Russian and Latin?

Question

I am going to a local college this fall to take some classes that will help me achieve a major in "International Studies" and a minor in "Linguistics"...

Is Russian or Latin easier to learn? Which will benefit me the most? Would it be difficult to learn both at the same time since they are so different?

I wish to learn "Finnish" as well, but the college doesnt offer it... will knowing Russian help me learn Finnish easier?

I already speak some Finnish...

I am being *forced* to learn Latin (since my mom is paying for the tuition)... Russian is the only somewhat interesting language taught at the college (there is French, Spanish and German as well)...

I wanna learn Russian cause it is a Uralic language... just like Finnish (and Swedish, and Norwegian)... and since I am moving to that region post-college.


Thanks for your help so far!

Answer 1

I can tell you about Russian language. Nowadays, more and more foreigners from all over the world are studing Russian language, first of all, because Russia slowly and directly is "opening its borders" and becoming even more popular, growing the number of tie-ups between Russia and other countries. Russian language was the main spoken language in USSR, so now there are many people, who speak Russian language.

Latin is mostly used in medical field, in Vatican - it is good for those people, who wish to connect their lives with some stable specializations (like medical field). It may help you in learning some other languages like Spanish.

Both, Latin and Russian have tought grammatical rules, but if in latin language they are more fixed, so in Russian some forms can be easily changed - that adds some difficulties for many people, but some foreigners tell that vice-versa, it gives them more variants to express their thoughts.

Of course, choise is yours and i advice you to read some online articles about the languages you are interested in. Speak to the proffessors of both languages and ask the advantages of learning a particular language. And, of course, think about your interests, what is more interesting for you, which country you maybe want to visit one day, or work with, or just simply speak its' language.

I wish you best of luck!
Udachi :)
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Answer 2

Fascinating question...
Simply put, Russian would be much more difficult to learn.

1) If you don't already know the Cyrillic alphabet (as it is used in Russian), you will have to learn that.
2) Pronunciation-wise, Latin is much easier and closer to English than Russian. With Russian, you will be making unholy combinations of sound that your mouth will most likely hate you for.
3) Grammatically, Russian and Latin are surprisingly similar (and therefore, more or less equally difficult), so it's really a toss-up with respect to that category.

I'd say Latin is more universally beneficial, as it is (at least part of) the foundation for so many languages, including Russian. That is not to say that benefits are variable depending on what you plan on doing in the future.

Learning both at the same time would definitely be a challenge due to all aforementioned issues. Then again, learning them separately would still be a challenge.

I believe you are mistaken that Russian is a Uralic language -- Uralic languages are spoken in some parts of Russia, but Russian itself has Slavic and Indo-European roots. :( Sorry. There is practically no connection, so I doubt it would remotely help you learn Finnish (this I wouldn't know from experience, as I don't know Finnish). I hope that helps with your decision.

Answer 3

I'd go for Russian as being the more useful of the two. Both Russian and Latin decline nouns and adjectives and the verb conjugations are a bit of a headache in both languages. Don't be put off by the Cyrillic alphabet - once you know the sounds of the letters you can pronounce almost all words, as long as you know where the stress (tonic accent) falls.

I had to study Latin at school and have found it useful linguistically and intellectually; but given the choice now I would go for Russian.

By the way, Finnish and Russian are not from the same family: Finnish is a member of the Finno-Ugric (or Ugrian) language family; Russian is from the Slavic branch of the great Indo-European language family.

Answer 4

Honestly, i couldn't think of anything harder than learning Russian and Latin at the same time. Both are extremely complex. As for Finnish, it is said it's one of the most difficult european languages. Lol, how did you choose these languages? Knowing Russian will do absolutely nothing to help you with Finnish.

As for usefulness, it very much depends on what direction you want to take in life. I personally admire people who can read Latin well (not many can actually speak Latin, that's very rare, but being able to read and translate well is usually a great accomplishment for this language).

You're wrong, Russian is a Slavic language, and I repeat, it has absolutely nothing in common with Finnish or the other Scandinavian languages.

Answer 5

You are misinformed if you think that Finnish and Russian have anything to do with one another. Russian is a Slavonic language, Finnish belongs to a group with Hungarian, with no relation to any other European language.
Russian is a very complex language with loads of morphemes, same as Latin, and an even more complex grammar, with exceptions to every rule.
It might help you if you could just change your attitude towards Latin, which is the best language to learn to get a basic lexis and grammar in all the Romanesque Languages, from Romanian to Portuguese.

Answer 6

Both Russian and Latin hare high inflected languages, and so are mentally more demanding than some other languages you might learn.
Latin will give you a firm base for further acquisition of Romance languages, and you'll be able to make sense of a newspaper written in any Romance language. Latin will also dramatically improve your English, and enrich your vocabulary. Then, there is the enormous literature written in Latin.

You might find the Latinum podcast's lessons in spoken Latin useful.
http://latinum.mypodcast.com

Answer 7

It depends on yourself. Latin is very useful as a springboard to learning Spanish, Italian, Portuguese or French. There is a very strong Latin influence in English and a knowledge of Latin can greatly help your comprehension of new words, for instance, knowing that "pecunia" means "money" , would help you figure the meaning of the word "pecuniary" in English. However, you wont get to speak to any native speakers as you will with Russian. I am given to understand that Finnish is a very difficult language to learn.

Answer 8

well latin is a dead language, no one speaks latin. unless you plan on being indiana jones, learn russian.

and i dont think the russian language is similiar to the finnish language. i could be wrong about that though.

Answer 9

Ниасилил! Слишком много букаф!