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[3man75]

I have a dream to visit St. Peterersbug russia and i was wondering how hard is it to learn the language?

[FearfulJesuit]

Russian? I'd rate it as "not very", but learning languages is my hobby, and I see cognates and tricks all over the place in Russian that just won't be there for other people. (Quick test: what's the English cognate of Russian зуб, "tooth"?*) Russian does have a reputation for difficulty, mainly, I think, because there are very few clear cognates on the surface (other than fancy Greek/Latinate vocabulary, or words that both English and Russian borrowed from French), and there are some grammatical things Russian has that English or the Romance languages don't have, like the case system. It does have several points in its favor, though (gender of nouns is usually easy to predict from the dictionary form, for example, and verbs aren't as complicated as in French or Spanish, though the semantics of Russian verbs work a bit differently than they do in English, and that can take some getting used to).

Fact is, though, it's just going to take lots and lots of work. It will be tedious, and there will be points where you just plain want to throw in the towel. Get a good book with CDs. I would advise against Rosetta Stone (the magic with RS is in the marketing department, not R&D) or Teach Yourself (they weren't bad before about ten years ago, depending on language- I have a 1970 TY Russian and it's not very good, but the 1969 TY Finnish is really good, if difficult). I would also advise against Начало or another textbook designed for high schools and colleges- they don't often move as fast as you'd like, they're filled with fluff, and the prices are extortionate. These days your best bet is probably Routledge's Colloquial series. They're a bit pricier than TY (but much, much cheaper than RS), but you do get what you pay for. Do all the exercises in the book. Don't skim or skip, but don't dawdle, either. Keep moving; you'll keep practicing stuff you learned earlier as you move through. Find Russian speakers on Skype or Livemocha to chat with. Keep working at it. Once you feel like you can take a crack at reading (it'll be quicker than you'd think), order a few comic books in Russian- kid's books work too; you need to read stuff you find interesting or you'll quickly lose steam, but you won't be able to read real novels for a bit yet after finishing the book course, so get kid's books because they move quicker and don't put in lots of fluff. There are also lots of Russian cartoons and TV shows on YouTube, too (the USSR never copyrighted its programming, I don't think). Watch them with Russian (not English) subtitles on. Make flashcards and/or get Anki for your computer or smartphone. Take lots of notes of stuff in the book and make sure they're written on physical paper (in my experience, you'll have a much harder time remembering anything you type). Get a notebook and put everything in it: notes, vocab lists AND your exercises.

Really, you just have to work at it. There is pointless work and there is useful work, to be sure, but the harder you work the faster it will come. And, at least for me, I'd rather work hard and be able to do something with the language in six months than take it easy and still be learning words for household objects.

*It's "comb", from Proto-Indo-European *ǵombʰos.

[Vector]

Learning enough Russian to visit St. Petersburg is not that hard.  I managed to get by (and keep my parents from doing anything too stupid) on a semester of Russian despite having come down with pneumonia on arrival.

[Descan]

But then, you're Vector. :v

You want a real challenge, try Gaelic. Or rather, try finding resources to LEARN Gaelic.

(Please? It's really hard and I've found like two. Two resources. Not even books, courses.)

[misko27]

But then, you're Vector. :v

You want a real challenge, try Gaelic. Or rather, try finding resources to LEARN Gaelic.

(Please? It's really hard and I've found like two. Two resources. Not even books, courses.)

Please, try learning Estrucan. It's so obscure even Chrome refuses to believe me.

[Descan]

Ironically, after I posted that, I found a Scottish Gaelic book on that Colloquial website the languagedude mentioned in the second post :3

[FearfulJesuit]

Gaelic isn't really that hard, except for the sound system, which is very foreign for English speakers. It doesn't have many inflections, if I recall correctly it only has three or four irregular verbs, no case system, etc. It is also almost completely useless. If you want a Celtic language, Welsh is easier on the tongue, has more speakers, and just plain sounds cooler, in my opinion; it also has a simple verb system (at least colloquially, literary Welsh is more of a challenge), no case system, and fairly simple syntax.

Now, if you want something that is almost impossible, I recommend its ancestor Old Irish. If you've taken a little Latin, you should be able to understand this post about it. It is like Latin or Greek on crack.

[RedKing]

despite having come down with pneumonia on arrival.

That just gave you more of an authentic accent. xD

I took a year of Russian in high school, and it wasn't particularly worse than any other language, although the number of declensions you have to learn is irritating (although slightly less than Latin, IIRC).

[IronyOwl]

Now, if you want something that is almost impossible, I recommend its ancestor Old Irish. If you've taken a little Latin, you should be able to understand this post about it. It is like Latin or Greek on crack.

I wasn't able to understand very much of that, but WHAT.

[FearfulJesuit]

despite having come down with pneumonia on arrival.

That just gave you more of an authentic accent. xD

I took a year of Russian in high school, and it wasn't particularly worse than any other language, although the number of declensions you have to learn is irritating (although slightly less than Latin, IIRC).

Latin has five, a couple of which (the third especially, though neuter 2nds could count too, I suppose) have subgroups. Russian has one more case than Latin; but the real kicker with Russian is that Russian nouns have a nasty occasional tendency to have a different stem in everything but the dictionary form (ie dictionary отец, "father", which is отц- in the other forms), and they sometimes change where the stress goes across forms. (Because of this, Russian nouns don't really fit into nice declensions like Latin nouns do- there are a few overarching patterns, from which many nouns deviate in some form.) Like English, Russian has a larger number of stressed vowels than unstressed ones, so this can be very hard to get a handle on in speaking at first. OP has been duly warned. (And in my experience, "thinking" in a case system takes a while. It's much easier to hear de X and think "of X" than to hear X with the final vowel changed and then get the case right according to X's gender.)

[RedKing]

Ah. I knew one had five and one had six, but got them backwards.

I tried learning Welsh and Gaelic before from a handful of dictionaries and primer textbooks. Fuck that. I think Welsh spelling was deliberately contrived to hamper English occupation.

"Sir! There's a revolt in Llanwyddoddmadochywllan..."

<two weeks later>

"...pwyllomardden!" 

[Owlbread]

Gaelic isn't really that hard, except for the sound system, which is very foreign for English speakers. It doesn't have many inflections, if I recall correctly it only has three or four irregular verbs, no case system, etc. It is also almost completely useless. If you want a Celtic language, Welsh is easier on the tongue, has more speakers, and just plain sounds cooler, in my opinion; it also has a simple verb system (at least colloquially, literary Welsh is more of a challenge), no case system, and fairly simple syntax.

Now, if you want something that is almost impossible, I recommend its ancestor Old Irish. If you've taken a little Latin, you should be able to understand this post about it. It is like Latin or Greek on crack.

There are 11 irregular verbs in Gaelic but it is still nice not having to worry about them once you've memorised them. Both Welsh and Gaelic are "completely useless" in practical terms beyond learning it for heritage preservation or to understand books/songs/poetry and so forth. They are also handy to speak to people who are obvious native speakers because they are often far more comfortable and eloquent in those tongues than they are in English.

I found that learning Gaelic was like hitting a brick wall. The language was so different to English I couldn't really get my head around it, it's nothing like English or German or French or whatever. After a few months it clicked and it became much easier. You honestly can't learn it from a dictionary or textbook like RedKing tried to do though, it just won't work. It's way, way too difficult without a teacher or audio CD. The sound system is very foreign as FearfulJesuit says, even for a Scottish person who isn't from the Isles or the Highlands.

With respect to Russian I don't have much more to say beyond what Vector and FearfulJesuit have said, I'll just back them up a bit by saying you can definitely learn enough Russian to go and visit St. Petersburg. That is not beyond you.

[FearfulJesuit]

There seems to be this conviction that an ability to learn languages is something you either have or you don't, and that polyglots have something in their genes. That's patently false- most humans, throughout history, have been bilingual or trilingual at least; if you go to rural India you'll find that most of the population will use at least three, sometimes up to six, languages daily.

The trick is, though, that you have to use it, and you have to need to use it. (That's why sentence exercises will get you to remembering vocab much more quickly than flashcards). You have a choice of either being dropped in a situation where there are no alternatives, or powering through by force of will- and as an English speaker, you're likely to have to develop the second, unfortunately.

[RedKing]

Or of course, the third option of conquering the world and making everyone adopt your language. This comes easier to Americans.

[Owlbread]

Or of course, the third option of conquering the world and making everyone adopt your language. This comes easier to Americans.

Don't forget English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and French people though. They've been doing that for centuries.