Many of our compatriots are interested in how foreigners learn Russian. Why? Yes, because even the Russian people are not fluent in it. Most, for sure. How many times has it happened: a person is talking to someone and suddenly thinks - did he put the stress or declined the word? However, many examples can be cited. But still, it is better to delve into the initially designated topic.
Main difficulty
How to start learning each language? Of course, alphabetically. From his reading and understanding how this or that letter is pronounced. The overwhelming majority of foreigners fall into a stupor at the sight of the Cyrillic alphabet. This is something unknown to them. Even if you look at the map of the distribution of Cyrillic alphabets, you can see only Russia and a number of adjacent small states located inEurope.
Letters
What is worth the sound of "y" alone. Many teachers ask foreigners to imagine that they were kicked hard in the stomach. And that's what sound they make, and there are "s". The next problem is hissing: "sh", "u" and "h". How do foreigners learn Russian? Asking a bunch of questions at the same time. What are these sounds for? The same question is evoked by soft and hard signs. And when they understand the meaning and make attempts to pronounce them, the teacher has a hard time. “Box” turns into “box”, “porridge” - into “kaschu”, and “thicket” - into “saschu”.
Russian is still terrible for foreigners by hardness. In most other languages, the "r" is very soft. Or burr, as in the case of German. It takes a very long time to learn how to pronounce the correct Russian “r”. The most annoying thing for foreigners is that we can burr or soften it. And they are not even able to immediately harden it.
Simplifying the task
It is worth giving an answer to the question of how foreigners learn Russian in order to avoid difficulties. No way. It's impossible. When a person takes on the development of a new skill, he cannot avoid difficulties. But here's how to simplify the task. Many foreigners set a rule for themselves - you need to learn 30 words a day, of which at least 10 must be verbs. According to the majority, it is they and their forms that are the most difficult in Russian.
Another way is to learn the language in the first person. Thus, a person immediately in the subconscious simulates a situation in which he would beacting character. And then, when such a case really happens, he remembers what he had learned by heart and puts it into practice. If you do this consistently, you can develop a habit.
How to get your bearings?
Talking about how foreigners learn Russian, it is worth returning to the topic of pronunciation. It is very difficult for beginners to understand when a certain consonant should be soft and when it should be hard. Moreover, problems arise not only with those words in which there are “b” and “b”. On the contrary, they are easier to understand. Because every foreigner builds an associative array for himself. At the sight of "ъ" and "ь", a comparison works for him, helping him determine how to pronounce this or that word.
Much harder in normal cases. Take, for example, the letter "p". The word "daddy" is pronounced firmly. But the “spots” are soft. But for a foreigner to get confused - just spit. And having memorized the pronunciation of the word "papa", he will want to pronounce "patna", but he will immediately get confused. After all, the letter “I” is next, and not “a”. We, Russian speakers, pronounce words without thinking. But they are difficult. Why is it difficult for foreigners to learn Russian? At least because we do not have rules for open and closed syllables. And it takes decades to remove the accent.
And another important point is intonation. The Russian language is good because the order of words in a sentence can be changed as you like. We determine the meaning by intonation, and subconsciously. Foreigners are initially trained on the "classic" options. So if they heara sentence that is familiar to them, but in a different variation, they will not understand anything.
About the meaning
In fact, everyone understands why it is difficult for foreigners to learn Russian. Especially in the modern world. The meaning of many expressions is extremely difficult to explain to citizens of other countries. Take, for example, the following text: “Oh, autumn, blues… Time is running out, but I still haven’t taken my legs in my hands to move the work forward - I’m just sitting with my nose hung.” From such a foreigner will simply be a real shock. "Go" is a verb. And where does the time, the form of the flow of certain processes? The same applies to working with her "shifts". How can you take your feet in your hands? And what does "hang your nose" mean?
This is all too complicated for beginners. Therefore, teachers avoid such difficulties when teaching foreigners. The same is recommended for the people with whom they communicate. They will have time to get acquainted with metaphors, hyperbole, epithets, litotes and allegory later. Although, when foreigners already speak Russian at a sufficient level and begin to study the above, they become fun. To many, comparisons of all kinds seem amusing and original.
Case
This is the same unloved topic for foreigners as verbs. Having learned one case, they forget about the existence of five more. How do they manage to cope with the task? Firstly, for foreigners, attempts to explain that the genitive caseanswers the questions "who?" and what?". After all, it is impossible to substitute a single ending for all inflected words. And there is only one way out - remembering the principle through illustrative examples and situations. It's pretty simple.
The foreigner simply takes a short paragraph on the subject of his life. And on his example, he learns cases: “My name is Bastian Müller. I am a student (who? - nominative case). Now I live in Moscow (where? - prepositional, or second local) and study at the Faculty of International Languages. Every day I go to the university (where? - accusative). There I work and study. Then I go home from the university (from where? - parental). At home I read the news (what? - accusative) and correspond with friends (with whom? - creative). Then I quickly give food to the dog (to whom? - dative), and then I walk in the center of Moscow.”
And this is just one example. But there are still countless of them, even if we do not take into account the deprivative, directional, longitudinal and other cases. This is why it is difficult for foreigners to learn Russian.
Transcriptions
Why should foreigners learn Russian? There is no single answer, everyone has their own reasons. But if a person has already taken up this business, he comes up with all sorts of methods in order to get used to it faster. And one of them is to compile a transcription. But even this does not allow you to quickly understand Russian.
Dsche - this is what the Russian "zh" looks like in German. "C" is tze. "H" - tsche. And "sh" - schtch. The word "nonsense" will look like this in German in transcription: tschuschtch. Looking at this cluster of letters, you can immediately understand why one short wordsome foreigners memorize for several days.
Numbers
This topic also raises a lot of questions from foreigners. But they have learned to avoid difficulties with a simple trick. Take, for example, age. Does it end with one? Then say "year". Does it end with 2, 3, 4? In this case, say "years". If the age or term ends in 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0, then say "years". And foreigners skillfully apply this simple recommendation to everything.
It is also worth noting the use of such a particle as "li". Of course, a foreigner can safely do without it. But in the speech of Russians it is always present. And, having heard “should I?”, “hardly!” etc., he will be perplexed. You need to know the essence of such phrases, since this particle is part of some stable combinations.
In fact, “whether” is an English whether, thanks to which it turns out to introduce an indirect question into the sentence. Here, for example, is such a sentence: "He asked the librarian whether he could take another book." From English, it translates as follows: "He asked the librarian if he could take another book." It is enough for a foreigner to draw an analogy, and he will no longer be surprised at the “li” particle.
Perception
How to start learning Russian for a foreigner? With an attempt to realize that a lot of strange things will await him. And one of those moments is the imperative mood. "I would like one cup of coffee,please." It's too hard to say. “Bring coffee” is too rude for a foreigner, although in Russia this is the norm.
Another feature is the arrangement of letters. Foreigners say that it is easy for them to memorize those words in which vowels alternate with consonants. But “agency”, “counter-admission”, “adult”, “postscript”, “cohabitation” and similar words cause fear in them. Even the most ordinary "bread" they learn to pronounce for a long time.
It is also worth noting the following: some Russian words are translated differently into other languages. "Account" in French means "toilet", and in an extremely rude form. A "vinaigrette" is a buttery mustard sauce, not a salad. However, this is the minimum difficulty. In any case, you don't even have to come up with associations.
Prepositions
Word formation is very difficult for a foreign person to understand. There are a lot of rules and exceptions in Russian. And to this are added gender and number. The former is absent in some languages altogether. And of course, prepositions are another difficulty. How to explain to a person when you can use “on”, and when “in” is suitable? It's pretty simple here.
A foreigner must understand: "in" is used when he wants to talk about something that is inside. Within something. In the house, in the country, in the world… The scale is not important. The main thing is that there are limits and something happens within them. But “on” is used when we are talking about a place on any surface. On a table, on a person, on a house (already a different meaning, although the example is the same).
Why would they?
Many people are interested in the question: why do foreigners learn Russian, since it is so difficult? Well, everyone has their own reasons. For example, an Irishwoman named Julia Walsh, who is Business Development Manager at Enterprise Ireland, says she started learning Russian because of Russia's importance in European history. It was difficult. But after years of study, the language no longer seemed impossible. But it remained difficult. But citizens of Slavic countries (for example, the Czech Republic) say that Russian is not very difficult. So says the journalist Jiří Yust. Czech and Russian represent the same language group. So the words are similar, and the grammar. And Czech even has one more case.
There is another question: why should foreigners learn Russian? Because otherwise it will be difficult in Russia. Many locals study English, but it cannot be said that everyone has developed it at a decent level. And besides, it is necessary for an accurate perception of everything that happens around. Why should foreigners learn Russian if they are not going to Russia? The reason for this is the same as for each of us, taking on something new. And it lies in interest and self-development.
