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I've decided to learn russian

prplchknz

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Just because, of course I'd choose a challenging language but if anyone on here has taught themselves a language what are some good products and if anyone speaks russian i'd be interested in skyping to practice. Or if there's sites that I can use to practice
 

Ozones

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The Russian language is amazing because it is at the same time both excruciatingly annoying and incredibly hilarious to listen to.

Good luck. If i were to learn a new language id choose French.

Also http://www.rosettastone.com/
 

five sounds

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:D cool! i started trying to learn russian a few years ago with rosetta stone, and it's secretly the language i'd like to learn next too. subscribed!
 

xisnotx

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google translate is your best friend. learning to read and write in any language is much easier to do these days, because of technology.

speaking it fluently is still pretty difficult.
 

Qre:us

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Buy War and Peace, in its original Russian (Voyna i mir) and English translated version, and compare the two, sentence by sentence.

(make sure you get all 4 volumes!!!)

Good luck!
 

sorenx7

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In his book "The Loom of Language," linguist Frederick Bodmer lists Russian as the most difficult of major languages. It has a charm to it (as do many languages,) but learning it is no easy task. Nevertheless, I have a feeling its importance will only be increasing as the years go by.
 

prplchknz

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I'm actually being only my second day am picking up tiny pieces, but it is hard and I am begining to recognize a few words not many but a few

I want to learn how to speak it, that's what i'm focusing on now learning to speak and understand, then I'll worry about the written.
 

Mole

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English and Poetry

English is now our lingua franca. It is the language of science, and the language of business, and the language of diplomacy, but so many speak and write it badly.

This is because English is used for practical matters.

However to use English well we need to speak and write English for its own sake.

The Americans tried to take English back to year zero with their spelling revolution by Noah Webster, but we need to take English back for its own sake.

English contains far more words than any other language and continues to grow and is uniquely supple. The perfect language for poetry.
 

Noll

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I envy you. You get to read Dostoyevsky untranslated!
 

prplchknz

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I'm stuck on a word, I'll type when it i get home, but i can't get my mouth to pronounce the middle syllable.

I've had trouble with the word for girl, but I finally got it, woman is also hard for me. But this one I keep trying and I just can't
 

Qre:us

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English contains far more words than any other language and continues to grow and is uniquely supple. The perfect language for poetry

What hubris!!!

This is just your own personal diatribe: that because of the number of words contained within a language, that language, therefore, is innately superior in terms of range of expression and/or nuances of expression.

What about German? That create new compound words?

I would counter that it has far greater depth in expressing a sentiment, than English, where English words fail in having an equivalent to capture the essence of that expression.

A simple expression: Ich liebe dich (I love you)
Often reciprocated with: Ich dich auch (literally translated in English as: "I you too", or you would simply translate it in English as, "Me, too.")

But, ask any native German speaker, "Me, too", fails to truly capture the essence and nuance of the meaning of "Ich dich auch", when attempting to translate in English.

And this phenomenon is not just in the German language, but other languages too, where translation into English fails to capture the nuance and essence of its meaning/intent.

Thus, it stands to contradict your assumption, that more words, does not, therefore, more range of expressions make.

English contains far more words than any other language and continues to grow and is uniquely supple. The perfect language for poetry.


Here, some fine quality poetry, with some of the newest addition to the Oxford dictionary (bolded words):

Srsly,

Mole be twerking for some gherkin,

Ass up, hands on the floor.

*the crow goes wild*

No need of FOMO,

There be selfies galore.

Srsly.
 

Ghost

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I'm considering learning a language. It's something I've wanted to do, and with the resources online and at the library, I should be able to pick up basic skills.

I'm still deciding between Russian, Finnish, German, and Mandarin. German would be easier to teach myself, I think. They even have bilingual English/German readers at my library.
 
S

Sniffles

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Почему вы хотите говорить по-русски? Это очень трудно учиться. Но, не пуха, ни пера!
 

prplchknz

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Почему вы хотите говорить по-русски? Это очень трудно учиться. Но, не пуха, ни пера!

I'm only 3 days in, i'll respond to this when I feel more confident. I'll find people to talk to when I can form complete sentences. I am begining to recongize seperate words when it's spoken, just don't know what most of them mean. I'll get there.
 
S

Sniffles

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I'm only 3 days in, i'll respond to this when I feel more confident. I'll find people to talk to when I can form complete sentences. I am begining to recongize seperate words when it's spoken, just don't know what most of them mean. I'll get there.
Вам нужна помощь?
 

Mole

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Perceptive English

What hubris!!!

It's true, I belong to the Anglosphere, the sphere of English that envelopes the world.

English has no peer.

English knows no nationality.

English is everything from science to fashion.

We perceive by making distinctions, and the more distinctions, the more we see.

Each English word is a distinction, and there are one million, twenty-five thousand, one hundred and ten distinctions in English, with a new distinction created every ninty-eight minutes.

So English enables us to perceive more than any other language.
 

Qre:us

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It's true, I belong to the Anglosphere, the sphere of English that envelopes the world.

English has no peer.

English knows no nationality.

English is everything from science to fashion.

We perceive by making distinctions, and the more distinctions, the more we see.

Each English word is a distinction, and there are one million, twenty-five thousand, one hundred and ten distinctions in English, with a new distinction created every ninty-eight minutes.

So English enables us to perceive more than any other language.

Yes, yes, lingua franca, and all that jazz.
 

Mole

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Yes, yes, lingua franca, and all that jazz.

It's not just it's the lingua franca, it is that English contains many, many more distinctions (ie many, many more words) than any other language. And the difference is enormous.

So it is a question of epistemology.

Epistemology is our way of perceiving. And English enables us to perceive far more than any other language.

The danger for native speakers of English is that we take English for granted, and so we are blind to the riches and possibilities of English.

And it is plain that for most of the native speakers of English here, the main challenge is to learn to speak and write and and etext English.

Who would have guessed?
 

Noll

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Почему вы хотите говорить по-русски? Это очень трудно учиться. Но, не пуха, ни пера!
You speak Russian and you're INFJ 4w5 sp/so. Are you Dostoevsky reincarnated?
 
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