Should I study Russian?!?!?!?!?

[whatever]

I would love to hear opinions of people who have been to Russia and/or studied russian. What's your opinion of it. What is the language like in terms of the way it's structured. I have studied German before and found it strange where they put the verb you know things like that.

Any comments about Russia and Russian would be great to hear.

[little headache]

Quoting whatever from 18:58, 22nd Aug 2005
Any comments about Russia and Russian would be great to hear.

Hmm... I took Russian last year, and I would recommend it (or any language modules for that matter) if you are truly serious about learning the language. Before I came to St Andrews, I had been tutored in Russian and even spent time working in an orphanage in Yaroslavl, Russia; I thus had a basic understanding of the language and common vocabulary. While it was easy for me in the beginnning (as the class learned the alphabet, verb endings etc), it quickly progessed and ultimately became very difficult. Because Russian has a completely different alphabet, it immediately introduces more difficulty than, say, French. However, the instruction in the class (especially in first semester Intro Russian... lecturer is/was Claire Whitehead) is comprehensive and makes no assumptions about experience. The thing about language classes is that they have more class hours than most other modules; Russian had three scheduled lectures and two tutorial classes per week. It also works on a continuous assessment basis, meaning you are assigned homework and typically have a vocabulary quiz each week. While this is more work than you may find for your other modules (depending on what you take), it ensures that you are keeping up with the pace of the class.

In terms of the language, it's not too bad. The some of the verbs and nouns are crazy because they are so long... it might take you a while to sound everything out! But verb placement and stuff is fairly similar to French, I would say... in fact, much of Russian is similar to French. Anyway, sorry for the long-windedness... hope this answered some of your questions!

[b(b)b]

I want Claire back for second year Russian. Seriously, I am going to kill somebody from the department if she won't teach us.

[little headache]

Yeah, I got so fed up in second semester that I'm not taking it next year... plus there's a credit conflict. Oh well.