Is Russian difficult?
Organisations that classify languages by difficulty (e.g. the UK and US Diplomatic services) normally place Russian in the second tier of difficulty for English speakers – so not as hard as Mandarin or Arabic, but harder than common European languages.?
The main difficulty Russian poses for English speakers is that it is an inflected language. This means that words change their ending depending on what they are doing in a sentence: ‘with sugar’, for example, uses a different form of the word sugar to ‘without sugar’. In fairly crude terms, this means that the problem when studying Russian is that you need to learn not only the word, but also what to do with it.?
Set against that, Russian is broadly a logical language, which more or less does what it is supposed to do. This means that it has something for both the creative and the analytical mind: it is an elegant language in look, sound and structure; at the same time it appeals to those who like an intellectual challenge and enjoy knowing why things are the way they are. In short, in our experience Russian seems to have broad appeal for the adult mind.
You can find out more about our Russian group and individual courses, exams, and special interest courses on our website www.russiancentre.co.uk
Trainee solicitor (Energy M&A and regulatory)
1 年Russian is insanely difficult - but that doesn’t stop you from falling in love with it! Aspect is the hardest thing for an EN native to get their head around, I think, but it’s best to embrace the chaos and confusion, accept you will make lots of mistakes and continue trying to learn anyway! For what it’s worth, my lessons with you (especially Lyuda!) were fantastic, by far the best teachers I’ve encountered, both in the UK and abroad. I hope to be able to return to lessons in the not-too-distant future (work permitting) and, one day, finally pass the TRKI II!