Russian vs Arabic vs Mandarin

lyebyeloo?
reminds me of the russia's most famous poem:
Я вас любил: любовь ещё, быть может,
В душе моей угасла не совсем;
Но пусть она вас больше не тревожит;
Я не хочу печалить вас ничем.
Я вас любил безмолвно, безнадежно,
То робостью, то ревностью томим;
Я вас любил так искренно, так нежно,
Как дай вам Бог любимой быть другим.
put in я вас люблю in ggogla and th english will come up.

See I can read that (I.e make the sounds) but understand Jack all

Reply 41

Harrie Lyons

10

Original post by L'Evil Fish

See I can read that (I.e make the sounds) but understand Jack all

ah fair enough.
did you learn it through transliteration? a word of warning that its totally deceptive. i learned to read the script years ago as well: when my russian friend first showed me that poem and read it out loud i was like wtf :lol:

so for instance the first line is pronounced, ya vas loobyeel, loobof yesho bwit mozhet.

Reply 42

L'Evil Fish

18

Original post by Harrie Lyons

x

I learnt the alphabet itself first by listening to clips.

And then just words. But I think I'm forgetting a lot.

My favourite letter is ж

Reply 43

Bambirina

Original post by El.Guapo

Does anyone have an opinion on the relative amount of time it would take someone who is relatively good at picking up European languages to master ( i.e. C1 on the European framework) one of these from scratch?
This would be based mainly on self-learning and evening classes, probably with only holidays to countries where the language is spoken initially.

I am interested in the possibility of learning one of Russian, Arabic or Mandarin as they are official languages at the U.N.

I'm completely fluent in 3 European languages but it still took me a few years to get anywhere in mandarin.

My only advice is: don't study Chinese if it's only for career purposes. All those I know who've done that have failed and given up within a few months. You have to be very passionate about it and dedicated if you want to make it. It will be a very long time before you can actually use it at work and you will need to love the language to get you through that time, especially if you're planning on learning it only with evening classes and such. It will be very hard but it's feasible. But again, you'll have to spend countless hours sitting at your desk writing endless lines of characters for a long time so passion and dedication are key!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 44

TheTechN1304

21

Original post by El.Guapo

Does anyone have an opinion on the relative amount of time it would take someone who is relatively good at picking up European languages to master ( i.e. C1 on the European framework) one of these from scratch?
This would be based mainly on self-learning and evening classes, probably with only holidays to countries where the language is spoken initially.

I am interested in the possibility of learning one of Russian, Arabic or Mandarin as they are official languages at the U.N.

If you look at this link you can see the difficulty of each language according to the US FSI:

http://www.effectivelanguagelearning.com/language-guide/language-difficulty

Acording to the FSI, Russian is the easiest to learn followed by mandarin and Arabic. What languages have you previously learnt? If you've only done other European languages then you're best starting with Russian. Even though it doesn't share many similarities with the Romance languages, it will be a lot easier to get the hang of Russian than if you started Arabic or Chinese. Though I don't understand or speak Russian further than the basic introductory phrases, I was able to learn the alphabet in a couple of hours, so it's very easy to get started.

If you've done another Asian language before, then go with Chinese. I first learnt japanese, and so when I started studying Chinese, even though the languages were both different, they had enough in common (same character system) that I found learning Chinese easier. In all honesty, the hardest thing about Chinese is the character system, which makes a lot of sense when you get to understanding it. The grammar is very easy too.
For example, to put anything in the negative form you add the character 不 (bù). So the word 'good' (好, hao) becomes 不好, meaning 'not good' or bad.

I cant really comment on Arabic as i haven't studied it. I'd be put off studying it mainly because it doesn't really have much scope though, other than countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East which seem to be relatively unstable and unsafe atm.

Reply 45

Blues Clues

13

If by Arabic you mean learning to speak it then it's very easy (talking from personal experience of Egyptian). Pronunciation is the hardest part!

But if you mean MSA (which is probably the kind of Arabic you'll learn in an evening class) then... you're in for a hell of a journey :wink:

(still love it though)

Reply 46

El.Guapo

OP

11

Original post by Blues Clues

If by Arabic you mean learning to speak it then it's very easy (talking from personal experience of Egyptian). Pronunciation is the hardest part!

But if you mean MSA (which is probably the kind of Arabic you'll learn in an evening class) then... you're in for a hell of a journey :wink:

(still love it though)

Sorry, what is MSA?

Reply 47

L'Evil Fish

18

Original post by El.Guapo

Sorry, what is MSA?

Modern Standard Arabic

Reply 48

El.Guapo

OP

11

Original post by L'Evil Fish

Modern Standard Arabic

OK, thanks, is Egyptian Arabic easier?

Reply 49

L'Evil Fish

18

Original post by El.Guapo

OK, thanks, is Egyptian Arabic easier?

I wouldn't be able to say tbh, but I guess rules are a lot more slack with local dialects.

Reply 50

Blues Clues

13

Original post by El.Guapo

OK, thanks, is Egyptian Arabic easier?

Much easier! However, there aren't as many resources for it around; Arabs will often tell you to learn MSA because it's the 'proper Arabic' - which is good for the news and written/official contexts but not for talking to your average Joe (or should I say Ahmad) on the street) in Egypt... or anyone really. Egyptian Arabic is widely understood because of the film industry, but it depends on what you're learning the language for.

Edit:

Original post by L'Evil Fish

I wouldn't be able to say tbh, but I guess rules are a lot more slack with local dialects.

Yes, this^.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 51

El.Guapo

OP

11

Original post by Blues Clues

Much easier! However, there aren't as many resources for it around; Arabs will often tell you to learn MSA because it's the 'proper Arabic' - which is good for the news and written/official contexts but not for talking to your average Joe (or should I say Ahmad) on the street) in Egypt... or anyone really. Egyptian Arabic is widely understood because of the film industry, but it depends on what you're learning the language for.

Edit:

Yes, this^.

Shukran

Reply 52

ifyouseelaura

10

If you can already speak German, you'd have a headstart on the Russian cases - might make it a bit easier/quicker to learn than the other two?

If I were you, I'd pick the language that interests me the most. You're far more likely to stick at something that you enjoy (and there's not much point trying to learn a really "useful" language if you give up after 2 months...). Also, if you find a language/country that you love, I'm sure you can find a way to make knowing that language useful to you. :smile:

Russian vs Arabic vs Mandarin

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