I wanted to learn a second language and I looked at a bunch of them. I was going to learn Swedish but one day I saw cyrillic and thought it looked really weird and wondered how people could read it. So I learnt the alphabet, just for fun I guess, but the more I learnt about the grammar and heard the sound of it the more awesome it became to me. I also like it for the same reasons you do, when you describe the sound as strong but graceful. I’m also a musician (though not professional) and for me learning Russian is just like learning a musical instrument. You have the same goal which is to master the instrument. I have a preference for Russian and not German in the same way I have a preference for the guitar and not the drums…but I have no idea why that is.
@Voir
Of course, I was joking saying that English was terrible.
Actually, I like English like a lot of other languages.
But it irritates me when people complain about the ‘horrible Russian Grammar’ in compare with their native languages.
All native languages are obviously easier for the native speakers than foreign languages.
For Chinese the Chinese language is the easiest, for Russians it is the Russian language and so on.
But the logic of these languages can be very strange for non native speakers like a logic of English for English learners as well.
However, if you have some patience and time, you are able to overcome all difficulties and speak a new language well.
@mtompson
I saw some of your Russian lessons. They are rather interesting and can be useful for English speakers. I prefer not to explain so much in English when I’m teaching Russian, but it’s maybe good for the absolute beginners. And besides Grammar patterns I prefer to introduce some simple topics to make the study more interesting. You can see my method in the Russian library of Lingq opening my courses ПЕРВЫЕ ШАГИ(First Steps):
or РУССКИЙ С НУЛЯ(Russian from zero).
But sometimes non-native speaker teachers can better see the ‘hard nuts’ for students than native speaker teachers. I can say it also from my experience because I teach not only Russian, but also German and English.
Your pronunciatian is rather well, my congratulations. I can’t boast such a good pronunciation in English, that’s why I often write my English lessons and then ask some English native speakers to record them for Lingq or for my school in St Petersburg. So, take my congratulations again!..
But why the Ukrainian flag?.. Or are you living right now there?
Hi Evgueny40…Thanks so much for the compliment about my Russian pronunciation. Having just listened to your ‘First Steps’ lesson 1, your English pronunciation is quite good, too. As you guessed, my lessons are indeed for absolute beginners and thus necessarily use English to explain things, but as soon as the requisite vocab has been accumulated, the ratio of Russian to English grows ever higher.
I should’ve commented earlier, because I totally agree with your earlier posts, especially where you mentioned the difficulties of English grammar (to say nothing of the insanity of English spelling.) Your point was spot on, and answered the O/P’s question: All grammar is hard to non-native speakers. (Though I’d add that it depends on who the non-native speaker is. If your native language is one of the Slavic tongues, then Russian’s case system and verb aspect approach aren’t foreign to you.)
As for my choosing the Ukrainian flag…I’ve been living in Sevastopol, Ukraine for the past few years. It’s a great place to study Russian because of the variety of native Russian speakers living there. In Sevastopol I’ve met people who’ve moved from Moscow, St. P, Murmansk, Vladivostok, and so on. (They’re usually soldiers from Russia’s Black Sea fleet which of course is stationed in Sevastopol.)