Study order
Much depends on how many languages you already know, which language group, is it similar grammatical structure etc. It also matters for what purpose you need this or that language: hobby, work, etc. Today we will look at such an aspect as learning foreign languages by a Russian person, we will find out what is easiest for him.
Senior lecturer and methodologist at the Institute of Philology and History of the Russian State University for the Humanities, candidate philological sciences Nikita Petrov believes that for a Russian-speaking person, foreign languages are divided into five groups, the last of which includes the most difficult to understand.
According to Petrov, who developed a method of mnemonics that helps in learning languages, the easiest way for a Russian person to master Slavic languages and Esperanto. At the same time, the specialist clarifies that Slovak and Polish are easier to master after mastering Czech. Petrov included Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian in the second group of foreign languages, and also added Latvian. The third section includes English, Dutch, Lithuanian, Yiddish, French and other Romance languages not included in the second group. It is noteworthy that, according to the author of the mnemonics, English is easier to learn after French, and Dutch is better with prior mastery of English. Whereas Petrov recommends mastering Yiddish after German and Slavic languages.
In the fourth group, according to the degree of ease, he included German and other Germanic languages, Hebrew, Greek, Altai and Indo-Iranian languages. The fifth group includes all other languages of the world. There is also a caveat here: Nikita Petrov advises starting to study Persian and Hebrew after Arabic, and Korean and Japanese after Chinese.
In addition, in his opinion, when mastering any foreign language, you first need to master the alphabet, reading rules, and several dozen of the most common words and expressions. Then turn to basic grammar and vocabulary on basic everyday topics. Afterwards you can start reading adapted texts and their discussion. Upon completion of the grammar course, Petrov recommends choosing additional lexical topics taking into account profession, interests, etc. And the crown of learning a foreign language should be reading works of art in the original and easy communication with native speakers.
How many people, so many opinions
Not everyone agrees with such a breakdown of the groups of foreign languages that are easiest and most difficult for a Russian person. Thus, Anna Kravchenko, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Translation at Moscow State Linguistic University, is sure that there is no such thing as consistency and ease in learning foreign languages. According to her, each of us has our own abilities and mentality. However, she believes that after mastering three foreign languages, the fourth and subsequent ones are easier to master, since a person has his own system for studying them.
Head of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State University for the Humanities Sergei Gindin also notes that general rules in the sequence of mastering foreign languages, they are not accessible to a Russian-speaking person. Only relative ease is possible between two similar languages. For example, someone who has studied French will find it easier to learn Spanish, which also belongs to the Romance group.
Another specialist in foreign languages, simultaneous translator Dmitry Petrov, who has been hosting the popular “Polyglot” program on the Kultura TV channel for several years, believes that a certain complexity of the Russian language gives us, its native speakers, a big advantage when learning foreign languages. Whereas an Englishman has a much more difficult time in this regard.
However, for Russians there are languages with categories that are not found in Russian. For this reason, it is not so easy for Russian-speaking students to master Finno-Ugric and Turkic languages, which have a different logic. But Dmitry Petrov emphasizes that the difficulty of any foreign language is mainly a myth and, if desired, you can master any. Moreover, it is quite acceptable to study two languages at once. He also calls not to be afraid of an accent, since every person in the world, even native language speaks with some kind of accent. For example, in the same Great Britain there is a classic version, the so-called Royal English, in which work time the announcers, some politicians and the queen say. Otherwise, there are dozens of absolutely incredible dialects and accents, including London.
However, many believe that when learning a foreign language you should be guided not by ease, but by its relevance. As you know, currently English is such a language, and a significant part of Russians study it. But the future is not his at all. Thus, Gennady Gladkov, who heads the department of language training and the Bologna process at MGIMO, is confident that in 50 years the most relevant language in the world will be Chinese, which will overtake English due to the growth of the population and economy of the PRC.
It is generally accepted that Chinese is one of the most difficult foreign languages for Russian speakers. However, those who dared to master it claim that this is not so. In particular, it is not at all necessary to know more than 80 thousand characters; most Chinese do not know them. For example, to read, it will be enough to master only one thousand of them. And, of course, it is important to liberate yourself, free yourself from psychological pressures and barriers, because there is no foreign language that would be completely inaccessible for mastering. Polyglots are sure: the main thing is to remember the core of the language - basic vocabulary and frequently used grammatical and syntactic structures, and then everything will go like clockwork.
Which language is easier to learn?
Many of you would definitely like to learn a new one foreign language, especially if they are fluent only in their native language. Knowledge of foreign languages is always a plus. This is not only your advantage when hiring and great psychological comfort while traveling. Knowledge of foreign languages has a positive effect on mental activity, so it’s never too late to learn any language. Perhaps at 50 years old it will be a little more difficult, but you will still be able to learn it. By the way, the world around you will also change, you will understand the origin of many words, know what languages they came from, you will be able to read in the original and understand. Moreover, the more languages you know, the easier each next one will be for you. A combination of French-Spanish-Italian - one might say perfect case: the words are intuitive, the grammar is similar, and after each next, new language comes much faster. Many, by the way, choose a suitable language school for themselves and there they begin to take turns mastering the foreign languages they like. Foreign language courses in St. Petersburg in language school Communication Club, for such students they can cost much cheaper, because they have discounts for regular students up to 50% (!).
The most frequently asked question: ? There is no single answer to this question, because there is various factors which must be considered. One of them is your native language. The easiest language to learn is considered to be the one that is as close phonetically as possible to your native language. Also, keep in mind that each language has borrowed something from each other at some point. For example, if you are a native English speaker, then the most suitable languages to study would be: German, Spanish, French and Italian, since they are “sisters” to English. For native speakers of Russian (among European languages), it is easiest to understand, especially after English.
Another factor is your personal motivation for learning a certain language, love for the culture of a certain country, desire to study there or go for permanent residence. All other things being equal, some people have greater ability in some languages and less in others. As an example, the French “r” is obtained without special training :).
- logical, relatively close in pronunciation to Russian, and very interesting language. Most words from English are also found in Italian. The Italian language is bright, emotional and beautiful. It can be recommended as a second language especially to those who love classical music and Italian culture itself.
Knowledge of two or more languages today is one of the main conditions for developing a good career, but learning all languages is not enough in life. Which languages can you learn faster than others? We help beginning polyglots.
Study order
Much depends on how many languages you already know, what language group, whether the grammatical structure is similar, etc. It also matters for what purpose you need this or that language: hobby, work, etc. Today we will look at this aspect, how a Russian person learns foreign languages, we find out what comes easiest to him.
Senior lecturer and methodologist at the Institute of Philology and History of the Russian State University for the Humanities, Candidate of Philological Sciences Nikita Petrov believes that for a Russian-speaking person, foreign languages are divided into five groups, the last of which includes the most difficult to understand.
According to Petrov, who developed a mnemonic technique that helps in learning languages, the easiest way for a Russian person to master the Slavic languages and Esperanto. At the same time, the specialist clarifies that Slovak and Polish are easier to master after mastering Czech. Petrov included Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian in the second group of foreign languages, and also added Latvian. The third section includes English, Dutch, Lithuanian, Yiddish, French and other Romance languages not included in the second group. It is noteworthy that, according to the author of the mnemonics, English is easier to learn after French, and Dutch is better with prior mastery of English. Whereas Petrov recommends mastering Yiddish after German and Slavic languages.
In the fourth group, according to the degree of ease, he included German and other Germanic languages, Hebrew, Greek, Altai and Indo-Iranian languages. The fifth group includes all other languages of the world. There is also a caveat here: Nikita Petrov advises starting to study Persian and Hebrew after Arabic, and Korean and Japanese after Chinese.
In addition, in his opinion, when mastering any foreign language, you first need to master the alphabet, reading rules, and several dozen of the most common words and expressions. Then turn to basic grammar and vocabulary on basic everyday topics. Afterwards you can start reading the adapted texts and discussing them. When completing a grammar course, Petrov recommends choosing additional lexical topics taking into account profession, interests, etc. And the crown of studying a foreign language should be reading works of fiction in the original and easy communication with native speakers.
How many people, so many opinions
Not everyone agrees with such a breakdown of the groups of foreign languages that are easiest and most difficult for a Russian person. Thus, Anna Kravchenko, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Translation at Moscow State Linguistic University, is sure that there is no such thing as consistency and ease in learning foreign languages. According to her, each of us has our own abilities and mentality. However, she believes that after mastering three foreign languages, the fourth and subsequent ones are easier to master, since a person has his own system for studying them.
The head of the department of theoretical and applied linguistics at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State University for the Humanities, Sergei Gindin, also notes that there are no general rules in the sequence of mastering foreign languages and their accessibility for Russian-speaking people. Only relative ease is possible between two similar languages. For example, someone who has studied French will find it easier to learn Spanish, which also belongs to the Romance group.
Another specialist in foreign languages, simultaneous translator Dmitry Petrov, who has been hosting the popular “Polyglot” program on the Kultura TV channel for several years, believes that a certain complexity of the Russian language gives us, its native speakers, a big advantage when learning foreign languages. Whereas an Englishman has a much more difficult time in this regard.
However, for Russians there are languages with categories that are not found in Russian. For this reason, it is not so easy for Russian-speaking students to master Finno-Ugric and Turkic languages, which have a different logic. But Dmitry Petrov emphasizes that the difficulty of any foreign language is mainly a myth and, if desired, you can master any. Moreover, it is quite acceptable to study two languages at once. He also calls not to be afraid of an accent, since every person in the world, even in their native language, speaks with some kind of accent. For example, in Great Britain there is a classic version, the so-called Royal English, which is spoken by announcers, some politicians and the Queen during working hours. Otherwise, there are dozens of absolutely incredible dialects and accents, including London.
However, many believe that when learning a foreign language you should be guided not by ease, but by its relevance. As you know, currently English is such a language, and a significant part of Russians study it. But the future is not his at all. Thus, Gennady Gladkov, who heads the department of language training and the Bologna process at MGIMO, is confident that in 50 years the most relevant language in the world will be Chinese, which will overtake English due to the growth of the population and economy of the PRC.
It is generally accepted that Chinese is one of the most difficult foreign languages for Russian speakers. However, those who dared to master it claim that this is not so. In particular, it is not at all necessary to know more than 80 thousand characters; most Chinese do not know them. For example, to read, it will be enough to master only one thousand of them.
The complexity and ease of learning a particular language, of course, will depend on what nationality and native speaker the student is. It is logical that it will be easier for a German to learn Dutch than for a Korean. An Englishman will learn German faster than a Chinese.
No language can be considered simpler or more complex than another. Because there are no absolute criteria for assessing the complexity of a language. Each language consists of grammar, phonetics, and certain rules for spelling words. And if in the Chinese language, for example, the spelling is very complex and there are tones in phonetics, then in the same language the grammar will not give you any difficulties. And in Italian, along with simple pronunciation, there are a lot of irregular verbs.
Which languages will seem easier for a Russian person to learn and understand?
The Russian language, along with Belarusian and Ukrainian, is part of the Slavic group of languages and is called East Slavic. As you know, the vocabulary, phonetics and grammar of these languages are almost identical to Russian. Therefore, learning these languages will not be difficult. And the understanding of Ukrainian and Belarusian is understandable almost on an intuitive level, even to those who have not encountered them at all.
The Serbo-Croatian language (used in the countries of Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia) and the Bulgarian language have noticeable similarities in terms of vocabulary and grammar. The phonetics of such languages is more difficult to write. The written word (usually in Latin) of such languages is very similar to the spelling of Russian words only with Latin letters(for example: zaprto - closed, locked (Horv), otprto - open (Horv)) Pronunciation here will be more difficult; you will need to work with the stress, which may not be located on the same syllable as in Russian, even if the spelling of words is practically identical. Such languages have a branched system of tenses and unstressed particles - unusual for the Russian language.
The most difficult of the Slavic languages for the Russian mentality will probably be Czech and Polish. There are more unfamiliar words here, which are no longer very similar to identical Russian ones, because part of the vocabulary is borrowed from German. But the situation is simpler with emphasis. It is almost fixed in words: on the first and second syllable from the end.
The situation is a little more complicated with the Baltic languages (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia). If in terms of vocabulary they are a little reminiscent of Slavic languages, you will have to work hard to study the richness of their grammar.
Among the Germanic languages, English will be easier to learn. German and Dutch are a little more difficult, for which the difficulty will be in grammar. The greatest difficulty will fall on the Scandinavian languages. There are practically no words of international origin in them and you will have to memorize almost the entire vocabulary. Also, the Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish) are characterized by complex sentences and inconsistent spelling of words.
Among the Romance languages, it will be easier to learn Italian or Spanish, Portuguese, than French, which is very complex rules pronunciation and spelling.
What languages are difficult for Russians to learn?
Turkic (Turkish) and Finno-Ugric languages (Finnish, Hungarian) have strict and logical writing rules. However, these rules differ from Russian sentence writing. Their verbs, as a rule, stand on last places in the sentence, there are no prepositions at all, and case and number are expressed by different indicators. Moreover, in such languages great amount cases (there are 20 of them in Hungarian).
Also difficult languages include Arabic and Hebrew. They have complex grammar and pronunciation. Writing does not convey vowels, and there are also many exceptions and irregular verbs that will have to be memorized.
Chinese and Japanese languages complex due to hieroglyphic writing. To write or read something in Chinese, you will have to learn several thousand characters, and when studying Japanese you will have to master as many as 2 alphabets - katakana and hiragana.
Center international communication"Language Plus" suggests not to be intimidated by the complexity of learning foreign languages and happily
will help you learn any language at the best prices.
At school, many of us were faced with the fact that they were divided into groups of different foreign languages according to completely incomprehensible criteria, calling some languages simple and others complex, some children capable of learning English, and others German. We often hear from different people that this language is simple and this one is complex. But how can one really assess whether a language is complex or simple? Which language should I choose for my child to make it easier for him to learn? Which language should you teach yourself as a second or third language, to make it easier again? Which European language Is it more difficult for a Russian person to teach, but which one is easier? I myself used to often ask myself these questions, and this is what I think about it now.
What parameters are important when learning a foreign language?
Below you can see a summary comparison table foreign languages, which summarizes data on the degree of difficulty of learning these languages for a Russian person
| Language | Pronunciation | Reading | Spelling | Vocabulary | Grammar |
| English | Difficult | Very difficult | Difficult | Very difficult | Just |
| German | Very simple | Very simple | Very simple | Very simple | Very difficult |
| French | Average | Average | Very difficult | Just | Difficult |
| Spanish | Just | Just | Just | Just | Just |
| Italian | Very simple | Just | Just | Just | Just |
Pronunciation
The most important thing in pronunciation is the presence of special sounds that are not in the native language. These sounds are difficult to pronounce when you first start learning a language because different sounds use different facial muscles and use the tongue differently as a muscular organ. When we actively use only part of our facial muscles, the rest atrophy. Some of these atrophied muscles It’s very easy to “launch” and start using them, others are more difficult. It takes practice, it takes habit. It is for this reason that the faces of foreigners and people who have lived in another country for a long time are often very different from our compatriots, while some elusive similarity can be found in their faces. It arises precisely due to the fact that people speak the same language and actively use the same facial muscles.
German and Italian do not have any particularly difficult sounds for Russian people. In Italian, sounds simply need to be pronounced brighter and more emotional, but in German they are harsher and more specific. Of course, there are some pronunciation nuances. For example, in German there is a burr [r] and a muffled soft [x], but these sounds are familiar to Russian people and do not need to make any special efforts to master them.
IN Spanish There are several special sounds:
- Interdental [s] (you need to put your tongue between your teeth and say [s], i.e. such a lisp [s]), but this sound is used only in European Spanish, in Latin America pronounced normal [s])
- Something between the sounds [b] and [v] (both of these sounds are very muffled and they sound very similar)
In French There are more special sounds and you “break your language” more strongly when you are just starting to learn French. There are the following special sounds for a Russian person:
- Burry r
- Nasal sounds
- Unusual combination of vowels and consonants
English is the most difficult of this group of languages for a Russian person to pronounce. It contains the following new sounds for us:
- Interdental s and z
- Nasal n
- Special sound r
- A wide variety of vowels that cannot even be expressed in Russian letters
- The presence of long and short sounds that influence the meaning of the word
Therefore, without an accent it is much easier for a Russian person to speak Spanish, Italian and German. But in French and especially in English it is much more difficult. But with practice anything is possible. Still, Russian people are lucky; our language has a lot of different sounds that allow us to train our facial muscles, and we are able to quickly start speaking other languages without a strong accent. For example, the Spaniards cannot boast of this. It's very difficult for them Russian pronunciation, due to the fact that their language does not have such a variety of consonant sounds.
Reading
Reading in a foreign language is considered simple if there are few reading rules and there are practically no exceptions. Accordingly, it is considered complex if there are many reading rules and exceptions to them.
According to this rule, German couldn’t be simpler. You will always be able to correctly read any new unfamiliar word with almost one hundred percent probability.
But English is a complete disorder in this regard. You can almost never be sure how a new word is read. English is a mixture of several other languages (it contains many French, Spanish and German words), so there are many rules for reading, and even more exceptions to them. Moreover, in English, even the context influences how to read the same combination of letters. For example, the phrases “I read” and “I read” are written the same way “Iread”, and in the first case they are read [ai read], and in the second [ai rad], and if you do not know the context of this phrase, then how to read it correctly completely unclear. In general, to read English correctly, you just need to know how each word is read. Therefore, it becomes easy to read English only when you have a large enough lexicon.
Reading French is not very difficult, but it has its own peculiarities. Some letters are not readable at all, and some are read only in certain cases, and there is also such a thing as word concatenation, that is, a group of words in certain situations is read as one word. But if you know all these features, then it gradually turns out that reading French is not so difficult.
Spelling
Spelling refers to how difficult it is to spell a new word correctly by ear. In this regard, the Russian language itself is very complex, since we often say “a” and write “o”, or say “i” and write “e”, and there are a bunch of other rules. This is why few people achieve “excellent” grades in Russian at school. But not all languages are like this.
It is generally difficult to make a mistake in German. It is possible to make a mistake in Spanish and Italian, but it is also very rare.
But writing in French and English is very difficult. In the French language there are a lot of letters that are not pronounced, but are written, and also one sound is conveyed by three or even four letters. A simple example, the word beaucoup (many) is read [sideways], and there are twice as many letters.
In English, the same sound can be conveyed by several different combinations of letters, and the same letter can be read in different situations as many as 7 different sound options.
To write correctly in French you just need to know a lot of rules, and in English you just need to know how to spell EVERY word, otherwise you have a lot of chances to make mistakes.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is vocabulary. The complexity of vocabulary can be assessed by how easy it is to learn new words. It’s easy to learn new words if they are short, if they consist of several other words you already know, or if many other words can be formed from one root using different prefixes and endings.
In this regard, German is again a very simple language. There are few short words, but words with the same root or compound words so many. Therefore, you gain vocabulary very quickly, and even gradually you yourself learn to come up with German words that you have not heard before.
You are unlikely to succeed in this in English. In English short words there are a lot, especially those that are used in everyday speech, so start learning English words very simple. But it is very difficult to gain vocabulary, since there are practically no words of the same root or compound words. Each word needs to be learned again, associations do not work. Moreover, due to the fact that English is a mixture of several languages, it has a lot of synonyms from different languages that you have to learn in order to simply understand your interlocutor. In order to speak, you can have fewer words in your active vocabulary.
Grammar
Knowledge of grammar is understood as the ability to correctly connect words together into meaningful phrases, not at the level of “mine is yours to understand.” It is not easy to assess the complexity of the grammar of any language at first glance; each has its own difficulties, and each of them, on the contrary, simplifies something. Therefore, it is better to compare them in several parameters. See the table below first.
| Word order | Verbs | Place-names | Nouns | Articles | Adjectives | |
| (statement, question) | (conjugations and tenses) | (gender, number, case) | ||||
| English | Difficult | Just | Very simple | |||
| German | Very difficult | Difficult | Difficult | |||
| French | Average | Average | Average | |||
| Spanish | Very simple | Average | Just | |||
| Italian | Very simple | Average | ||||
Please note that I give this assessment only from the point of view of spoken language, that is, I consider only those grammatical structures that are regularly used in speech. For example, from 9 English tenses to real life only 3-5 are used. And in German and Spanish, verbs in the present tense can be used with the appropriate context to convey the future tense.
In English, only word order is relatively complicated, since the question is not asked by simply changing intonation, but also requires rearranging words, and sometimes adding auxiliary verbs. Verb conjugation in colloquial speech very simple: only the ending in the 3rd person changes singular, and in the future and past tense, you can generally use the same construction for all persons and numbers (will + verb, verb + ed). The only difficulty English verbs, this availability is relative large quantity irregular verbs that are not declined according to the rule, and their forms just need to be remembered, but these irregular verbs exist in all languages, and you cannot hide from them anywhere J Pronouns, articles, nouns and adjectives are generally not declined by gender and case. The plural of a noun is formed using the same ending -s. The form of adjectives never changes at all
In Spanish, Italian and French, all the grammar rules are very similar. Only the Spaniards and Italians are more relaxed about word order, there are practically no rules (only the place of the verb and adjectives play a role), and you can ask a question simply by changing your intonation. Although the French are increasingly beginning to simplify their speech in colloquial speech. Verbs in these languages are conjugated by gender and number, their endings change, but to convey the future tense, you can use present tense forms and add only context, and the past tense is formed using the verbs to be/to have in the appropriate conjugation + the participial form of the semantic verb, that is, you only need to know the conjugation of the verbs to be and to have in the corresponding language. Pronouns, articles, nouns and adjectives are declined in a similar way in these languages, but there are more exceptions in French.
The German language does not please us with its grammar. There are many difficulties in it. But it all obeys clear rules, there are few exceptions. The word order is strict; intonation can't help much. Verbs, especially compound ones, have a special place in a sentence. The plural of nouns is formed according to several rules. Nouns, adjectives, articles and pronouns are declined according to gender, case and number, just like in the Russian language. But, for example, German does not have auxiliary verbs like English.
In general, every language has grammar that is simple or complex in its own way. But still, of these 5, the record holder for the rules that you need to know in order to speak correctly spoken language, German is ahead of others. But in all other parameters (reading, spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary) German very simple.
There are no completely simple languages. Perhaps for Russians Belarusian or Ukrainian :) But you can choose for yourself those parameters that are easier for you and use them to choose a foreign language for yourself or for your child if you are going to teach him.
In Russia most of people prefer English. This is due to the demand of this language in the world and its international status, But English language is not the most in simple language for study specifically by Russian people. Perhaps you also learned English, perhaps it was difficult for you, and this article helped you understand why. So maybe you and your children should choose another foreign language to study, and return to English later. A second foreign language is always much easier to learn than a first.
You may find other articles on this topic useful:
You can find even more information about each language here.
Loading...
