Russian is the most widely spoken Slavonic language. It is not only spoken by the 145 million native Russian speakers of the Russian Federation, but also by many former Soviet Union Republics and many more speak Russian as a second language all over the world. A total estimated number of between 255 million and 285 million worldwide.
As an official language of the United Nations, this international form of communication is rightly recognized.
Russian is part of the East-Slavic group which in turn is part of the Indo-European family of languages. Very closely related to Ukrainian and Belarusian, some areas will mix their native tongue with Russian freely. Apart from Russia, there are millions of native speakers in Belarus (constitutionally, Russian is the co-official language along with Belorussian), Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Moldova. In these countries, except for Belarus, Russian has no official status but due to historical reasons, it often plays the role of post-Soviet lingua franca.
Despite those facts, Russians seem surprised by foreigners who can speak Russian fluently: “They can’t believe that you sat down and learned it”
Doing some research, I stumbled on an interesting, relevant and extensive discussion started by Alexei Tereshchenko, a Russian from Latvia, on Quora
What motivates people to learn Russian?
This discussion produced a very comprehensive and enlightening list of various reasons for learning Russian which I can briefly sum up as follows:
1. Pragmatic reason: Russian is spoken by 300 million people and one of the UN working languages to boot.
- study in Russia, need Russian for everyday life
- finding a well-paying job in Russia
2. Cyrillic looks intriguing and the Russian language itself sounds lyrical, melodic, beautiful, fascinating to foreign ears
- “I have fallen in love with the Cyrillic alphabet, don’t know why, but they look so stylish!”
- “the language feels really satisfying on the tongue
- “it sounds phonetically cool”
- “Cyrillic is sexy”
3. In many cases, the interest in Russia and Russian language was triggered by a cultural reference (literature, music, cartoons, films, art, etc. etc): book lovers just had to learn the language of Tolstoy, Dostoyevski, Chekhov, Turgenev, Pasternak, Gogol and Bulgakov, Pushkin, Vysotski, etc, etc. to read the Russian literature in its original form
- “The world’s greatest literature deserves to be read in its own language”
4. Russian music
- “I got into Russian due to the song Kalinka. Since then I have also learned many new songs”
- “Discovering the superb music of Kino has made me desire to study Russian. Victor Tsoy was a genious”
- “I love Russian composers. Shostakovich is my favourite. Scriabin, Rachmaninoff are also good
- “Film Doctor Zhivago orcartoons such as Anastasia, Madan, Masha and the Bear”
- “Being able to watch Gentlemen of Fortune, The Diamond Arm and Ivan Vassilyevich Changes Profession. I love those films. I’ve watched them umpteen times, they never get stale” (written by a British lady!)
5. People with Russian roots were interested to discover their ancestry People without Russian roots sometimes learned the language because they hooked up with Russian speakers or with people living in Russia.
- “I have a lot of friends from Ukraine and Russia…”
- “… studied Russian to find a wife in one of the ex-USSR countries… “
6. Some people learned Russian to be able to read scientific texts in Russian
7. Study Russian to impress others
- “when I speak Russian, all my friends say “OMG, why are you so clever”
- “People from Russian speaking countries almost don’t speak any English at all… this is the reason why you have to learn a little bit before you go there”
- “I learn Russian because I love Soviet Union!”
- “I like the challenge of learning”
- “…good for brain development”
- “I love the fact that Russian is so tough”
- “Just a child’s curiosity”
Last but absolutely not least,
🙂 “Oddly enough, I have no good reason. I’ve just always been fascinated with Russia”. 🙂
Is Russian really that difficult?
Before we get into the details, let me make this clear: learning Russian requires effort, especially if you’ve never learned a Slavic language before; you’ll need some time to get used to the many quirks, nuances, and exceptions of Russian.
But none of this means you can never reach fluency. If you put in the work and see obstacles as part of the process, every single day will bring you closer to your goal.
The challenges you should be ready to face are the following:
- I think Hard/easy – it’s subjective. I think, for native English speakers, Russian is a little harder than Spanish, but a hundred times easier than Chinese. The only thing that could make it harder is the fact that Russian uses Cyrillic alphabet, so that means you have to learn a completely new alphabet to get started with the language.
- As for how you should start, as has been mentioned already, going online and taking a look at the Cyrillic alphabet for Russian is really a great place to begin. The alphabet isn’t too difficult to learn, and in a few days you should be able to sound out just about anything the language can throw at you.
- Second, Russian has different pronunciation. When you hear a Russian speak you can notice how soft and lyrical the language is actually. They have a lot of “soft” and “hard” vowels. For example the hard ones are а, э, ы, у, о and the soft ones are я, е, ё, ю, и. So how you pronounce hard and soft ones is very important.
- At this point in the game, the difficult part will probably be differentiating certain sounds, and getting the patterns.
- in Russian there is a gender among nouns – he, she, it. For example, a table is male, a pen is female. Nouns are inclined by cases, that is, change the ending depending on what question they answer – Who? To whom? etc. Pronouns are inclined, in English it’s the same a little bit (I, me). Verbs conjugate, change endings in faces/numbers, but one pattern, easy to remember.
Tips and helpful recourses to break through (by Angelos Georgakis)
1. Find some genuine interest in the Russian language. Maybe that interest comes from the Russian literature, the Russian romances, or the Soviet films. For me it was the exceptional works of famous Russian mathematicians like Andrey Kolmogorov, the captivating music of Visotsky and a Russian girlfriend. OK, in terms of priority it was the either way round. 🙂 Genuine interest will keep your motivation high during the hard moments of learning a language, and especially Russian that is certainly not the easiest language in the world. So find YOUR love for the Russian language.
2. In terms of resources there are good ones online. A good place to start is these videos on YouTube
They may look old fashioned but they are of excellent quality, ideal for self-learning. They take you through step by step, and most importantly, the instructor allows you some time to practise new words yourself loudly! This is the key! This is also a great website! And if you want to buy only one book, I would recommend the Penguin russian course! This book is gold! I prefer the old version to the new one Amazon.com: The New Penguin Russian Course: A Complete Course for Beginners (Penguin Handbooks) (9780140120417): Nicholas J. Brown: Books
3. Watch Russian films with an optimal screen setup of three windows opened simultaneously on the screen: the actual film with English subtitles, the transcript in Russian and a Google Translate window as in the picture below. Full article here.
4. Walk and practice Russian loudly on the street. This method will deliver great results soon. Start a conversation with yourself loudly in Russian while you walk, cycle, drive etc. Maybe you want to practice the days of the week, the verbs you learned yesterday, or talk about your plans for the evening. If you are a beginner, take a chance to look around you and describe what you see.
For example, you can say things like:
- Что это? (What is this?)
- Это большой дом (This is a big house.)
- Это красная машина (This is a red car.)
- Сегодня хорошая погода (Today, the weather is good.)
- Люди идут по улице (People are walking on the street.)
his is an example of a multisensory learning method which involves visual, auditory and kinaesthetic elements. For full article read here
5. You can also get cheap practice with native speakers on Italki. The key to learning Russian as learning any language is real practice. Read here for more information and how you can make the most of your Italki lessons
6. I also gave a talk at Oxford University Russian Society on how to learn Russian with effective techniques like the above. You can watch it for some more inspiration.
7. You may also find useful my book about learning Russian with effective techniques here
8. The most important factor by far is your motivation/dedication. If you really want to learn another language (be it Russian, or something else), then you have to realize that it’s going to take time to study and practice with Russian speakers. Sometimes it’ll be easy, and things will click, other times it will be hard and you will struggle with a single concept or vocabulary word for a long time. You have to be prepared for that.
9. Another factor is your ability to learn languages in general. Some people seem to have a real knack for language learning, while others seem to have more difficulty with it. Once you start learning your first language, you might realize that it’s really fun and you’re really good at it… or you might realize that it’s a real struggle for you. That’s ok though. With a little bit of conviction, just about anybody can reach a conversational level in any language. If it turns out you’re not great at it, well… then you just won’t search for a career in Russian/English translation. No big deal. You’ll still be able to converse with the locals. =)
10. Finally, as with any language try to stay motivated. Don’t miss a single opportunity to practice the language. When I was learning Russian, I used to live in London. I can’t remember a single day that I didn’t hear someone on the street speaking Russian. So, what would I do? I would instantly stop them to say hello!
11. Once you’ve had a chance to get your feet wet a little bit, I would highly recommend signing up for a class or finding a Russian tutor or at least finding a study partner. The reason I say that, is because first of all, I find that having to be accountable to someone else (your teacher or your tutor or even your friend) makes people more productive in just about any task.
12. Second of all, having a conversation partner is absolutely crucial in the language learning process. The best case scenario is if you can find a native speaker in the language, who is also an awesome teacher. They can break down difficult concepts for you, and they will immediately be able to correct you when you make a mistake. I know it can sometimes seem intimidating talking to someone who speaks Russian beautifully when you can hardly string a few words together, but honestly, this is the fastest way to improve…. and a good teacher/tutor wouldn’t judge you anyway, so you shouldn’t feel self-conscious.
13. Finally, if you ever get the chance, really try to travel to Russia, Belarus or other Russian-speaking country. The absolute best and fastest way to learn a new language, is to be forced to use it on a daily basis!