Why You Should Never Learn Russian
Ah, the Russian language (or русский язык as the natives call it)! So many people seem to be endlessly fascinated by it, for whatever reason.
Maybe it’s the way Russians sound when they speak – that famously guttural, throaty way of enunciating words. Or maybe it’s the Cyrillic alphabet, which looks so exotic and impenetrable to non-native speakers. Or perhaps it’s the reputation of the Russian language as being one of the most difficult languages to learn.
Whatever your reason for wanting to learn it, we’re here to tell you that you might want to reconsider. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why.
9 reasons why you shouldn’t learn Russian
1. It’s very difficult
Russian is notorious for being one of the most difficult languages to learn. It has a complex grammar system that is not going to make any sense to you if you’re unfamiliar with grammatical concepts like declension and cases.
Additionally, its nouns are gendered, which means that you have to constantly be aware of whether the objects you’re talking about are male, female, or neuter. And on top of all that, adjectives change to agree with the gender of the nouns they modify.
If you’re not already fluent in another Slavic language, you’ll be in for a long, uphill battle. Trust us, we know.
2. You’ll have to learn a brand new alphabet
As if learning a new language that uses the Latin alphabet wasn’t bad enough, Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which looks similar to the Latin alphabet at first glance, but has major differences.
For instance, the letter “B” is actually pronounced like English “V”, and the letter “p” is pronounced like English “R”.
You’ll also have to learn a whole new set of characters, such as щ, ъ, and ь, which don’t exist in English. Good luck trying to get your head around those!
3. It’s very difficult to pronounce
Even if you manage to learn the Cyrillic alphabet and all of the Russian grammar rules, you’ll still have a hard time pronouncing Russian words correctly.
This is because Russian has a lot of sounds that don’t exist in English, such as the sounds from the letters “ь” and “ы”. If you’re interested in watching a funny video about learning how to pronounce these letters, check out the video below:
There are also a lot of consonant clusters in Russian words, which can be extremely difficult for English speakers to wrap their tongues around. Just try saying the word “взрослый” (vzroslyy = adult) out loud and feel your tongue try to contort itself into all sorts of shapes!
4. There’s no need to learn it
Unless you have some specific reason for learning Russian, such as business or family, there’s really no need to put yourself through all of that hassle.
Although there are roughly 250 million Russian speakers, making Russian the most spoken Slavic language in the world, most of those speakers live in Russia, so unless you’re planning on traveling there or doing business with Russians, you probably won’t need to know the language.
What’s more, many Russians also speak English, so you’ll probably be able to get by without learning Russian.
5. It’s too closely associated with communism
For many people outside of Russia, the only thing they know about the country is its communist past. While Russia has come a long way since the days of the Soviet Union, the negative association still lingers, unfortunately.
If you’re looking to learn a language that will help improve your image, Russian is probably not the right choice.
Of course, it could be argued that many other languages (English, French, and Spanish, for example) are also closely associated with negative images (colonialism, slavery, and conquest), so this shouldn’t be a deterrent if you’re truly interested in learning the language.
6. It will take forever to become fluent
If you’re not already fluent in another Slavic language, becoming fluent in Russian is going to take a long time, no matter how hard you study.
According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), it takes an average of 44 weeks (or 1100 hours) for an English speaker to reach proficiency in Russian. This is assuming you study every day for several hours, of course.
But the reality is that it will take much longer, especially if you’re learning to read and write Cyrillic at the same time. We’d say you’d need closer to 3 years to reach a decent level where you’re comfortable expressing yourself.
7. You’ll get frustrated often
Progress is the key to success when learning any language, but it can be hard to see progress when you’re learning Russian. This is because the language is so difficult, so unlike English, and there’s so much to learn.
If you don’t see any progress, you’ll start to get frustrated, and it’s more likely that you’ll quit. What’s more, your slow progress could even start to affect your confidence in your language skills as a whole, making you think that you’re just not good at learning languages.
So, if you’re the type of person who gets discouraged easily, Russian might not be the best language for you to learn.
8. It’s not considered a “pretty” language
Though this shouldn’t be a reason to not learn Russian, it’s worth mentioning that the language is often not considered to be as “pretty” as other languages, such as French or Italian.
This is because Russian words are often long, difficult to pronounce, and harsh sounding. They don’t have the melodic flow that, say, the Romance languages do.
Of course, this is all subjective, and there are plenty of people who find Russian to be a beautiful language, but on the whole, it’s not considered to be pleasing to the ears. So if you want to learn a language that sounds nice, Russian might not be it.
9. Other languages are probably more suitable or useful
This all depends on what your goals are. If you’re looking for a language that will be more useful to you in terms of career or travel opportunities, there are definitely better choices out there.
Some languages that might be more suitable include Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. These languages are spoken by more people than Russian, so they’ll be more useful in terms of interacting with people from different countries.
And with the exception of Mandarin, their speakers are more spread out across the globe, so you’ll have more opportunities to use them.
Final thought
When it comes down to it, choosing which language to learn is a personal choice that only you can make. If Russian calls to you and excites you, then go for it!
It’s always good practice to choose languages you like the sound of, as this will make learning them easier and more enjoyable. But if you’re still undecided, we hope this article has helped you to make a decision one way or the other.
Happy language learning!