Language /
Which is harder: Pole learning Russian or Russian learning Polish language? [57]
The first obstacle are the alphabets (probably a Russian will be more eager to learn Latin Alphabet, because one can use it for many languages, rather than vice versa...) The difficult thing about Russian is the INTONATION: there are no rules, you have to learn the intonation of every word by heart, (unless it's not marked in an exercise text); but the pronounciation of words is easier than in Polish, except maybe "o" which is pronounced "a", when standing in front of a stressed sylable (that's the rule if I'm not mistaken).
The problems in Polish are totally different: intonation is easy going (rule: always on second last syllable), but due to many extra letters it's difficult to pronounce. I think the knowledge of FRENCH is helpful for pronouncing Polish nasals: ą =on, ę = en etc., whereas "£" is same like English "W"! The soft Polish letters ć,ś,ź have Russian equivalents thanks to the use of a soft (or hard) sign in Russian (which are put behind the letter. Nevertheless, the pronounciations are different, especially the hard and soft Russian "L", which are softer than equivalent Polish L and £ (nevertheless, Polish are used to write hard Russian L as £, which is not exactly the same, but is a good possibility to recognize it!). OKay, that's it :-)