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Best Slavic Language to Start With? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5057 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes  Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 17 of 31 30 May 2012 at 5:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'd suggest to the OP to go with whatever their heart tells them. Ultimately, their drive to learn a language will
come from their passion from it. While Russian speakers represent a large portion of all Slavic speakers, they still only represent half of all Slavic speakers. There are many more countries and many more cultures to be explored in the realm of Slavic languages. Yes, Russian is the most practical language of the group and everyone would understand why you learned it but if everyone turned away from Slovenian or Slovak then wouldn't these vibrant cultures be essentially forgotten by foreigners? Even half a million speakers is enough company for a lifetime so your only problem would be with finding adequate resources and speaking partners when handling smaller languages. No, it isn't the optimal method for learning a first Slavic language, but wouldn't taking the risk be worth it if you have your heart set on it? All of this "practicality" is getting in the way of the motives for learning in the first place! If the OP has no idea as to which language they want to choose, then they should explore different Slavic cultures first before settling with a language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5047 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 18 of 31 30 May 2012 at 7:00am | IP Logged | |||||
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Also there is much more possibility to use Russian in Bulgaria than vice-versa, the same
is with other Slavic languages (Yugoslavs are worse at Russian). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5000 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 19 of 31 30 May 2012 at 4:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This applies to eastern slavic-speaking countries but not much to the western ones, not
sure about southern. (And in some countries quite a lot of people might feel offended if you spoke to the in Russian and not English if you know both of them.) But all these thoughts are not important because you can always use English. No matter anything else, you should start with the language you think is the best. A language you won't mind to be your only Slavic language should your plans to learn second or third blow up. Which language will give you access to the part of culture you like? Which country/countries would you like to visit or even live in the most? 2 persons have 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 20 of 31 30 May 2012 at 4:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
Based on the original post, I doubt that interest for culture or tourism is guiding Swift's choice that much. He seems more interested in choosing the first Slavonic language for philological reasons (i.e. knowing which of the group's languages would provide the greatest "discount" or basis for subsequently learning any of the other languages). I repeat that starting with either Russian or Slovak would fit best for his purposes (with perhaps an extra biased nudge for Slovak - Slovenčina do toho!). Kartof suggested also that Bulgarian wouldn't be the greatest choice here because it's a black sheep in the family because of the almost total loss of explicit declension (not to mention its extension of the old Slavonic conjugations into forms that are now unfamiliar or downright weird to most other Slavs).
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Camundonguinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4740 days ago 273 posts - 500 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish Studies: Swedish | Message 21 of 31 30 May 2012 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The best Slavic language is Slovenian.
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| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5047 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 22 of 31 30 May 2012 at 6:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
Everyone speaks English including older generation? a friend of mine was in Prague and spoke Russian in all the shops, for example. I have talked to Czecs twice in Russian (in Egypt and Montenegro). My brother was in Bulgaria and said that many people at least understand Russian there, and no one was offended of course. Not to say that people would be very glad to speak Russian in Serbia if they can. Edited by Марк on 30 May 2012 at 6:35pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5057 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 23 of 31 30 May 2012 at 11:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
In Bulgaria, Russian was a mandatory school subject from 1st grade up until 12th during the Communist era but few people actually speak it well unless they chose to work in government or related fields. Of course, you can get to a certain extent with people's "school Russian" which is where the passive understanding comes from. On the coast, interestingly enough, there is a concentration of native Russian speakers and English speakers who come to vacation or own summer homes there. You can get much further with Russian and English on the coast than in the interior of the country. In fact, while vacationing with family at a resort in "Свети Влас" on the southern coast of the country, hotel workers and locals spoke to us in English at first before we made them aware that we spoke Bulgarian. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4880 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 24 of 31 31 May 2012 at 12:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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I would think the language with the most diverse resources would be the best one to start with - I find that it takes a variety of methods to make a strong start in any language. On top of that, you're more likely to find used or discount copies of more popular languages.
This is what I've found: Assimil: Russian Assimil, German and French base: Polish, Bulgarian, Czech Pimsleur, 3 levels: Russian Pimleur: 1 level: Polish, Czech Michel Thomas, Total and Perfect: Russian FSI: Bulgarian FSI FAST: Russian, Czech FSI text only: Polish To me, Russian seems like the obvious choice even if is harder than some of the others. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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