Learning Russian - Difficulties And Tips

[@Thelinguist]

My Language Learning Resource: Where I Learn Languages ⇢ www.lingq.com/ --- FREE Language Learning Resources 10 Secrets of Language Learning ⇢ www.thelinguist.com LingQ Grammar Guides ⇢ www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/ My blog ⇢ blog.thelinguist.com/ The LingQ blog ⇢ www.lingq.com/blog/ --- Social Media Instagram ⇢ instagram.com/lingosteve_/ TikTok ⇢ www.tiktok.com/@lingosteve Facebook ⇢ facebook.com/lingosteve Twitter ⇢ twitter.com/lingosteve LingQ Discord ⇢ discord.gg/ShPTjyhwTN

[@Englishmood.]

I invite everyone who wants to study Russian.

[@Englishmood.]

kzbin.info/door/gzGI3vf8nSas2OQPsjy27Q

[@jorgelicea4481]

¿Es requerimiento hablar en inglés????

[@vladimirsavenkov2424]

Монголы.

[@RealRussianClub]

Great tips for those who learn Russian. Listening is the most effective way of learning

[@ianskinner1619]

I've found having a Russian Girl friend is the best way to learn ;)

[@yosoymeyes]

WOOOOW. Miss hahaha. You're here too😂❤️. I'm learning in your course

[@benquadinaros2210]

@@ianskinner1619 cool! I’ve been learning Russian for over year, and I’ve also found a girl, wasn’t quite the what I was going for. Just goin wit da flow

[@Breno6181]

Здравствуйте прафесар 🙂 thank you so much for all your effort to teach us, congrats for your great work with your Yt channel

[@democrateur]

​@@Breno6181 Здравствуйте, прОфéссОр (you need to use a comma because you're addressing).

[@enfantdelaPatrie13]

It's so beautiful that the word "здравствуйте" ['zdrastvuyte] as formal version of "hello" literally means "I wish you were healthy" or "God bless you". And the word "спасибо" [spasibo] as "thank you'' means "I wish you were saved by God" ("спасать" means "to save" and "бог" means "God")

[@gabrielai2299]

As a Christian Russian learner, I love this

[@noahalexander8068]

@@gabrielai2299 do you do online lessons?

[@-nivek6489]

Kinda odd considering Russia tried to outlaw religion, attempting to force atheism

[@herrberg8962]

Thanks for the explanation. :)

[@Musicienne-DAB1995]

Is that SO! Wow!

[@outdoorsywannabe1888]

I started learning Russian just 2 mos ago. Im very inlove with this Language. Im a native of Philippines moved to Florida in 2001. I’m already 36 yrs old. I dony care if it will take me 100 years to nail this language, I am not giving up. I am obsessed with this language. I have a few hrs a week skype tutor. I dont take my eyes off of it. I have notes all over the house. Even at work, I have a pad on my side to stare at every minute. In my car I listen to Russian Audio Conversation.

[@annk5835]

Elma Mirdan Ваше упорство и желание изучать русский достойны восхищения! Удачи Вам в изучении!

[@user-us5cf3qc7b]

how's it going 4 months in?

[@anna-marianurmela3942]

Hello Elma! This is so great - your passion to learn Russian! Did you know you could travel to Europe to study Russian for 2-4-8 weeks and have a great experience traveling + learning? Please visit our language school page for more information - international.indowntown.ee/index.php/en/

[@ben1147]

Well it’ll only take a year or two at that rate

[@rosako]

Great! I wish you success, with this motivation you deserve it! I’m also learning Russian. I noticed my writing, reading and listening were way better than speaking, I started doing something that helps a lot. Instead of having my 2-3 one-hour session per week, I am doing 30 Minutes Skype lessons every single day. 1. It’s easier to manage if you work, i take 30 Minutes off my lunch break then have lunch for the other 30 min. 2. I’m 100% focus the whole session as it is quite short. 3. In my opinion the regularity gives more than he amount of time. I would learn more doing only 30 min everyday than 2 huge lesson of 2-3 hours. But in that case I am not doing more hours than before. I recommend you to give it a try if you can :). Hope that helps!

[@turquisestones]

Russian is a big proof that grammar must not be learned by studying cases, conjugations, inclinations etc., but rather must be taken by patterns. And here I need to stress - by pre-selected sets of patterns. I am a Russian living in a non-Russian speaking country where I have no Russians around me. My children were born here. Because I had to spend almost two thirds of my time at work (and it is still the case), I almost had no way of communicating to my kids in Russian when thy were in their pre-school age. My wife is not Russian, so I am the sole source of Russian to them. Besides talking to me my kids have no other chance to practice or even hear Russian. So, my kids were growing picking up the language of the country, to which they are native, and the broken English, which is the language of our communication in the family. My heart was bleeding when I realized that my children were growing without picking up Russian. It was really painful to witness that. It was all the more painful when I was trying to teach them by explaining the logic of each twist of Russian grammar in each phrase. All I achieved by doing that was just intimidating them and killing any interest in them toward Russian. It took me a while to understand that pre-selected sets of patters was the only way to go. Luckily, I didn't force my children into learning Russian too much before I discovered this way. Well, now they are sill in process of picking up their Russian, but four points really stand out big : 1) They are now automatically using correct conjugations in sentences - even in some cases, which I had, in fact, never even tried to explain to them; 2) All of what they learn remains in their long-term memory, which means that even if I am on a business trip and can't see them for about one week, I don't need to worry that we wouldn't be able to resume from the point where we last stopped - there are no holes in the boat, so to say, and there is a constant build-up; 3) They have started using Russian between themselves - when I first overheard that, I literally began to cry. This was a huge reward for me; 4) They now have a live interest toward Russian and at times even ask me to teach them more than what I think to be a normal pace for them;

[@Thelinguist]

I learn all languages using a pattern approach. Explanations and tables are hard for us to absorb. Our brain is used to assimilating patterns if we just feed it enough of them.

[@hawklord25]

In my view, when learning Russian, learn the spoken language first, and the rest will add on exponantially as you go.

[@emphaticman]

That goes for most men who speak a foreign language. I have consider teaching my daughter Creóle, but don't know where to start. My wife is not Haitian. Only time she exposed is when I play music in the car. Thanks for the encouragement.

[@JoseBrunelloNCF]

How nice your story!!!! Please, d'ont forget LOVE. My father is a fluent speaker of italian (the veneto dialect) because his grandpa used to to talk to him in the native dialect when he was a little child. Being an 80 years old man my father traveled by the first time to Italy and hu found himelf talking with italian people,undertanding evererything and being understood always. He was the happiest man in earth. Now he is 90 and tells everbody his grat experience!!!! It's so grteat what LOVE can do in the process of taking a language!!!!!

[@RonaldMcPaul]

Beautiful story. I can't quite visualize how that would look, learning patterns, in Russian but I know from French and Chinese.

[@partmyth]

Very interesting video. I have been learning Russian for over a decade. Steve has great insight. Don't get caught up in cases, conjugations, forms, grammar, etc. Learn words, pronunciation , phrasing and start speaking, listening and reading. "Good" Russian will come with time. Poor pronunciation, stress and intonation for question formation will confuse and confound Russian speakers far more than incorrect grammar. Don't get caught up in perfection at the expense of learning. You (English speakers) can understand a lot of incorrect English and they (Russian speakers) will understand (and VERY MUCH apreciate your effort to speak Russian) your "bad" Russian. JUMP IN! Enjoy your journey!

[@anna-marianurmela3942]

This is so great - your passion to learn Russian! Did you know you could travel to Europe to study Russian for 2-4-8 weeks and have a great experience traveling + learning? Please visit our language school page for more information - international.indowntown.ee/index.php/en/

[@zipporahmwaniki5627]

Am very encouraged to hear this.very soon I will be speaking good rusin language it's interesting to study!

[@leandroparisi]

Your comment motivated me. I am an Italian native speaker and I want to learn Russian and improve English. What advice would you give me?

[@batgirlp5561]

@@anna-marianurmela3942 I see an 8 week minimum stay

[@samaryshev]

I feel proud for all foreigners who learn Russian. Good luck, guys!💪🏻

[@job9650]

спасибо хаха

[@EvelynMedrano-s3q]

Thank you!

[@chrissyleigh1]

Reading untranslated Dostoevsky is the reason I'm learning Russian too!

[@olgagladysheva9200]

Christina, I'm Russian and I tell, Dostoevsky is really great!))) I'm happy I'm a russian speaker because I can read Dostoevsky))) eheh, but really I'd like to be english-speaker))) Good luck with learning! Tell you the truth, I'd be happy to help you with reading and truly understanding Dostoevsky in Russian))) Anyway good luck!

[@archienovels]

how is your Russian in 2020:)

[@ForsakenPixel]

I am now curious so now i begin my Russian learning journey to read the untranslated version. This might take a year or 2.. maybe 3.

[@archienovels]

@@ForsakenPixel This might take the whole life...

[@ernstlaik9549]

I'm a native speaker of Russia and I can say that Russian language which Dostoevsky used is way too much out of date. It'll hardly help if you want to talk to real people these days.

[@fridab6082]

“Ok...good for you” hahaha, no one ever described a grammar book so perfectly before

[@illehnation5511]

Lol for real

[@maxfootman]

"However what i found is ultimately you have to read and listen so often that certain phrases start to sound natural". That is so true. Reading books with vocabulary could help improve grammar. And listening to native speakers would certainly improve pronunciation. That is how i learned English, kudos from Russia)

[@Thelinguist]

+Max Sixblade Thanks for the kind words. Still enjoying my Russian.

[@JohnBrown-kj5dh]

Its a pleasure to see english speaking person try to learn russian language. I have seen and heard many times how russian people a being criticized for their pronunciation. People make jokes about it. But every time i want to say "go ahead and try to learn russian".

[@coconutisbest9700]

John Brown as someone trying to learn Russian, I will never joke about that struggle again!

[@matildawolfram4687]

My brother studied languages at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in California. The pace of study was intense. Students had to master the language course in 36-64 weeks. Psychologically it was very difficult, but fortunately he was helped by Yuriy Ivantsiv's book "Polyglot Notes. Practical tips for learning foreign languages”. The book " Polyglot Notes" became a desk book for my brother, because it has answers to all the problems that any student of a foreign language has to face. Thanks to the author of the channel for this interesting video! Good luck to everyone who studies a foreign language and wants to realize their full potential!

[@alexander1983a]

As a native russian speaker I have just realized how complicated my language is.

[@Алексей_Тверской]

+alexander1983a , in fact it is not as difficult as it seems)) Russian language is based on the endings that is, we almost always understand what they say foreigners in Russian, even if you missed a word

[@AstekOst]

+alexander1983a It is very complicated, even for me as a Serbian...I thought it would be easier because we have a big common vocabulary, but the pronounciation is killing me xD

[@AstekOst]

***** No, not at all, don't worry about it :D Serbian is a lot more HARSH and it's not easy to pronounce some of our letters, I understand this...:D For example our Ć (Ћ) sounds like your Č (Ч) so it's complicated for you to say OUR Č (Ч) because it's harsher than yours and you're not used to it...We also have only one Š (Ш) (it's actualy a bit harsher than the Russian one also) so it's hard for me to say the other, Russian one (Щ) haha... English is really easy for me, but maybe it's because I've been studying since I was 6 years old (and took private extra classes since I was 8 till I was 14)......I also had German in school for 4 years but I don't remember anything at all...I'm trying to learn Russian and Arabic now :D You asked me if Russian and Serbian are understandable between each other (I had to use google translate for the word ''взаимопонятные'' - no similar word in Serbian)...I must say no, we have a BIG common vocabulary - many many words are similar or the same, but the grammar is a lot different and most of the verbs and rules of reading so I guess I could understand SOME Russian, but not clearly and not all of it...Russian is much closer to Croatian way of speaking - this is what I figured with my buddy from Russia...In Serbian many words changed which stayed the same in Croatian (so Croatian is basicaly an older, better preserved dialect of Serbocroatian language (or whatever you choose to call it))...Велики поздрав из Србије за братску Русију! :)

[@AstekOst]

***** No problem man! Hope you pass all your exams and, after that, perhaps learn a bit of Serbian :3 (If you need any help just contact me here and I will give you my FB)...I hope you enjoy it :D This sentence I understand - something about good/best wishes to Serbia :D (in Serbian добре - good (plural, feminine), жеље - wishes) Thank you!

[@AstekOst]

***** facebook.com/ostruznica91 Here I am - just say if you need anything :D Hahah thanks man, you're not bad yourself ;)

[@nuggs4u2]

I'm currently in a military language school trying to learn russian in 10 months. Hardest language ever. 8 hours a day plus 3 hours of hw and tests every week. Complete grammar immersion. 3 months in and we are on genitive singular right now and have already done accusative, nominative, preposition, etc. The listening is the toughest part. Dictations, translations, speaking hour. I FEEL YOUR PAIN

[@Thelinguist]

Get on LingQ for Russian.

[@Re3iRtH]

Russian is my native language although I moved to the states at age 5. Russian is laughably easy compared to Japanese.

[@elenaf4631]

@@Re3iRtH Korean and Japanese are easier. But Chinese isn't

[@mariopandza]

I’m a native Croatian speaker learning Russian. It is quite easy in terms of grammar, it’s the way things are said and words used that are difficult for me. Non the less, beautiful language!

[@Hecnamb]

How come I didn't come by this video earlier... First of all, let me say you look great at your age. Some kind of magic? Sports? Yoga? Diet? Anyway, I hope I could look that way when I get there. Now, I know that we russians have some general cliches about foreigners. But I'm also very well aware that most foreigenrs have some HUGE cliches about Russia, russians and our culture. That's why it was so pleasant to see a person express that kind of opinion which you see is not influenced by political of TV propaganda, or some general public cliches. It's always nice for me to hear people from other countries taking interest in russian language, culture and history. It was all music to my ears to hear you speak, sir. Thank you very much. I wish I could communicate more with you, and not just because I'm learning English and could help you with russian, but moreover because I consider listening to a well educated and much more experienced person a valueable experience for myself.

[@Thelinguist]

Борис Васильев Thank you for the kind words. I try to stay active, and that includes learning languages.

[@elizaayanna2669]

If you ever need help with english you can contact my email [e-mail], I am currently trying to speak very great Russian so maybe we can help eachother out (: PS I am a native english speaker.

[@Ms.Fowlbwahhh]

I am American and I LOVE Russia and most slav countries.

[@robertbress6703]

I too am fascinated with Russia it's people, language and culture. I'm trying my best to be able to speak and communicate in Russian at some low to intermediate level. I feel a sense of common values with Russians. There really is no fundamental difference between us. We are, after all, nothing more than bipedal carbon based life forms. We should (must) get past our misplaced perceptions of others. We are more alike than we know.

[@SovetskiDuck]

Unfortunatly, the cliches that forigners have about Russia are mostly deriving from stupid media & politics.

[@abesapien9930]

Steve's humble, casual, and somewhat anti-academic attitude is what makes him so awesome. I love his irritated comment at 14:45!

[@nezar5601]

Я тут похоже не один пришел сюда для того, чтобы послушать как американцы говорят по-русски)

[@Nastya-kz9ey]

Не один)

[@КатяВерба-о8ъ]

Не одиин))) а честно смотришь прям приятно))

[@iamnotokay2717]

Азахахахха, Не один)

[@ДарьяМосякина-у8е]

Я думала я одна

[@hovelfrog]

здесь ещё американец каторый знает русский язык. если хотите поговорим по-скайпу...мне нужно практиковаться.

[@Romfro1105]

Спасибо, хорошее видео, очень интересно взглянуть на родной язык глазами иностранца!

[@aqsle]

Your russian is really good and its really pleasing to see someone talking about Russia without offending it :)

[@herefobeer]

Fedor's BeFluent + Pimsleur nailed cases and verbs of motion for me. For aspects, I think sentence mining is the only way to go. The rule of thumb is to learn the aspect form cause it's used more. Learn sentence patterns, then try to say what you say in your language in Russian, then tally with a translation app or tutor, then you eventually grasp it. Once you have a basic cases table, the way Pimsleur gradually introduces to cases usage one by one is simply amazing. And since it's all conversations, you're suddenly using them. In lesson 7, it's prepositional. In Lesson 10, a slow introduction of quantitative use case of genitive. Because they start with "some" or "one" quantity, the distinction is clear. For 5 of more, they introduce it in another lesson, but since you're learning with a conversation, it gets intuitive. After pimsleur I get an intuition of what case to use. No other learning method did it for me. The fools who review Pimsleur after free lesson 1 should be avoided.

[@mummaquinn]

Hi Steve, I was born in Canada of Irish parents and now back living in Ireland teaching English as a foreign language. I have studied Spanish, French and Italian. Now just starting to study Russian as my son's partner is Russian and going to Russia shortly to meet her parents ;-) Just starting on the alphabet and pronunciation ;-) I have watched your videos before on language learning in general and love listening to your absolute wealth of knowledge. Thank you so much for this video. Don't worry, it wasn't too long at all. It was great to hear your tips for learning this very beautiful language. Thank you very very much for your time and effort! Very helpful :-)

[@TheDebu12]

The 3 biggest chunks of Russian. Totally relatable. Being an Indian who is learning Russian this surely is a big challenge. 1.) The case system 2.) Verbs of motion 3.) Aspect of verbs But a very beautiful country. And lovely people. I just want to come to Russia and experience the culture. Amazing description :)

[@ExVeritateLibertas]

Since Russian (and I guess most other Slavic languages) has only 3 tenses (past, present, future), verbal aspect in some way substitutes for the lack of tenses. The difference between verbs of motion "go" (идти) a single time, in one direction and "go" (ходить) just in general or habitually, is technically referred to as perfective vs. imperfective and is a way of describing the aspect difference. Sort of like the difference between "I went" and "I have gone." The difference with English is in Russia those idea are expressed by 2 different verbs. Every verb in Russian is paired with another verb this way. I'm still learning Russian myself, so my explanation could be flawed somewhat. :)

[@hazrd7764]

Got an even better way... Play CS:GO for a week.

[@aye-jae]

Сука блят :)

[@kikinfonseca948]

блять, бля.

[@Kira-wn3on]

ты забыл мягкий знак

[@Ms.Fowlbwahhh]

RUSH B CYKA!

[@Performak_YT]

Три палоски 🇷🇺

[@vliegendehollander]

Great video! Russian grammar is so challenging for a native English speaker just because it's so foreign. One thing I noticed is that after you get the alphabet down, spelling in Russian is phonetic and incredibly easy. I rarely get tripped up by the о and а. When you hear a Russian word, you know exactly how to spell it which conveniently reduces guess work while looking up new words you hear. Contrastingly, English spelling makes no sense and must be a nightmare for Russians. Look at the word 'island' haha. Swedish is also tricky in this regard.

[@mrslothguy]

TheWersum As a native speaker of Russian maybe you could help me out. What is the best way to go about learning Russian? I know a few words but I want to learn more (so I can at least make a sentence).

[@Blankanik]

You are absolutely right ! English spelling is crazy like Russian government. Out of both calamities, is better to live in USA, than i Russia. .

[@EvelynMedrano-s3q]

Thank you!

[@Maria-ep9jo]

Hi Steve, thank you for the video! You look great. It may be helpful to know that "здра(в)ствуйте" has a silent "v", so it's a little bit easier to say it :) We russians often shorten the word to "здрасте", but in informal situation only.

[@clairrogers1]

Thanks so much for this video. I am a mother tongue English speaker who has learnt fluent (native standard Italian), good French and a fair bit of Spanish. I have also dipped my toe into Hungarian (when I lived in Budapest for six months). I am now studying Russian because of my love for the literature and culture and I can honestly say that I'm finding it wonderfully challenging. I'm usually pretty fast picking up languages but Russian is seriously scrambling my brain! Good to hear someone else from an Anglophone background discuss the difficulties. I won't give up tho'! :-)

[@gabooper]

I'm going to start teaching myself Russian since my college doesn't offer it. thanks KZbin for suggesting this video!

[@Thelinguist]

Gaby Itzel Quirós You might want to give LingQ a try, that is where I learned Russian.

[@gemzroxya]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve Is LingQ worth paying for?

[@Thelinguist]

Let's see. I have learned Russian, Czech, Romanian, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Korean, and now starting Polish. Have improved in Italian and would have done more with more time. And there are 21 languages there. It is addictive and fun. I have learned not only these languages but about the history and politics of the countries involved. Couldn't have done it otherwise. LingQ is a bargain!

[@gemzroxya]

Great, once I have learnt all there is to learn from youtube - I shall begin paying for LingQ. Thank-you so much Steve! Good luck with Polish.

[@MrNaTs24]

***** lingq is free

[@luisferr2001]

thank you so much for sharing you viewpoints and personal experiencie regarding learning Russian, Steve! I really appreciate it. I´m just beginning to learn this beautiful language and am very excited to continue learning it. Cheers!

[@Thelinguist]

LUIS FE Rojas Cheers to you too!

[@tuulonyoutube2226]

When I was young in my country, Russian was the second language we have to learn (not English). Kids were learning Russian starting from 4th grade till graduate high school. And Russian was mandatory language exam. I remember, watching movies in Russian language and using Russian math books in everyday life (math was my favourite subject so I used to do math everyday) helped most to improve my Russian. I started learning English since age 20's. Mongolian is my native language. English became my fluent language. I can understand Russian very well. Also I can understand basic Japanese.

[@shyofshyness]

i love your little rant on the grammar. seriously... good for you, Russian grammar. Thanks for a great video

[@filiusdexteram]

Your method of practice, repetition, and so forth certainly works and should be incorporated in any style of learning, but my preference and key to understanding a language is to understand its grammar. I encourage any who are learning Russian or any other language to first understand the grammar of your native language, so that connections can be made, without having to depend so much more on memory. I am a native English speaker and find Russian grammar to be easier than English grammar. There are fewer verb tenses, and I have never encountered a Russian helping verb. The six noun cases are easy to follow if you understand the purposes of nominatives, objects, possessive nouns, etc. In far more ways than English, there are many different orders in which to string words into a sentence in Russian, because a noun's case/purpose is determined by its ending. Understanding these facts is how grammar has been helpful to me in learning Russian, and I think it can be helpful to anyone else with the same goal.

[@moskvich123russian6]

спасибо за видео! Very inspiring. when foreigners speak my native language (which is Russian), it usually sounds broken but understandable. when i hear someone whose grammar and word endings are all correct, I have a lot of respect for this person's intelligence and learning abilities. Russian language theory is one of the most difficult subjects for many Russian school students here.

[@RTemiy]

Интересно было узнать как выглядит русский для тех, у кого это не родной язык :)

[@PaulKobzev]

+Ivan Ivanov Выучи охуительно английский и поймёшь. Когда попадаешь в англоязычную среду, примерно начинаешь представлять.

[@PaulKobzev]

+Ivan Ivanov Ваня, говоришь настолько свободно что уже русский начал забывать. Не знаю. Представь что-нибудь.

[@ИванПирогов-ы4щ]

+RTemiy Обычно возникают сложности с грамматикой.То есть падежами и прочим

[@kairatnaiman845]

+RTemiy Он выглядит очень круто. Поверь мне на слово. Мне не раз говорили об этом сами иностранцы, особенно американцы. Наверное, я встречал очень хороших американцев.

[@daniyarturatbekov4360]

русский стал моим родным языком,я на нем думаю,вижу сны,т.е он вшит в мое подсознание ,но я не говорил на нем до 8 лет,мой родной язык- кыргызский.Так вот что я скажу о моих воспоминаниях о русском языке тогда когда я его не знал,на слух он был слишком щипящим и быстрым(чем то похож на немецкий для русскоязычного на слух)надеюсь я вам помог представить

[@MISERSTYLE]

This man is great. He makes me feel better about my struggles. I don't put nearly as much time as I should into it.

[@IELTS_with_Anfisa]

Thank you! I teach English and my Russian students always whine how complicated it is. They do not realise just how complicated the language they're fluent in is! I'll use some of your ideas and exaples in my classroom if you don't mind.

[@Ivanhoe2]

Sir, I found your message very interesting and helpful. I long ago came to the conclusion that if I waited until I mastered the Russian grammar,,,I would NEVER speak. in the 1980's I visited the USSR on five occasions,,,four of them in January,,great fun! I just went ahead and spoke the best I could,,and found the Russian folks very helpful. I learned that attitude from immigrants who came to Britain and could hardly speak any English. Very best wishes,,,,and a Happy New Year!!

[@antonzavialov5453]

As a Russian native speaker I completely agree with Mr. Kaufmann's opinion on Russian grammar. I believe it is next to impossible to achieve perfection in Russian spelling, punctuation and other aspects of grammar, because there are so many exceptions to grammar rules, most of them tend to be completely illogical and can only be memorized. For example, there is a grammar topic how adverbs are spelled. Some are spelled separately, some are not, while others are spelled with a hyphen. It is a nightmare! Especially if you are being tested on spelling at a state graduation exam (ЕГЭ). Actually, most people do quite poorly at the grammar section of the Russian language graduation exam.

[@jamesgranger9842]

Thanks Steve for excellent insight and thoughts on learning Russian. Love this blog. Peace

[@MetalGearyaTV]

I'm Russian and I don't know all these grammar rules for cases, verbs of motion (I'm 25 and I've heard about this issue for the first time here) etc. But I master the language perfectly. We don't mind about putting a word in certain case, it's going naturally. Just practise more.

[@svetlanaprekrasnaya]

We were raised by Russians in Russia, I would say we were born crying in Russian ))). I don't remember any grammar rules for verbs either. If you ask English speaker 3rd form of verb 'fly' or any sentence in Past Perfect Continuous Tense, most of them will be like "What?". I did ask)))

[@paulredek]

yeah, that's because when we're kids, we're all geniouses, plus we have a lot of time to learn the language. Think about how long it took you to actually become fluent. Were you fluent when you were 5? I'm sure not. Where you reading Tolstoy when you were 10? I seriously doubt that. So the thing is, when adults want to learn a foreign language, they want acquire language fast and the only real shortcut is to use memory techniques to remember words (especially if the vocabulary is alien, like Russian is to English speakers) and to learn the rules the rules and exceptions, rather than trying to force your brain to form patterns right away. If you learn the grammar and memorize tons of words, you will not be fluent right away (you will have to translate each word in your mind, then plug the right endings ), but you will eventually become fluent and not have to think about the grammar if you practice the language long enough

[@demelzabunny6632]

kysa knopkina third person singular, present simple tense: he/she/it flies past perfect continuous: He had been flying for 3 hours when he discovered that he'd left his cell phone home. And I am a native English speaker!!

[@themongru]

Very true, it's because you grow up speaking it when it is your native language so all the grammar rules come naturally and make sense because they're the only ones you know.

[@zadolbali9796]

paulredek I'd say I disagree, the kids're idiots with lots of unoccupied memory in their heads, they don't have a logic, they don't need a reason to do something - that's why they learn so quickly. Also, only the history and litherature enthusiasts acually read Tolstoy in Russia, cause he's so boring to an average person that u go to sleep halfway through the 2nd page. Learning just vocabulary and rules separately will lead an adult to a long and painful experience of failures, because it's simply ineffective. The only way for an average adult to really learn a new word is to logically acknowledge the value of a word, the easiest way to deceive ur brain to actually understand it - is a situational use. Everything - grammar, lexics, etc. - should be applied simultaneously, then with a minimal amount of everything you'd be able to build a structure, a skeleton, to different parts of which u can stick the new things u learn. Because, when ur brain has this structure stored in it, the comprehension begins, you can grab words from the context and, understanding the logic behind it, give it a guess and actually hit he spot.

[@avq5]

Odd thing, for some reason, despite your laying out all the difficulties, I keep returning to this video for encouragement.

[@Thelinguist]

avq5 I didn't think it was discouraging. Some people like a challenge, others want everything to be easy. The former usually do better than the latter.

[@avq5]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve I think that's what I meant to say, however poorly worded, that I do find it encouraging. Thanks Steve, for all your help.

[@Rorkazak]

"... it's a beautiful language, the country is fascinating ..." You forgot one thing, Steve. The women are totally hot.

[@g-pro4997]

Девки говоришь горячие? А я думал что в США девки горячие XD

[@Vima555]

Там остывшие девки какие-то, замороженные :))

[@poopandshit8639]

Alistair Winthorpe Привет

[@abdullahalowaifi6941]

Ollie .e

[@Jenniferhehshebw]

Alistair Winthorpe As are the men ;)

[@MauveDino]

Thank you for making these videos! I'm learning Russian for history reasons and whenever I feel discouraged from learning Russian I watch your videos. I've actually told some people to watch your videos who are also getting into languages. :)

[@Nonames569]

Спасибо за очень интересное изложение. Очень интересен взгляд со стороны на мой язык. Спасибо за любовь и тёплое отношение к русской культуре и России. Вы очень интересный человек.))

[@Felixxxxxxxxx]

I started with Russian 3,5 years ago. This was one of the first videos that I saw. I have traveled in many Russian speaking countries and I still struggle at times to keep more meaningful conversations. I am not always consistent but I think that I on average study Russian for about 1 hour per day. I think that somewhat of a fluency after 5 years studying 1 hour per day should be realistic. It is a fascinating language to learn and I have used it in 9 countries, but it definitely does take a lot of time to learn this language.

[@samykiani944]

5 years to get fluent? This sounds discouraging.

[@tarasbmal]

Действительно, если подумать, то столько сложностей в родном русском !... Английский сразу кажется проще в изучении ! Спасибо, за мотивацию, Стив ! :)

[@BEforSirius]

This video answered all of the questions I had going into learning Russian, thank you.

[@Angel_EU34]

I'm spanish and after having learned pretty good english i wanted to know a third, more "exotic" language. NOBODY i know speaks russian so that was good enough reason for it, plus i kinda like how it sounds. However, after watching your vid i was strongly discouraged :( You know what tho? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED :)

[@venom5583]

With your reasoning I'd better learn Klingon or Elvish :D There is 0% chance to learn russian if you dont listen and speak it every day.

[@Re3iRtH]

Are you fluent now? :)

[@lauti9655]

Paaaa voooo me quedé pirando, a mi también me pasó algo parecido. After i studied and learned english for a long time, i started to get bored and i wanted to learn another language that nobody could speak. Entonces decidí aprender ruso, bastante único y exótico, ninguna persona que conozco lo habla acá en Argentina. Besito en la cola gato😘

[@wyverntheterrible]

Asi que, despues 5 anos, como es tu Ruso Gabriel?

[@timtk9924]

Thank You for this video!!!)) It was so fun to hear about sunflower seeds))) You are absolutely right. And another one difficult thing in Russian language is a word "you", cause in English it is always "you are" and in Russian it depends))

[@jamesgoad4948]

Look at it this way. When you're young, you don't learn dozens of grammatical rules for your native language. You learn to speak it by watching and listening. The same rules apply for a 2nd or 3rd language. Get used to the words and phrases first. Let many basic sentences come naturally before you dive into complex grammar rules.

[@jamesgoad4948]

@@jazmine9570 truth

[@ermdx0]

This video takes me back to 1978, when I first studied Russian in a university setting. I had studied French and German in elementary and high school prior and went on to Japanese later in college. Russian was, by far and away, the most difficult of any of those (minus the kanji/kana)... and for EXACTLY the reasons you gave, Steve. I remember first encountering verbs of motion and being baffled by even just the concept. This video seems to be inviting me to revisit my Russian. Thank you!

[@zadolbali9796]

About the "Ш" and "Щ", I think u figured already, but I'll write it anyway. The difference is that while saying "Щ" u pronounce it much like english "sh" - the tip of the tounge goes to ur gums, closer to ur teeth and with "Ш" it's behind ur gums, it goes up to the Hard palate, forming a "cup", the second distinction between those is the length - "Щ" is longer than "Ш", because it's basically 2 sounds "ШЧ", pronounced monolitically.

[@LiradeTerpsichore]

How nice. tks

[@fredastairedancestudios-du8610]

to feel the difference between ш and щ here are two words in English (excuse my French) : shush and shit( this one you have to say it like you mean it!)

[@igoryurchenko1091]

Fred Astaire Dutchess Marvellous! Just marvellous example!

[@squadmeta]

Fred Astaire Dutchess That's helped me to understand the difference easier than any other guide i've ever seen ))

[@kostyrev]

Fred Astaire Dutchess As native speaker I confirm that you absolutely nailed it)

[@TripleDDDD]

Great video! You reminded me of my grandpa, passionate speaker, often I thought he is just rambling, but did not realise, how much I actually learned.

[@angelikareyn5228]

Спасибо за интересный материал! Вы совершенно правы в том, что даже если на первый взгляд русские кажутся недружелюбными, то в душе мы очень добрые!!!

[@Thelinguist]

Согласен. Хочу опять посетить Россию.

[@irinalintrop4396]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve Welcome in Russia ! But it's overly cold weather currently .

[@Thelinguist]

My memories are of June in St. Petersburg. But I often visit Northern Alberta in the winter, minus 30-40, so I would like to visit Russia in the winter. I am sure the friendliness of the people will make up for the cold weather.

[@danielb8177]

Hello! MR Kaufmann. First of all I would like to thank you for this video. I'm Daniel from Cleveland Ohio and I'm very glad I just find out this video cause now I'm living in Russia for what I can say I've been studying the language at school for 2 moths since I got here, without any results. now I hope with LingQ I could get better on it! which is truly necessary while I'm living here. I also speak 4 different languages and Russian will be my fifth (including English)... but sometimes I feel like my brain is going to pop out of my head because similarities between those such as Spanish and Italian and French, if you have some advices I'd love to heard them, I love to learn languages and get deep into the cultures. thank you very much for your work! (today will be my first day with LingQ)

[@behaton]

Your pronunciation is amazing.

[@olgagladysheva9200]

Thank you, Steve!! I'm starting video lessons of russian on youtube and decided to look through a few videos on how english-speakers percieve russian language. So you were really helpful. It's much easier now to see difficulties of russian grammar and vocabulary)) Thanks again! Amazing video!!

[@brasilsoccer0]

I am learning Russian on my own with the "Pimsleur method" and it sounds relatively easy and certainly fun. But I also just learned the very first 8 lessons! Your video makes me more excited for the challenge heading my way..lol And I agree with you Russians are straightforward and for better or worst don't value compromise as a positive attribute. But most are kinder than their misinterpreted personas.

[@brittneyjackson04]

This is great, you've given me much to think about in the way of how I learn Russian, as I am at an 'overwhelmed' point in my learning. You've put to words all that I find fascinating in the language and culture, so there's no way I can fall short of motivation. Thank you for giving us a glimpse into your knowledge and experience, it's very inspirational!

[@Samisi2429]

I'm Polish and I found your video very informative and interesting. I think I practice similar way of learning language as you recommend. And maybe because I'm Slavic also, I smiled when you talked about difficulties in Russian learning process. (I hear this about Polish language most of time too:)) Russian is amazing.... but I think I have more passive knowledge. I understand everything but have difficulties to express myself even If I know vocabulary and this has nothing to do with grammar. I had same with German, but I guess I just need someone to push me to speak more and it will be fine :)

[@leandroparisi]

I am happy for you . I noticed it's been years since your comment ahaha... I am Italian and I want to learn Russian but it is so difficult. What advice would you give me to learn Russian?

[@evanarroyo1384]

Hey! Do you reccomend learning Russian or polish first? I am a native Spanish speaker so I’m not familiar with Slavic languages

[@gracie4300]

So happy I found this channel!

[@samljer]

"im joking" was literally half the word size to "hello" It made me giggle :D

[@matthewwhalen635]

I enjoyed the video, you seem to be a wise and articulate man. As a non native Russian speaker (Canadian) I must say that it took me years to learn how to speak the language from my own studies & I have yet to master it. This helped me out so thank you

[@dm_bezrukov]

Просто оставлю здесь комментарий на русском

[@Thelinguist]

пожалуйста

[@gfidjh788]

смешно)))) The whole world is preparing themself morally before learning russian. You need to be awared, that when they want to say no, they say no. Gagarin got less instructions before his first flight! If children would be told the same about english, it would never be spoken somewhere else but the Themse riverside.

[@jaimebenito620]

Great video, Steve! You're slowly turning me into your school of thinking. It would be fool for anyone to ignore your advice about how to learn languages, even if they don't agree with you. Thanks!

[@MrCookieness]

Перед нами стол. На столе стакан и вилка. Что они делают? Стакан стоит, а вилка лежит. Если мы воткнем вилку в столешницу, вилка будет стоять. Т. е. стоят вертикальные предметы, а лежат горизонтальные? Добавляем на стол тарелку и сковороду. Они вроде как горизонтальные, но на столе стоят. Теперь положим тарелку в сковородку. Там она лежит, а ведь на столе стояла. Может быть, стоят предметы готовые к использованию? Нет, вилка-то готова была, когда лежала. Теперь на стол залезает кошка. Она может стоять, сидеть и лежать. Если в плане стояния и лежания она как-то лезет в логику «вертикальный-горизонтальный», то сидение - это новое свойство. Сидит она на попе. Теперь на стол села птичка. Она на столе сидит, но сидит на ногах, а не на попе. Хотя вроде бы должна стоять. Но стоять она не может вовсе. Но если мы убьём бедную птичку и сделаем чучело, оно будет на столе стоять. Может показаться, что сидение - атрибут живого, но сапог на ноге тоже сидит, хотя он не живой и не имеет попы. Так что, поди ж пойми, что стоит, что лежит, а что сидит. А мы ещё удивляемся, что иностранцы считают наш язык сложным и сравнивают с китайским

[@aaaleshin]

Смотря как лежит. Может лежит, а может и стоит. :))

[@Vima555]

Ну, такой чухни и в других языках навалом...

[@triplecatnip7413]

Интуитивные вещи. Погружение в язык устраняет эти проблемы. Логика беспомощна - это свойство любых языков. Русский сложен, но по другим причинам - грамматика.

[@EasyGameEh]

логика (человека) не беспомощна, просто логика (языка) скрыта. у всех общеупотребительных форм есть свое какое-то происхождение, но оно не очевидно.

[@triplecatnip7413]

Логика языка берется из истории, но ее так много, и она разбросана по разным временам. Проще развить интуитивное понимание, чем логическое

[@fireorfrog]

Caveat on questions: Technically Russian does have a specific way besides inflection to indicate a question: the element "li." If you were to ask, for instance, whether giraffes are dinosaurs, you would say "dinozavry li girafy?" Or, to rephrase the "do you have a book" question, you would say "Est' li u vas kniga?" Often Russians use nothing but intonation, but you can do the same thing in English: "You got a book?"

[@Depths17]

I've been learning russian on my own for about 6 months now through online sites/KZbin channels/apps. The language is difficult but I really hope one day I am fluent in Russian, or atleast enough to read anything russian in text form. And nice video here I learned a few things.

[@Ilmaricinema]

Udashi tebe :) Guess what that means?

[@kostyrev]

Ilmaricinema it means 'good luck' or 'good luck with that' in kinda ironic way. It depends on context

[@timenow_kz]

Ilmaricinema not udashi, correct *udachi )

[@dimzay]

Thank you for describing Russian language with such a passion. I am Russian-Canadian and you inspired me to concur French now.

[@АлексейС-с7к]

Так интересно слушать. Я должен дать вам большой палец вверх! Вы сказали, что много об истории и культуры, а также и объяснили много о грамматике, произношение и многое об уникальном русском языке!)) Прямо как вас, я начинаю изучать русский язык =)

[@TheJanitorIsIn]

First video watching this guy. I really like this man! Seriously an intellectual and a cultured man, but also approachable and useful. God bless you, dude.

[@Сибирскийбурундук]

It was real fun to listen to your opinion about learning my native language! Great monologue! Thank you Steve! By the way we have nearly the same problems in learning English, most of them because of the different structure of our languages, absence of articles in Russian(we just have no idea about this part of language!))), and the main problem for english learners is 12 tenses, we have only 3 and word oder! So, Как Ваши успехи в изучении русского на сегодняшний день? :)

[@Thelinguist]

It is easier to answer in English. I am continuing to read and listen to Russia, which I enjoy, but have focused on other languages, some similar, like Polish and Ukrainian, and some very different like Korean. But Russian remains a big part of my language adventures.

[@jancovanderwesthuizen8070]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve Just new to the channel. How many languages do you speak?

[@4chan53]

To be fair, you don’t have to hesitate about tenses every sentence

[@2013Aleksey2013]

Steve, I like the fact that you feel very enthusiastic about learning Russian :) Thanks for the vid.

[@elinarussianlang]

Great video! So glad Russian is my native language, otherwise learning it would be a challenge😅 Though it's possible to learn it if you are a very motivated student💪 Good luck to everyone learning Russian 🍀

[@marciomarques5345]

Thank you for your explanation: I'm learning Polish and Serbo-Croatian and that was helpful, taken into consideration that the Slavic languages' grammar is quite similar.

[@ЛарисаДейна-ц9з]

Так приятно, что иностранцы учат наш язык)) Приятно Вас слушать! Хорошее видео, Успехов Вам!!!

[@DearLittleSable]

Ну да, только он лингвист, а больше никто не учит...

[@taemck3946]

@@DearLittleSable полно на ютюбе каналов иностранцев изучающих русский: Нурия из Испании, Кике из Мексики, Джастин из Канады, Орельен из Франции, Чериш из Кореи... Американцы, австралийцы, филипинцы и так далее - полно маленьких каналов, но много очень раскрученных.

[@DearLittleSable]

@@taemck3946 Хм, а это интересно! Поищу надосуге!

[@born68]

This video is why I just hire an interpreter everywhere I go. I get so many compliments on my interpreters. People always say, omg your interpreter is soooooo good he speak fluent like me. And I say thank you, he lives down the road. Having a third party involved is so much easier than racking my brain learning declentions,cases, genetives blah blah blah. Joking aside good video Steve,,,,,,spasibo.

[@TheGodlessNorwegian]

I have decided to learn Russian and your my first YT teacher :)

[@MrJAa85]

*3 years later* How did it go? :)

[@canaryco-op]

SomeCoolName lol

[@AndreiBerezin]

so, how are you doing with Russian?))

[@mkozdogan]

Hi Steve! Nice tips for the beginners. Thanks for your effort to post such videos! I wish you continued success. Regards.

[@Thelinguist]

Thank you.

[@ivanbartsov5135]

Yeah, that "they always say No if it's No" thing is exagerrated. But otherwise, yeah, very valid points :) Also, I took pretty much the same approach to English as you did to Russian - I watch sitcoms and stand-up comedians and movies in English and I try to use every opportunity to exercise speaking skills - that way it's magnitudes easier to learn than drilling rules and tables and stuff and doing all the ridiculously dull "Polly's pencil broke and she wants to ask Michael for a spare one" exercises from guide books.

[@plusplusplusplusp]

'All people generalise': a generalisation in itself ... Love your videos Steve!

[@JohnWick-bd3uv]

Steve Martin is that you ?

[@tomsaltsman]

I found that in studying Russian since 1982, it is best to take it in conceptual phrases. This is because that's how Russian children learn it. One also learns proper syntax from the beginning that way. Get a book that gives plenty of examples and mentally divide the sentences as soon as possible into phrases that won't disintegrate when used with other ideas of expression. And Steve's right: listen, read, and speak--but in that order. Speaking any language too early can result in bad habits.

[@kamizumoku]

I kind of disagree that speaking early can result in anything bad. Speaking early gives you the idea of your own pronunciation, so you can fine tune a sound you are trying to pronounce. Because it is one thing to read and listen, but pronouncing properly is a whole other.

[@kamizumoku]

You are right that there is no political correctness, which I find a blessing. Because political correctness is a pretty dangerous thing society wise. However the majority of Russian people are just people. There are of course differences and generalisations but all in all they are not different to the extend, that you can say this or that is true for Russian people. A lot of people have a problem to say just NO. It is a psychological barrier in many countries, I don't see how people in Russia differs to people of US from this one. :) The different between Ш and Щ is this. Ш - is basically the same as Sh in English. Щ is a sound between Ш and S. I personalty find It is quite similar to Japanese し(shi) which is not exactly shi but more of a mixture between shi and si.

[@principetnomusic]

>As for the Mongol invasion, there are no solid evidences at all that that it was. Mongols pretty much disappeared after they beaten by Russian, they also supposedly had a language, but there writing appear only in XIX century. It has so much controversy and no real facts that a lot of historians don't believe that it ever was an invasion of Mongols. There is a lot of evidence supporting the Tatar-Mongol presence in Russia. There're Altaic loanwords, which are quite common (the word "деньги", to start, is Turkic in origin).

[@kamizumoku]

Imperios Russia and Turkey had a huge relationship together. THere are even paintings of our czars in Turkish turbans. Our orthodox churches have turban like roofs. Typical cross on a church has Turkish symbol under the cross. There also was a period where Russian elite was talking only in French(even worse than Russian) and Russia was never conquered by France. A lot of places that were considered great battles with Mongols never had enough amount of skeletons and weapons for a battle to be considered big. These "lot of" evidence are based on a script by one person who is not even Russian. Several scientists did a comprehensive research on trying to prove those evidence and failed. They create their own reconstruction, which I also don't take too seriosly. However I understood one thing. We have no solid info for what happened more than 200 years ago and we have no info about what happened before X century. All information on that is based on ideas and reconstructions. If you don't know Egyptian history used to be 13000 years, then it was shorten to 6000 years. No biggie, they just cut off 7000 years. If you know Russian you can look through books by Nosovski and Fomenko. As I said before, i don't think they got everything right, but they did a great job of proving that conventional history is a bogus. Because Romanov dinasty burned a lot of documents of old Russia and I believe they've rewritten it to their liking.

[@principetnomusic]

***** Fomenko? Sacrebleu, sir. If you have convinced yourself that this charlatan has so much as a kernel of truth in his works, then... well... Linguistically speaking, most of his so-called evidence is, well, incorrect to say the least.

[@kamizumoku]

Imperios Well, I've read conventional history. I read history by Fomenko, I read history by Evgeny Gilbo. They all have different version. Even convetional one. The same events from Radzinsky or differs from other authors. Even in different countries. I will never forget in my life a conversation about a war of UK and Spain, between a Spanish guy and a British guy. They told the same event from two different points of view. Also don't be fast at labelling people. First of all he is a scientist and what some things he tells made a lot more sence than a convetional history. Of course I don't think his reconstruciton is the truth. It's his own point of view and it is called reconstruction not a truth. However he made some valid points, that no conventional historian can disapprove. I just understood that believing in convetional history or Fomenko's history is the same. These are all strories that we tell ourselves. In reality nobody knows what trully happend so many years ago. We even don't know what exactly happened during WWII. As what I hear from veterans is a lot different from convetional history and this was like only 70 years ago. Heck even events of the last year are distorted for us through the media and government. How can we say for sure for 200+ years? :)

[@principetnomusic]

***** Think whatever you want, but I believe that Fomenko's books are too inconsistent with modern linguistics, archaeology and numismatics to be true. Also, I dare to challenge the statement "You are right that there is no political correctness, which I find a blessing. Because political correctness is a pretty dangerous thing society wise." We have political correctness, it just isn't called that (it's called, well, *politeness* :P) and is more relaxed. Sure, we don't find the word "Negro" unacceptable like you Anglophones do but that's mostly because of our history. The word "Jew" (or rather a cognate of it that is pronounced somewhat like "Jeed"), on the other hand, is gravely offensive and one is supposed to use the word "Evrey" ("Hebrew") when referring to Jews in Russian instead. Different cultures, different values, different viewpoints on what is and isn't considered offensive.

[@8bobthebuilder]

It was interesting to hear your opinion about Russia and your experience and advice for learning Russian. I like the way you explain things.

[@Sinkiplays]

Hi there, I am starting to learn russian and this video has great tips , thank you for posting the video, you've gotten a new subscriber! :) Lewis,

[@Thelinguist]

Glad to hear it. Make sure you stay the course. It is well worth it, lovely language and great literature a whole new world, but it is a long journey.

[@Sinkiplays]

Thanks for the reply Steve, hope you had a great Easter weekend, hope everything is well at your end

[@videogra5645]

But why you learn russian? It's not such good county to live there... But if you wanna visit you can to do it using english... In Russia people know this one

[@VeraAzarkhva]

Thank you for putting such beautiful word for Russia and its language.I am a Russian who made similar journey when I moved to UK at a young age and your story reminded me of that .I am now helping Brits with Russian and Russians with English.Спасибо вам и удачи в это странное время,берегите себя !!!

[@BrokTheLoneWolf]

Lol im learning Russian and I feel your pain. Especially the grammar!! The vocabulary is easy after a few months.

[@garycameron1]

Good luck with the Russian. Is Russian HipHop any good mate?

[@pauler694]

Hi ! =)) Believe it or not, grammar is a real pain in the .... eh, neck even for us, native Russians! ;-) That's why, just go ahead, don't give up ! ;-)

[@B1tPixel]

Gary Cameron No. Russian Hip-Hop is awful, trust me, i'm russian. Кровосток - one and only good rap band around.

[@Benbou969]

B1tPixel I think Timati is great, russian Eminem.))

[@B1tPixel]

Cabaliero I would say, that Timati is for pussies. No offence.

[@Russianlanguage]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experience :)

[@Thelinguist]

Thank you for your nice comment.

[@шкуркиншкурин]

Я учу английский , и мне раньше казалось что мне тяжело , теперь я понимаю что по настоящему тяжело тем кто учит русский!)

[@taemck3946]

И это правда! Английский в разы проще и структурированней, когда понимаешь разницу в языках.

[@Shika7272]

@@taemck3946 В каждом свои трудности так сказать. Не соглашусь. Русский фонетический алфавит сразу дает фору

[@telsys]

Steve, here's a tip on those cases: when it's "одна", because the ending of the number is a vowel "а", so the word "книга" would be nominative singular("одна книгА"); when it's "две, три, четыре", because the numbers end with vowels "и/e", so the word "книги" takes a vowel ending ("три книгИ"). Now when 5 or more is used, i.e "пять, шесть, семь...", because the numbers end with a consonant "ь", so "пять книг" is used without the vowel ending. I think it's easy to remember it this way.

[@darek4488]

I am Polish and I have to say that Russian is EZ once you overcome the alphabet problem. Russian has one case less than Polish, there is way less rule exceptions in it and the orography isn't as insane as in Polish. The most difficult thing about Russian was learning how to accent specific vowels precisely, because in Polish the stress is almost always at the second to last syllable, but most importantly nobody cares nor thinks about it and even if speak everything flat it is still ok.

[@DrMetallius]

+darek4488 It's pretty nice to me that all Slavic languages are more or less understandable to a native speaker of another Slavic language. I think you are right that in the case of Western Slavic languages and others the main obstacle is the alphabet. But once you realize, say, that "dobre" = "добро", you can easily understand its translation as "хорошо" (in case of Polish and Russian).

[@darek4488]

Malcolm Actually on the subject of similar words. In Russian there are a few hundred words that sound familiar for Polish natives while meaning something totally different. It sometimes gets as ridiculous as 'sutki' which in Russian means a day, but in Polish it means nipples and they both sound exactly the same. A week in Russian is 'nediela', but in Polish 'niedziela' means sunday. All these troll words can mess you up as a beginner trying to guess the words because you feel like it might be similar.

[@DrMetallius]

darek4488 I found that to be the case not just with Polish. But to be fair, a lot of such words can still have an obvious explanation. Say, Monday in Russian is "понедельник" (ponedel'nik), so it's easy to understand that the end of the week has the same word in it. You still have to be careful when you guess, of course. :)

[@NucleanSpoon]

+darek4488 Does Polish the same alogical as Russian? For example, there is country Turkey, it's Турция in russian, but people of this nation is called not турцы that is more logical, they is called турки. So, i mean something like that. Spokój, przyjaźń, pshek =)

[@DrMetallius]

NucleanSpoon The problem is that the word for the nationality appeared much much earlier than the modern country. Besides, the word for a nationality is not necessarily derived from the country, there is a special word for the citizens of the country. Say, there are русские (nationality), but there are also россияне (citizens of Russia).

[@katiebarnshaw]

I had started learning on duolingo and I reached a point where I couldn't quite get the pronunciations, very helpful video thank you! I'm only 15 so I'm hoping I can get this and Japanese down pat for when I leave school ! Спасибо

[@arieltineoalmonte7584]

My native language is Spanish and im learning(working out my mind)

[@yana_1547]

A much belated comment, but it's really fascinating to hear a foreign learner give their view of your mother tongue :)

[@alphawolf2993]

going From English R to German R and now to Russian R is incredibly difficult for me. My Russian friend said I speak Russian like a German (and I'm Canadian who learned German in adulthood)

[@bananabimb0]

Alphawolf299 maybe it's because you learnt German first? And you applied what you learnt in German (pronunciation wise) to Russian. Just a shot in the dark.

[@DULCECARICIA]

What a beautiful insight about Rusia culture, Thanks a lot! I am learning this, and it is just like you say, sime letters are shiftted with romanics ones, it is so fany! And writting is another challenge staf. Thanks!

[@averkij]

Dear Russian language learners, I wish you luck with this interesting challenge! You certaintly can do it! Дорогие изучающие русский язык друзья, желаю вам удачи в освоении этого замечательного языка! У вас все получится! Don't hesitate to ask russians when you don't understand something while learning. They'll help you. Не стесняйтесь спрашивать, если что-либо не понятно. Вам всегда помогут. You can ask me for example :) Удачи!

[@elizaayanna2669]

Your english is perfect, Do you speak fluent english too? And I am one of those taking the challenge! If you could help me that would be AMAZING (:

[@averkij]

Music Town Thanks, I do some mistakes when I write or speak english :) I'll help you with my pleasure :) Write to me somewhere)

[@Mocsk]

When you talk about complexity of the language, I think it's kind of important to mention that you're talking about knowing the language on an advanced level, not making mistakes when you speak and in general sound like you're from Russia. In my experience, Russian is one of the simplest languages on the planet if all you need is for people to roughly understand you and to understand not too complex conversations yourself. This flexible structure of the sentence, many synonyms and the fact that Russia is so ridiculously multicultural that apart from federal Russian it has 37 state languages and 15 languages with official status makes a lot of Russians pretty good at understanding people for whom Russian is not native and who speak it horribly. And then there's learning Russian to a level when people in Russia think you're Russian. I honestly never in my entire life encountered a foreigner who spoke Russian at least remotely convincing for others to think he's Russian. Another amazing thing about Russia is that apart from all these regional official and state languages, the Russian is 99% the same from Kaliningrad all the way to Vladivostok. I mean, people who live in southern Sweden usually talk with people from northern Sweden in English, because their Swedish is so different, and I really need some form of subtitles when I listen to people from southern United States or, say, northern parts of Britain. So I guess when you're English is not perfect but decent, some people will just assume you're from South Africa or something. But if your Russian is not perfect, no matter where you go - everyone immediately knows you're a foreigner, probably a spy, and will ask for nuclear submarine blueprints any second now. Quite a lot of text, so to just summarize - all people I met found it very simple to learn Russian to the level where everyone understands you, but find it completely impossible to learn Russian to a level where everyone wouldn't know 5 seconds into the conversation that you're a foreigner.