Graphic on US foreign service estimates to learn languages.

[leeholsen]

 Came across this, thought it might have some interest here as many of us have learned or are learning russian. thought it would be neat to campare different languages.

 it's from the US, so of course english isnt listed; and unfortunately german isnt either(my foreign language from school) and ukranian isnt either but anyone who has tried and knows any russian will probably come to the same conclusion i did that it is the same as russian.

 http://voxy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/110329-VOXY-HARDLANGUAGES-FINAL-WIDE.png

[RichyRich]

Norwegian and Swedish should not be in the easy category... at least not a category that includes, Dutch, French Italian and Spanish. That said it is interesting overall

[Ste]

Norwegian and Swedish should not be in the easy category... at least not a category that includes, Dutch, French Italian and Spanish. That said it is interesting overall

Swedish is quite easy apart from the post-definates, the 'a' and the 'the' being added onto the end of the noun, otherwise, fairly easy.

Flicka
Flickan
Flickor
Flickorna

Easy!

[Herrie]

Norwegian and Swedish should not be in the easy category... at least not a category that includes, Dutch, French Italian and Spanish. That said it is interesting overall

Ehm they should be....

Dutch, English, German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish all from the same family.

Many words in English come French as well. French is in the same family as Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Latin and Portuguese for example.

I speak quite a few from the above group (Dutch, German, English, French and Spanish) and I can understand quite a bit from the other languages in the same family.

Ukrainian would be on the same level as Russian, just like Czech would be on the same level as Polish for example.

[RichyRich]

Ehm they should be....

Dutch, English, German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish all from the same family.

Oh have you misunderstood me, I know they are all Germanic and come from the same language group... but what I meant is Norwegian and Swedish are not easy, I know French and German yet I struggle to hell with Swedish. This is just me and that is the only part I disagree with, clearly it is down to personal preferences.

[andrewfi]

RichyRIch, it is a funny thing, but maybe how easy (or not) Swedish is comes down to how good you are at English. For example, when I was at school I learned both Latin and Middle English (the stuff that Chaucer and those a few hundred years before him spoke).

While I can not pretend to speak Swedish I can understand a little of what I hear and I can do 'food packet and menu' reading, that is simple stuff is not hard to understand because so much of Swedish is held in common with pre Norman Conquest English. Those roots would make it quite hard to describe Swedish as being hard to learn for an English speaker. Finnish, Estonian much harder.

Russian became much easier when I learned to read it because all of a sudden all the French shared worlds became available to me. In the C17/18th French was the language of polite society, a result of the desire of Peter The Great to open up his country to the world.

[Chris]

RichyRIch, it is a funny thing, but maybe how easy (or not) Swedish is comes down to how good you are at English. For example, when I was at school I learned both Latin and Middle English (the stuff that Chaucer and those a few hundred years before him spoke).

That's interesting, not seen that mentioned on here before,  my son was studying Middle English at University last semester, a mix of Old French and Old English. Britons spoke old English, William the conquerer brought over Old French and middle English occurred later, around the 14th century as far as I can remember, literature was written in French or Latin before that.

His last essay was about the quality and character of the love in Marie de France's Lais and didacticism and was marked by Dic Edwards (internationally recognised playwright and poet)

[andrewfi]

Chris, check with your son but Middle English did not spring full formed; like all these things it was a series of developments with, yes, the largest single influence being Norman French after 1066, but remember that the Normans were actually Vikings anyway. No more French than I am. Also, most people even those who spoke with their 'betters' would have been using more Old English for generations. The folks speaking the new fangled version(s) of English would have been the high born, administrators etc.

During this fluid time there were pieces such as Piers Plowman and then Chaucer where, using nominally the same language, the reading is pretty different. Bloody hell, this goes back 35 years to school days. Long sessions learning the language, translating and analysing. Always hated Latin though - way too much about Cotta and his little boys.

Anyway, for those who studied this stuff at school or university, take a look at some Swedish (or Danish or Norwegian) newspaper ads, food containers, menus or other places where simplified language is common and you will see what I mean. Open your eyes to Celtic and you'll get even more from the experience.

[Chris]

Yes that's correct Andrew, it did develop over time as many things do and as you know British History is steeped in conflict between many nationalities and so on.

Its certainly not my field, but I did learn quite a bit about it after proof reading his essays on the subject and also a few new words, extradiegetic / diegesis (or is that extra-diegetic) being one of them.  Quite interesting really but I have no motivation or time to get fully enveloped (envolupen  )  in the subject really, only as a caring parent taking notice of what one's offsprings are up too.

What I can say, is that since we regularly visit many of the old Stately Homes, Castles and Medieval historical buildings around the UK (four this last long weekend) its surprising how often these things crop up when you listen to what the guides say or you read the history of these places, very interesting indeed.

[aloyshak]

Very interesting.  I would like to give my two cents on this as someone whose primary language was not English (though I learned it as a child and do not have an accent.)  I learned Spanish in high school.  And now I am learning Russian.  (My native language is an East Indian language.)

Spanish was not too difficult to pick up because the pronouncing vowels and rolling the "R" is not radically different from Indian languages.  And the masculine/feminine differentiation came easily to me because all Indian languages have that as well.  And the grammar was in someways similar also.

Now Russian is a somewhat different story for me.  I do find it difficult to pronounce certain sounds.  Particularly the "zh" type sounds. But the grammar is not as bad as I thought it would be.  And the masculine/feminine division in Russian is easy to grasp.  And given that the sentences reflect the gender of the speaker, makes some Russian sentences and grammatical aspects easy to grasp. 

North Indian languages are probably equally remote from Russian, English and Spanish.  But I think I am finding Russian to be only slightly harder than Spanish (more due to differences in how words and letters are pronounced and I am still in the early stages of learning.  Maybe it will become much more complicated as I advance in the language???)  Then again, this is the perspective of someone whose first language was not English.

[mendeleyev]

aloyshak, Spanish was technically my first foreign language to study in high school although Dutch was spoken by my parents in addition to English. Russian grammar is more akin to Russian so I think that you are going to do very well. Good luck!

Since you are having some difficulty with certain words, don't feel bad by the way, spend a lot of time with Russian music on YouTube and various sites. Russian is a very "sing song" musical language and you can often do in song first what you cannot yet accomplish in speech. This will definitely help you advance.

We have a section here on learning via music. 

[aloyshak]

Privet Mendeleyev.  I listen to Russian pop and folk music all the time on youtube.  I try to sing along.  And I am also watching a lot of Russian films in my spare time, including some of the classics.  Its a very interesting and enchanting culture.   Some of the movies I saw recently include Taras Bulba, Andrei Rublev, Brat, and 1612.  I loved them.