Thread: "Английский язык -- самый трудный в мире".

So how many percent of the population of Russia would be able to understand an American film without subtitles/dubbing?
How many would be able to understand the messages here?
Does it vary a lot between bigger cities and rural area?

Originally Posted by Hanna

So how many percent of the population of Russia would be able to understand an American film without subtitles/dubbing?
How many would be able to understand the messages here?
Does it vary a lot between bigger cities and rural area?

It's hard to tell. 10-15%, maybe? I guess more people will be able to understand written English, as part of the problem (listening skills) disappear. I know quite a lot of people who can spell certain words, but who have no idea how they are pronounced.
And it's general consensus that more people know English in cities (there's more motivation to study foreign languages and more exposure to people from different countries), than in rural areas.

But I must admit, it's a weird situation.
Allmost everyone in Russia and CIS studied English at some point of life (it's a foreign language #1 at schools), but few can really keep a conversation. I guess there's not enough exposure to English, after all. Moreover school program rarely prepares learners for real life situations. When I was a kid we spent crazy amount of time learning abstract vocabulary, but no one knew how to ask where we could wash our hands. It means that even those who do put effort into studying are often unable to use English when they need it.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

It's hard to tell. 10-15%, maybe?

Are you joking? My guess - less than 5%. In big cities maybe 5-7% in the best case. I know English better than most of my aquaitances, but still, when I watch an American movie without subtitles/dubbing I understand less rhan 50% .

Originally Posted by Hanna

In Europe, Finnish is an incredibly hard language; the grammar is as hard as Russian and it constantly makes up one word to say something that other languages would use two or three words from. Also the words are not similar to the words in any other European language apart from Estonian.

AFAIK Finnish is also related to Hungarian and also to the languages of Finno-Ugric minorities in Russia.

Originally Posted by Basil77

Are you joking? My guess - less than 5%. In big cities maybe 5-7% in the best case. I know English better than most of my aquaitances, but still, when I watch an American movie without subtitles/dubbing I understand less rhan 50% .

Really? But you write it really well! Maybe people think it's just more trouble than it's worth? Or - just lack of opportunity to practice?

Some people on the forum have good/bad days with English.

I am reading a British-American guidebook on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and one of the things they do for every chapter, is make snidy comments about local peoples ability to speak English, the standard of translated menus in various restaurants, museums etc. If they see this as a problem, they should mention it once, and then stop banging on about it. It's rather arrogant and presumptious. There is lots of other irritating things about this book too.

Originally Posted by Basil77

AFAIK Finnish is also related to Hungarian and also to the languages of Finno-Ugric minorities in Russia.

Thanks! I was thinking of one particular people that I heard of in the 1990s but I couldn't remember the name. From your article, it was the Maris. Witch people! There was lots of interest in these Russian "Finno-Ugric" people in Finland while I studied there - lots of TV features and articles about them. I remember watching a really interesting programs on Mari El and the Maris.

Originally Posted by Hanna

Really? But you write it really well! Maybe people think it's just more trouble than it's worth? Or - just lack of opportunity to practice?

I can write something understandable in English only thanks to this forum, when I came here 4 years ago I couldn't write a simple sentence without constantly refering with on-line translator. And yes, the lack of opportunity to practice is the main reason I think, at least in my case: I never spoke to a native English speaker in my life and have very little listening practice due to the lack of free time.

Originally Posted by Basil77

I can write something understandable in English only thanks to this forum, when I came here 4 years ago I couldn't write a simple sentence without constantly refering with on-line translator. And yes, the lack of opportunity to practice is the main reason I think, at least in my case: I never spoke to a native English speaker in my life and have very little listening practice due to the lack of free time.

Basil77, that is very comforting. Although I have a masters in English literature, my Russian grammar remains awful! I continue to read (when I have time), which helps, but I must admit the English discussions are so interesting that I often stray over here.

My Russian mother had no trouble with English grammar, but she thought English spelling was rough. Although, why, through the years, she should find it tough always puzzled me .

I visited Estonia this past summer, and would like to add that to the list of difficult languages (see Finnish, above). Lovely people, though, both the Estonians and the ethnic Russians!

I've heard that Vietnamese has 24 cases, would like to add it to the list of difficult languages! English isn't so bad!!

Извините! Этот ветка [thread?] русского языка. Я перевожу
в скором времени!

Originally Posted by Winifred

Basil77, that is very comforting. Although I have a masters in English literature, my Russian grammar remains awful! I continue to read (when I have time), which helps, but I must admit the English discussions are so interesting that I often stray over here.

My Russian mother had no trouble with English grammar, but she thought English spelling was rough. Although, why, through the years, she should find it tough always puzzled me .

I visited Estonia this past summer, and would like to add that to the list of difficult languages (see Finnish, above). Lovely people, though, both the Estonians and the ethnic Russians!

I've heard that Vietnamese has 24 cases, would like to add it to the list of difficult languages! English isn't so bad!!

Originally Posted by Basil77

Are you joking? My guess - less than 5%. In big cities maybe 5-7% in the best case. I know English better than most of my aquaitances, but still, when I watch an American movie without subtitles/dubbing I understand less rhan 50% .

Well I also do not understand anything when I see an English-language movie or listen to a song.
At the same time there is hardly 1% who can read English as I can so the number of those who can understand a move is even less.

Originally Posted by Anixx

At the same time there is hardly 1% who can read English as I can so the number of those who can understand a move is even less.

That's an exaggeration.

Originally Posted by Marcus

That's an exaggeration.

Well I count all the age groups. I think the least percentage of understanding is among the schoolchildren and among the old people. For the middle age and the students the percentage is greater.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Allmost everyone in Russia and CIS studied English at some point of life (it's a foreign language #1 at schools), but few can really keep a conversation. I guess there's not enough exposure to English, after all. Moreover school program rarely prepares learners for real life situations. When I was a kid we spent crazy amount of time learning abstract vocabulary, but no one knew how to ask where we could wash our hands. It means that even those who do put effort into studying are often unable to use English when they need it.

Also people from CIS countries are known by their extremely weird accent. =))

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Allmost everyone in Russia and CIS studied English at some point of life (it's a foreign language #1 at schools), but few can really keep a conversation.

I don't think that's unusual. I "taught" English at a college in Thailand and the 3rd and 4th year students majoring in English could barely sustain a broken conversation for more than 2 or 3 sentences. I've heard of people getting Phds in French but who can't follow a conversation on the street.

Are you joking? My guess - less than 5%. In big cities maybe 5-7% in the best case.

I guess I was overly optimistic. )) Anyway, I tried to include everyone who supposedly can understand at least 80% of what's said on screen. I doubt there are many people who are absolutely fluent and can understand 100%. I can't. And I know English pretty well, comparing to other people I know.

Originally Posted by sperk

I don't think that's unusual. I "taught" English at a college in Thailand and the 3rd and 4th year students majoring in English could barely sustain a broken conversation for more than 2 or 3 sentences. I've heard of people getting Phds in French but who can't follow a conversation on the street.

Yes, it's very common. Most people after 5-6 years of English classes master only basics. There must be something wrong with the way we are taught. then. =/

Originally Posted by Hanna

I am reading a British-American guidebook on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and one of the things they do for every chapter, is make snidy comments about local peoples ability to speak English, the standard of translated menus in various restaurants, museums etc. If they see this as a problem, they should mention it once, and then stop banging on about it. It's rather arrogant and presumptious.

Menus and signs are endless source of jokes here too. I agree that it's somewhat arrogant to expect that everywhere you go people MUST know your language (in this case, English), and they must know it well, otherwise they are stupid. But I believe that in real life (authors of this guide aside) people are much more tolerant, English-speaking tourists included.

Local specific is that people do not especially care about "englicizing" their services. These horrible menu translations were probably made by a waitress or owner's schoolkid, or even online tranlsator. Why bother? It's not like there are throngs of foreigners milling around.


BTW, this happens everywhere. Russian tourists find menus in Russian just as hilarious.

"Onion взрывает баранину" (Fried mutton with onion), "Суп сладостной мозоли" (Sweet corn soup), and much more:
Русский язык по-турецки - Приколы на ЯПлакалъ
Меню тайского ресторана в переводе на русский язык.. Комментарии : LiveInternet - Российский Сервис Онлайн-Дневников
DoUpadu.com - Китайское меню для русских

"Onion взрывает баранину" (Fried mutton with onion), "Суп сладостной мозоли" (Sweet corn soup), and much more:
Русский язык по-турецки - Приколы на ЯПлакалъ
Меню тайского ресторана в переводе на русский язык.. Комментарии : LiveInternet - Российский Сервис Онлайн-Дневников
DoUpadu.com - Китайское меню для русских

Yeah, that's rather typical, I just returned from vacation in Egypt a couple of weeks ago (and no, I wasn't eaten by a shark ), the hotel where I were was rather large (about 1500 rooms) and about 90% tourists were Russian, but still the signs in Russian were of similar ridiculousness and most staff (exept some barmen and animators) didn't speak Russian at all. For example, when I asked room-service to bring an ash-tray (пепельницу) in my room, they brought a toilet paper.

Originally Posted by Hanna

So how many percent of the population of Russia would be able to understand an American film without subtitles/dubbing?
How many would be able to understand the messages here?
Does it vary a lot between bigger cities and rural area?

I think less than 0.01%.