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Russian from Serbo-Croatian - how easy? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| ace-ventura Newbie United States Joined 6743 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes | Message 1 of 15 08 November 2005 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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first of all, as a new member I'd like to greet everyone on the forum.
I'm a native serbian, and my native language is serbo-croatian. I'm aware that such a language doesn't exist anymore, but I can't say I'm polyglot though I can speak serbian, croatian, bosnian and similar former-yugoslav languages. also, as you can see, I speak a little english, which I'll hopefully improve though I'm living in usa now. I have a girlfriend from russia here. she is here temporary, and she will go back to moscow in a couple of months. since none of us is a native english speaker, we have slight struggling in communication. that's how happened my first contact with russian language, and I decided to give a try and started learning. so far, I can perfectly pronounce (as she says) a couple of swear words. also, I'm trying to use pimsleur program. the main question is, is it a good idea to start learning second foreign language while not finished with previous one, under these circumstances? I mean, I'm forced to learn english daily, and also I'm trying to learn russian through courses for english speakers. any advices? for me, this is great opportunity to start learning another foreign language, because I have native speaker by myself. How fast progress may I expect (considering serbo-croatian and russian similarity)? I doubt I can expect to speak to her in russian while she's still here, but phone calls from usa to russia is not that expensive anymore :-) thanks 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marin Triglot Groupie Croatia Joined 6846 days ago 50 posts - 51 votes  Speaks: Croatian*, English, Italian Studies: German, Russian, Persian | Message 2 of 15 08 November 2005 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello, or should I say zdravo? :)
From my personal experience, you shouldn't have problems in learning English and Russian at the same time. I am as you of Croatian/Serbian origin, and currently I am learning Italian and a while ago started with Russian without finishing my Italian. It's not a bad idea at all to learn English and Russian at the same time. They're not closely related, you won't get confused. With Serbian/Russian and its similarity, it can be a tricky situation because you will passively understand a lot of Russian words immediately and therefore probably won't try very hard to memorize them in their correct form. If you're persistent and do at least 2-3 hours of Russian a week, in less than a year you won't have problems in communication. Sretno! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ace-ventura Newbie United States Joined 6743 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes | Message 3 of 15 08 November 2005 at 9:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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zdravo, privjet or simply hello :-)
what do you mean "no problems in comunication"? if that's close to my present abillity to comunicate in english, I would be completely satisfied. I don't believe my present english comunication skills are at especially high level, but that's what I consider as minimum for abillity for active use of any language. anyway thanks for quick reply :-) p.s. actually, I have already faced that problem, though I can understend russians much more than I can speak. even more than they can understand me speaking my native language. Edited by ace-ventura on 08 November 2005 at 9:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 6808 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 4 of 15 08 November 2005 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome! I would say that you would not have much trouble confusing English with Russian if you decide to study both, since they are so different. I'll bet you would progress fairly rapidly in Russian, especially once you get a basic vocabulary down. The mechanics and grammar of another Slavic language should not be a huge mountain to climb, as it is for an American like myself. Since you said you are Serbian, I assume you already read the Cyrillic alphabet with ease. For me, I have to carefully "sound out" long Russian words, and even then I am not sure where the stresses should go sometimes. By the way, your English already seems quite good, maybe its better than you think! Its astronomically better than my Russian!
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| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7163 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 15 09 November 2005 at 12:56am | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to the forum Ace Ventura!
You will find a long discussion of the opposite problem here (which other Slavic language to learn after Russian and how easy it is). I think you should get some basic program to get the basic grammatical and vocabulary differences in your head, then take some Russian newspaper and read an article every day (try Newsru.com). With a Russian girlfriend the rest should come easy! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sapedro Triglot Senior Member Portugal descredito.blogspot. Joined 6905 days ago 216 posts - 219 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, French Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Greek | Message 6 of 15 09 November 2005 at 4:19am | IP Logged | ||
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When I was in Serbia I saw a Russian soap on TV, and from the sound and the subtitles I could tell that Russian is as close of Serbian as Portuguese to Italian...
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| orion Senior Member United States Joined 6808 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 7 of 15 09 November 2005 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | ||
Wouldn't it be relatively easier for a Portuguese to learn Italian than English? I guess maybe I don't understand your point. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| morprussell Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6950 days ago 272 posts - 285 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 8 of 15 09 November 2005 at 4:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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He is saying that Russian is close to Serbian just like Portuguese is close to Italian. He isn't making any reference to English.
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