logged 
Thank you, haha how did you know it was me... I had to change my username and account, I
can't log on with my old one:(
1 person has voted this message useful



vasa
Triglot
Newbie
Czech Republic
lelaon.com
Joined 5066 days ago
11 posts - 12 votes
Speaks: Slovak, Czech*, English
Studies: Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Welsh

 
 Message 38 of 47
11 January 2011 at 7:11pm | IP Logged 
polyglHot wrote:
Russian pronunciation is easy. I've had worse struggles with certain Javanese words
starting with NJ or consisting merely og NG NG NJ.
The problem with Russian is that the locals demand you pronounce their language
perfectly, and with perfect stress. Even as a complete beginner they expect this of
you. They CAN understand your 80 % correct pronunciation, they just don't want to.

The vocabulary is easy. I have found more than 40 words that are the same or have the
same base in Norwegian. I am guessing they are also the same in German. Not in English
though. Thus, these words you get for free as a Norwegian/German/etc. speaker. Of
course the rest of the vocabulary has to be acquired, and of course learning German for
a native Norwegian speaker would mean even more free words....

Stress is used in other languages as well. It will come naturally in the learning
process, unless of course you base your studies solely on reading from a Dostoevski
book alone in your room. You'd need to acquire it naturally and hear it being spoken.

The Cyrillic alphabet is easy. One can get a Cyrillic keyboard for the computer and a
Cyrillic cellphone. After a while typing is effortless. The alphabet is just that, an
alphabet! It starts with a, b, v, g, d instead of a, b, c, d. Just a few new letters
and sounds need to be learned and c is an s sound that comes later than usual. After
having used a dictionary, keyboard, and cellphone for a while this is not a problem.

I have only been in Russia 3 months and plan on taking my sweet time learning it. I
found pronunciation, stress and vocabulary to be very easy. I haven't dived into the
grammar yet but I have a feeling it will be pretty bad.   


This is the first time I see someone think Russian is easy. But well, I like the optimism. Actually all the languages are easy, but as a native to Czech language, which is quite close to Russian I know it's a bit tricky, especially in the grammar (eg. verb aspect). But I'll not try to discourage you, good luck. I hope you can learn it.
1 person has voted this message useful



polyglHot
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5066 days ago
173 posts - 229 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 39 of 47
11 January 2011 at 8:01pm | IP Logged 
I don't think that it is easy. Only the 4 points stated above. As I have said the
grammar seems very strange for me and I haven't even tried to really learn it yet. I'm
taking the lazy and organic approach to the grammar so to speak.
1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5334 days ago
4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 40 of 47
11 January 2011 at 9:11pm | IP Logged 
polyglHot wrote:
Thank you, haha how did you know it was me... I had to change my username and account, I
can't log on with my old one:(


I recognized your style.:) Plus how many Norwegian girls do we have on the forum who have said that they were going to Russia? I am glad that you feel Russian is easy. I haven't quite gotten there yet, but I am just here at little Stabekk. I am sure that actually being in Russia is a big help.


1 person has voted this message useful



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