How hard is Russian for English speakers?

The Foreign Service Institute says it takes around 1100 hours to learn Russian for native English speakers. Many learners struggle with pronunciation, cases, and verb conjugation. However, other aspects of the Russian language are easy, such as articles, word order, and the lack of strong dialects.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on learntherussianlanguage.com


How long does it take an English speaker to learn Russian?

The Foreign Service Institute has determined it takes around 1100 hours for native English speakers to reach fluency in Russian. If you spend 60 minutes per day studying Russian, it will take you 3 years.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on learntherussianlanguage.com


Is Russian language harder than English?

The truth is: Wrong learning approaches make easy tasks unnecessarily challenging. The Foreign Service Institute (FSI for short) places Russian into one its highest categories in terms of its relative difficulty for native English speakers (in other words one of the most challenging major languages).
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on mezzoguild.com


Are Russians good English speakers?

Only 5% of Russians speak English and Russia's overall English language proficiency is still ranked as 'Low' in the international English Proficiency Index (EF EPI).
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on ef.edu


Is Russian worth learning?

Your serious learning the Russian language will be a huge investment and most probably only for pleasure. Nowadays there is no earlier important reason related to your career, which would depend on the Russian language. As in every other country in the world, you can do business with Russians in English.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on speechling.com


How Hard is Russian to Learn? | An Honest Guide for English Speakers



Is Russian harder than German?

So, which language is harder, German or Russian? The perspective that most hold is that Russian is harder than German to learn, and even more so for English speakers. Russian has a different alphabet and unique pronunciations when compared to western and Asian languages.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on doublespeakdojo.com


Why do Russians not learn English?

For many years, English was not widely spoken in Russia or the Soviet Union. Since trade and travel were restricted, there was no real incentive to learn the language unless you needed it for your profession. Russians were more likely to know Spanish and German, as they had close ties to East Germany and Cuba.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on doublespeakdojo.com


What country has the least English speakers?

Iraq ranks lowest in English proficiency. In this country, Arabic and Kurdish are the official languages.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on worldatlas.com


Is Greek or Russian harder?

Greek is a relatively difficult language to master. It's more difficult for an English speaker than Dutch, French, and German, but it might be easier than Russian and Arabic. The reason for the Greek language's difficulty is that it's less closely related to English than other languages.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on autolingual.com


Which is harder French or Russian?

Russian is easier to get the hang of when you start, but the grammar quickly becomes a lot more complex (much more complex than that of German or French which definitely don't have verbs of motion or aspects as detailed and complex as Russian does.)
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on thestudentroom.co.uk


Is duolingo good for Russian?

Duolingo does very well in keeping everything simplified, especially for relatively difficult languages like Russian. Its convenience and gamified experience set it apart from traditional ways of language learning like using word lists and completing translation tasks.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on blog.lingodeer.com


What's the easiest language?

15 of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers - ranked
  • Frisian. Frisian is thought to be one of the languages most closely related to English, and therefore also the easiest for English-speakers to pick up. ...
  • Dutch. ...
  • Norwegian. ...
  • Spanish. ...
  • Portuguese. ...
  • Italian. ...
  • French. ...
  • Swedish.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on berlitz.com


What is the hardest language to learn?

1. Mandarin Chinese. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. Mandarin Chinese is challenging for a number of reasons.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on babbel.com


How many words do I need to know to be fluent in Russian?

Don't let these numbers get you down. A Russian student needs to know only between 1,500 and 3,000 words to finish high school which means that fluency in Russian is well within your grasp.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on mondly.com


Is Moscow English friendly?

<Is English common in Moscow?> No! But in Moscow and St Petersburg you will be able to find Englsh speaking people. Most likely, hotel receptionists/conserge will speak English and will provide assistance if needed.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on tripadvisor.com


Is English important in Russia?

In Russia, English is the major foreign language at school and is considered to be a language for intercultural and international business communication. Its domestic functions are limited to some pragmatic usage and education.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on web.uri.edu


Is Russian or Japanese easier to learn?

After reading through all the differences, Russian probably comes across as the easier language to learn. And it is! For native English speakers, Russian is categorized as taking 44 weeks to learn (or 1,100 hours), while Japanese takes 88 weeks (2,200 hours).
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on lingualift.com


Is Russian or Arabic easier to learn?

Russian may be known by some as a very difficult language to learn. For some reason, it seems more difficult for native-English speakers to learn. However, Russian is still an easier language to learn than Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on mylanguagebreak.com


Why Russian is easy?

The Russian language has a flexible word order. That means that you can generally place words at random places in the sentence, and still have everything make sense. There are some exceptions to this randomness, but they're not that hard to learn. The reason why Russian can have this randomness is that they use cases.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on learntherussianlanguage.com


Is Russian hard to pronounce?

Compared to English, Russian pronunciation is very easy because it follows simple rules. Most of the time, Russian words are pronounced the way they are spelled. Any exceptions are easy to memorize, as they are governed by strict but straightforward rules.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on thoughtco.com


Is Russian language in demand?

Over 250 million people speak the Russian language around Eastern Europe and Russia. It is considered one of the most in-demand languages for trade, international relations, and diplomacy. In fact, it is the second most used language on the internet according to “WSTechs” Web Technology Survey.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on globalizationpartners.com


Is Russian an attractive language?

In spite of this, complex as it might be, Russian is an incredibly beautiful and lyrical language. It's no coincidence that some of the world's greatest poets hailed from here. And once you have achieved some level of proficiency, the sense of achievement makes it all worthwhile.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on britishcouncil.org