Russian is one of the most beautiful languages in the world. Millions of foreigners are trying to learn it in order to enjoy reading Russian books in the original, or to travel to Russia and to get to know Russian culture and meet Russian people. But there is a serious obstacle preventing them from mastering it: the Russian language is difficult. What makes it difficult? And is it the most difficult language in the world?
To begin with, Russian grammar is quite hard. For example, there are fewer tense forms of the verb, whereas the verb has many endings, depending on the grammar person, tense, number. Declinations and conjugations drive learners crazy, but still, there are many people who have managed to learn Russian grammar.
Secondly, Russian words are another impediment for any learner. The words are polysemantic, having different forms and changing depending on the case, gender, number. Moreover, adjectives can have singular and plural forms, they have masculine and feminine versions, and, to crown the whole, they can be conversed into nouns.
Thirdly, Russian phonetics is one of the most intricate ones. In this respect, it is similar to French or German pronunciation, where two or three letters are pronounced as one sound.
To sum it up, I would like to point out that the Cyrillic alphabet is not that hard to learn and remember, and the reading and grammar rules are quite logical and understandable. Those who have studied and mastered Chinese or Japanese can say that these two languages are not that hard to learn. Everything depends on the learner and his desire to work hard in order to learn foreign languages.
Russian is one of the most beautiful languages in the world. Millions of foreigners are trying to learn it in order to enjoy reading Russian books in the original, or to travel to Russia and to get to know Russian culture and meet Russian people. But there is a serious obstacle preventing them from mastering it: the Russian language is difficult. What makes it difficult? And is it the most difficult language in the world?
To begin with, Russian grammar is quite hard. For example, there are fewer tense forms of the verb, whereas the verb has many endings, depending on the grammar person, tense, number. Declinations and conjugations drive learners crazy, but still, there are many people who have managed to learn Russian grammar.
Secondly, Russian words are another impediment for any learner. The words are polysemantic, having different forms and changing depending on the case, gender, number. Moreover, adjectives can have singular and plural forms, they have masculine and feminine versions, and, to crown the whole, they can be conversed into nouns.
Thirdly, Russian phonetics is one of the most intricate ones. In this respect, it is similar to French or German pronunciation, where two or three letters are pronounced as one sound.
To sum it up, I would like to point out that the Cyrillic alphabet is not that hard to learn and remember, and the reading and grammar rules are quite logical and understandable. Those who have studied and mastered Chinese or Japanese can say that these two languages are not that hard to learn. Everything depends on the learner and his desire to work hard in order to learn foreign languages.