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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6239 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 1 of 7 11 January 2008 at 8:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I have gone back and forth about this a few times. I have decided that I want to learn Bulgarian first. I finally have several good materials, and I am motivated to learn. I also want to learn Russian, and I have heard that it is more difficult. I have recently been told that if I first learn Russian, then Bulgarian will be easy. But if I first learn Bulgarian, then Russian will still be very difficult (declenation, harder grammar, etc).
Any thoughts? I want both languages, I just wonder if the order is important? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rob Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6166 days ago 287 posts - 288 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 2 of 7 11 January 2008 at 9:06am | IP Logged | ||
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This really depends on your reasons for wanting to learn the two languages (or, indeed, if you don't have any reasons, but just want to do it for fun!). Certainly, Russian has more speakers, would probably be a more desired language if you're in any kind of business, and is generally thought of as harder, so would probably be a good choice if you wanted to get the harder one out of the way first. However, from the way you've written your post, it seems like you really want to get on with Bulgarian...
According to the language profile on this page, there is a 90% transparency for Bulgarian if you know Russian, and the grammar is very easy, but there are only 8 million speakers of Bulgarian compared to 167 million of Russian. It does seem like Bulgarian would be easy to learn if you knew Russian, but similarly, perhaps Russian wouldn't seem so hard if you already knew Bulgarian. Ok maybe that isn't of much help, so I'll give a shorter answer: If it were me, I'd do Russian first. However, from the way you've written, it seems like your heart is more in Bulgarian, so I'd say go for that one! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 3 of 7 11 January 2008 at 10:07am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with rob when he posted that you should go with what your heart says.
Difficulty is relative with these languages from what I can tell. While Bulgarian has virtually no declension outside the pronouns, it has expanded on the original conjugational patterns from Proto-Slavonic so that you have about a couple dozen tenses with their attendant moods. Russian in contrast has maintained more of the declension patterns from Proto-Slavonic (Russian now has at least 6 cases) but has whittled down the original conjugational patterns to present, past and future with their attendant moods. Both languages seem equally difficult with pronunciation as both have variable stress and vowel reduction (unstressed vowels are pronounced differently from their stressed counterparts) which is often not marked in writing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6239 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 4 of 7 11 January 2008 at 10:13am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't "need" either language. My wife is from Bulgaria, so that is why I want to learn Bulgarian...so I can talk to her family. Russian would be just for fun. I have gone back and forth with the two, but to me it makes more sense to learn the language that I can use in the family. I was just concerned that Russian would be harder after Bulgarian, because of the differences between the two.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 5 of 7 11 January 2008 at 10:23am | IP Logged | ||
I'm curious. Which materials are you using for Bulgarian? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6239 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 6 of 7 11 January 2008 at 11:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I have Teach Yourself Bulgarian (Holman and Kovatcheva), Colloquial Bulgarian (Papantchev), and FSI Bulgarian.
Also I have a native speaker (my wife) to help. She hates teaching, and does not know grammar at all. But she can at least help with questions and pronounciation. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7022 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 7 of 7 11 January 2008 at 5:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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It seems Bulgarian would be of more use to you personally, and your true interest seems to lie there. If you choose Bulgarian first, I don't think Russian would be that difficult later. Most Bulgarians I have met thought Russian was fairly easy, and could understand much of what was being said in Russian. What does your wife say about Russian?
I don't speak Bulgarian, so this is second hand. From what I have read, picking up a second Slavic language is substantially easier than the first. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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