Time to start taking Russian language classes?

[MineralMan]

Perhaps. For me, I'll just have to refresh my memory of the intensive program the USAF sent me to at Syracuse University. I dusted off some of my books in Russian and will be reading to rebuild my abilities.

With Putin declaring that the Russian border has no end, we may be seeing more Russians here in the US, courtesy of a President Trump, who seems to really, really like Russians.

I'm ready, already, for that. I'll keep an ear open.

[Achilleaze]

1. Russian-Republican cabal hatching some fugly plans for the US of A

[liberal N proud]

2. I have begun greeting anyone I know who supports Trump as comrade

[LisaL]

10. Shouldn't that be "товарищ?"

[liberal N proud]

14. Once I am programed to read cyrillic

Until then it is same as Mandarin comrade.

[Yonnie3]

3. Perhaps

I recall that it was said we needed to learn Japanese, then Spanish, then Chinese. Now you tell me Russian. I just can't keep up.

[MineralMan]

4. I can get alone pretty well in Spanish,

but have never tried Japanese or Chinese.

[MineralMan]

5. Here's a free online course, with spoken

cues by Russian native speakers. It would be a good start.

http://www.russianforfree.com/lessons-russian-language-contents.php

[bluedigger]

6. I've been trying to sprinkle a little into my posts, da?

I want Ivan to feel at home here at DU.

[RKP5637]

7. FFS, and I studied Latin! n/t

[MineralMan]

11. Latin will help you with Russian grammar, which is

highly inflected. All of the Latin cases, moods and other grammar details exist in Russian. People familiar with Latin did very well in the total immersion Russian program I was part of. I was helped by my French, on grammar grounds, too.

People are fearful of the Cyrillic alphabet, but they shouldn't be. Russian is almost entirely pronounced as it is spelled, which helps a great deal. Russian also has borrowed words from many other languages, so the more languages you're familiar with, including Latin, the easier it is learn more quickly.

The biggest problems come from the oldest verbs in Russian, almost all of which are irregular in conjugation. But, you only have a hundred or so commonly-used verbs that are in that category. The rest follow very regular rules. The highly-inflected grammar is also a problem for many, since nouns and adjectives change endings depending on the case, but Latin helps with that, too.

There are a few multi-consonant sounds that are unfamiliar to English speakers and a couple of vowels. Those aren't too hard to master, though, for anyone with an ear for sounds and time to learn them.

[RKP5637]

15. Thanks MM as always! And very interesting as always! Thanks!!!

[sarisataka]

8. This should help novices

[Are_grits_groceries]

9. Nyet! nt

[moondust]

12. idi na hui.

[MineralMan]

13. Well, you could say that to a Russian,

(иди нахуй but it's pretty damned rude. You might want to stand out of reach if you do.

Knowing a little Russian isn't all that useful, especially if all you know is how to curse at someone in street language.

I don't recommend it.

[DavidDvorkin]

16. Mandarin

Take the long view.

[FarCenter]

17. Russia is a second rate country of 145 million. China is first rate country of 1357 million

The value of a network increases faster than the number of participants. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect

So in the digital world, China, with the biggest network of first-language speakers, is the beneficiary of the largest network effect.