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Russian : why so popular ? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5057 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes  Speaks: Russian* | Message 97 of 107 29 March 2012 at 2:46pm | IP Logged | ||
Languages are not snobby, people are. I agree that a strong argument about the culture can be applied to any language, the amount of things you can read, watch is different though. That's why I don't like this emphasis on Russian culture as a reason. I don't think it is somehow superior to others. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Oyster2004 Newbie United States Joined 4738 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dari, French | Message 98 of 107 20 August 2012 at 7:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd like to learn Russian because of its' National Anthem. It just sounds so, I don't know, charming in a medieval sort of way. Also, I'd like to talk to someone who lived through the Cold War and learn about what life was really like, their attitudes towards Americans, etc. I'd like to be able to do that in their language.
I studied Russian for about 4 months about 9 years ago..How I wish I would have stuck with it..Thinking strongly about picking it back up, but I know Spanish would be a better investment for when I return to civilian life. So I may learn that first. Although, I don't really want to personally. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4950 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 99 of 107 21 August 2012 at 3:45am | IP Logged | ||
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I;ve never been a person to dislike anything without any reason, I just don't get people that say "I don't like this" without even glimpsing into it. But that said, I never was particularly attracted to Russian, though I've always been very interested in Russia from a natural sciences point of view.
But now I'm really considering learning it. The alphabet looks so cool of course and that is a motivator, but also the fact it is a slavic language and I would like to be able to say I can speak a language from each major branch of (western) Indo-European (I would like to learn one from the east branch to, likely Hindi). Also, it seems it would not be as difficult as I believed after reading the features of Russian. The whole perfective/imperfective verb thing that many learners of Russian who's native language is a Germanic one claim to be stumped by, seems like a breeze to me, since Romance has basically the identical set up for past tenses. Plus, I've studied Spanish tenses EXTENSIVELY and I know them inside out, and can use all Spanish tenses with authority (and Spanish may have the most productive quantity of tenses of any language either Romance or Germanic). Not to sound cocky, but I have a very good temporal map (but it takes a lot of thinking to understand how tenses work in your head). The cases would not be a huge issue since I have German now well under my belt in that sense, a couple more cases is not going to be a major mountain. And everyone says learning the alphabet is much easier than people believe. Edited by outcast on 21 August 2012 at 3:47am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 100 of 107 21 August 2012 at 1:55pm | IP Logged | ||
Nevertheless, Russian is a great language, have fun with it! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5057 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 101 of 107 21 August 2012 at 2:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Spanish verbs are not very regular either. Are German verbs better?
If you learn a verb in two forms (inf. and 3p pl), you can predict all the forms in most cases. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 102 of 107 21 August 2012 at 3:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Actually, German weak verbs are very regular. Strong verbs are similar to English strong verbs, i.e. they show ablaut in the past tense and the past participle. Additionally, they have umlaut in the 2nd and 3rd pers. sg. of the present tense.
Russian verbs, however, have a very regular past tense, but you can't predict the present tense (for perfective verbs: future tense) from the infinitive in most times. Present stem and infinitive stem can be dramatically different like in взять --> возьму or открыть --> открою. There isn't even a system for infinitives. A verb ending in -ать can be и-conjugation, while some verbs ending in -ить are e-conjugation. Moreover, there is consonant gradation and stress shift in the present tense for a lot of verbs. You have to know all the rules before you can conjugate a verb correctly. Of course, there are other languages which have a difficult verbal system. Icelandic is one of them. From my experience, verbs in Romance languages are rather regular. I can't speak for Spanish, though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4669 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 103 of 107 22 August 2012 at 1:59am | IP Logged | ||
Since the present of 45% of Spanish verbs is not predictable from the infinitive, students are advised to memorize the 1st person singular of all verbs. But, this does not make a verb irregular, similar to Latin or Croatian, there are around 20 classes of regular verbs ;). So, DEFENDER and DEPENDER would be different subclasses of regular verbs, in Spanish. for example, in Spanish you learn to understand is said ''entender'' (yo entiendo'') to defend is said ''defender'' (yo defiendo) to depend is said ''depender'' (yo dependo) to sell is said ''vender'' (yo vendo) In Spanish, you cannot know from the infinitive whether there is a diphthong in the present tense or not, Analysis of all Spanish verbs: http://www.verbolog.com/arbol.htm Spanish verbs of the 1st conjugation (-AR) have 39 subclasses, the ones in of the 2nd conjugation (-ER) have 30 subclasses, and the ones of the 3rd conjugation (-IR) 32 subclasses, there are 17 semi-irregular verbs, and 52 irregular verbs: http://www.verbolog.com/conjuga.htm You can predict the present form of the Spanish verb from the infinitive in only 50% of cases. So, you should learn the present form together with the infinitive (Which is not dissimilar to Latin, and most Slavic languages, including Russian). Edited by Medulin on 22 August 2012 at 2:09am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5057 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 104 of 107 22 August 2012 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
Russian verbs simply have two stems, you can’t predict the Present tense from the Infinitive as well as vice-versa. That’s like in Latin where the verb has three stems. The Past tense is not perfectly regular. First, for verbs ending with чь or ти in the Inf. you have to know the Present tense stem as well. Then, there are some questions with the stress and with dropping ну (исчезнуть – исчез, прыгнуть – прыгнул). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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