osiol
13 Jan 2009
Language / Are the languages of Russian and Polish similar at all? [94]
If you like learning languages, why not learn Russian? There are similarities as well as differences. There are also those dreaded "false friends". But if you want to speak Polish, I wouldn't recommend learning Russian - just learn Polish. Any language that you learn should be attempted in more than one way - don't just go to classes, don't just use a book, don't just talk to people. Combine these different approaches and you will go far. Unless you have a particular interest in languages generally, try to stick to the one you want to be able to use.
I'd quite like to learn Portuguese, Swedish and maybe one of the Finno-Ugric languages (possibly Finnish, maybe Estonian), and Welsh (edited that bit in). However, Polish seems to be more than enough for me to contend with at the moment. But maybe one day, attempting one or more of these other languages could be an option, and having been developing an ear for different languages and the different ways that grammar can work may be of some benefit to me.
Isn't that counting the vocative case, which most people tell me is fast disappearing?
I would draw an analogy between the Slavic languages and the Slavic languages. German and English seem to work too differently to eachother, whereas the differences between Spanish and Italian for example, may be more equivalent to the differences between Polish and Russian. That's without taking into account the different alphabets.
If you like learning languages, why not learn Russian? There are similarities as well as differences. There are also those dreaded "false friends". But if you want to speak Polish, I wouldn't recommend learning Russian - just learn Polish. Any language that you learn should be attempted in more than one way - don't just go to classes, don't just use a book, don't just talk to people. Combine these different approaches and you will go far. Unless you have a particular interest in languages generally, try to stick to the one you want to be able to use.
I'd quite like to learn Portuguese, Swedish and maybe one of the Finno-Ugric languages (possibly Finnish, maybe Estonian), and Welsh (edited that bit in). However, Polish seems to be more than enough for me to contend with at the moment. But maybe one day, attempting one or more of these other languages could be an option, and having been developing an ear for different languages and the different ways that grammar can work may be of some benefit to me.
compare Polish's 7 cases with Russian's 6
Isn't that counting the vocative case, which most people tell me is fast disappearing?
I would draw an analogy between the Slavic languages and the Slavic languages. German and English seem to work too differently to eachother, whereas the differences between Spanish and Italian for example, may be more equivalent to the differences between Polish and Russian. That's without taking into account the different alphabets.