Thread: Russian studying swedish?

A friend from western russia, told me that many people in those parts study swedish in school, because so many there intend emigrate to their westernly neighbours. In that case, do they study finnish aswell?

I suppose...
My friend from Murmansk studied finnish and norwegian at school and another friend from Vyborg studied finnish for a long time until she moved to St Petersburg
I studied swedish at school

Nice, did you enjoy it? Do you speak well?

Originally Posted by Zhenya

A friend from western russia, told me that many people in those parts study swedish in school, because so many there intend emigrate to their westernly neighbours. In that case, do they study finnish aswell?

Correction: used to, the craze is over now. People are turning their attention to English. (I myself come from an area where Finnish/Swedish used to be very popular at schools)

Actually, while studying in Russia, I met quite a few russians studying Norwegian. Of course, they already knew english...

Zhenya,
VM is right
and yes, used to enjoy it )))) when i was 12 we did try speaking some swedish in norway, hehehe (my classmates too )
but i can hardly remember simple phrases now

Yes I suppose english has some advantage in the stride of a global language! Personally I'd like Russian as a global language!

Originally Posted by Zhenya

Personally I'd like Russian as a global language!

Russian is rather more difficult than English. But I agree with you!

Originally Posted by pranki

Russian is rather more difficult than English.

That's debatable.

Originally Posted by pranki

Originally Posted by Zhenya

Personally I'd like Russian as a global language!

Russian is rather more difficult than English.

I disagree

I suppose that depends on what languages you have studied before, but I suppose they both have their "difficult" things.

Originally Posted by VendingMachine

Originally Posted by pranki

Russian is rather more difficult than English.

That's debatable.

I thought it's common opinion... What are your arguments against?

Originally Posted by TheMoonMonst3r

Originally Posted by pranki

Originally Posted by Zhenya

Personally I'd like Russian as a global language!

Russian is rather more difficult than English.

I disagree

I think English is much easier than Russian.
There are fewer verb forms. Example:

I run.
You run.
He/she/it runs.
We run.
You run.
They run.

Я бегу.
Ты бежишь.
Он/Она бежит.
Мы бежим.
Вы бежите.
Они бегут.

But in English you have to memorize both the spelling and the pronunciation of so many words because the English orthography is such a mess.

Originally Posted by pranki

Originally Posted by VendingMachine

Originally Posted by pranki

Russian is rather more difficult than English.

That's debatable.

I thought it's common opinion... What are your arguments against?

It depends on who's comparing the two languages. Think about it, it'll come to you.

It's probably easier for a Russian to quickly pick up a smattering of English because you don't have to worry about all those case endings etc., like you do in Russian. At the same time I think that speaking good ideomatic English is as much of a challange for a native speaker of Russian, as speaking good ideomatic Russian is of a challange for a native speaker of English. Both languages are equally difficult.

VendingMachine, you're quite right saying that it depends on comparers.

However every language has its own tricks because all the stuff is based on the mentality and ways of life developing through centuries. You'll never know a language in full unless you're a native speaker. But even being one doesn't mean you have an idea about everything.

For an English speaker studying languages like Russian or German it is very confusing to come across the above-mentioned case system or word forms depending on tenses or something of the kind. It's an intricate job to get the full picture and don't feel awkward off and on.