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If it’s free why not. I’m a native english speaker from Canada.
The 4 language’s I’m interested in are Estonian, Latvian, Russian,Lithuanian.
Which language would most easy for me to pick up ?
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My summary of the gorup Estonian is the hardest since it is not part of the Indo-European language family few words will have common roots making it that much harder to recognise them. It is related to Finish Hungarian and various langunges in Siberia.
Latvian and Lithuanian are only related to eachoher as they are part of the Baltic lanuage group both use a modified form ofthe Latin alphabet- the lativian has 33 letters and Lituanian has 32. They are realted So if you try working on one you might want to work on the other.
then Russian is Salvic and is related to the other Slavic langiages making it easier to learn them. IMHO the Cyrilic aplhabet makes Russian easier to reas since you have to retrain your brain phoneticaly any how- at first glimps it looks like letters are getting repeated in the lativian and Lituanian alphabets with a tail or other mark added.
a, ?, b, c, ?, d, e, ?, f, g, ?, h, i, ?, j, k, ?, l, ?, m, n, ?, o, p, r, s, š, t, u, ?, v, z, ž -Latvian
A ? B C ? D E ? ? F G H I ? Y J K L M N O P R S Š T U ? ? V Z Ž – Lithuanian Your brain is more likly to forget the marks.
All the lanugages are inflected meaning that nouns change dependeing on how they are used in a sentence. For example
the word kot which is Cat in Russian may be
Kot kata katogo katamu depending on how it is used.
due to the poltical situation in the Baltic nations- I would avoid using Russian when visiting them.
Also you can get free Russian corses at livemocha.com and if you want you can e-mail me in Russian-
it is my Second language. and I need practice.
they’re all relatively difficult, but for different reasons. Russian is the only one of the 4 that uses a non-Roman alphabet. Russian is a slavic language, and not related to any of the other 3. if you can manage a different alphabet, then Russian would be the most useful, but still a little involved and difficult with grammar.
Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian are less useful, but the Baltic States are up and coming in the economy of Europe, so there might be a business opportunity for you there somewhere…
Latvian and Lithuanian are related to each other, so you’ll see similarities between them. Estonian, however, is related to Finnish, so that if you learn Estonian, you may be able to use it in Finland and be able to get by.
Russian will probably be more useful in general, unless you’re looking for a language spoken only in a small country (mostly). One nice thing about Russian is that, as I understand it, the spelling is all phonetic – not nearly as complicated as English.
I would think that something like French would be useful at times as a Canadian, if you don’t already know French. In the USA, there’s of course an increasing use of Spanish with all the Mexican and other “Latin” immigrants.
One nice thing about French is how far it will get you. For example, even though Africa has literally thousands of languages, most of the countries were British or French colonies, so you can get around most of Africa on just French and English.
Not sure what all languages you can choose, but ancient languages, like Greek and Latin would open up the door to reading a lot of historical texts in the original languages.
I’m not sure of the purpose of the free courses. Why your job offering this? If this because you have to go to some of these countries than you have to look which one is most useful for your job.
If it has no special purpose than I would say Russian. Not that you will use it a lot, but when you watch the media there is more Russian than Estonian, Latvia or Lithuanian so I think it’s more useful.
Also if you speak Russian you can talk to people in all 4 countries. They all speak Russian. If you speak one of the other 3, it’s not sure if the people from the other countries can understand you.
It depends. If you are working/living in the USA, then I would suggest Spanish. If you are only interested in those 4, then I would say Lithuanian. There are still quite a few Polish/lithuanian people here too. However, if you are in Canada, I honestly could not say. I have never been there, and I don’t know what cultures are predominant there.
Russian would have the broadest use of those listed, but it won’t be especially easy. I know this wasn’t one you mentioned, but if you want a really useful foreign language that’s not too hard, go for Spanish if it’s an option, as it’s spoken in so many countries.
Russian.
Russia is beautiful anyway, and probably the most useful of those languages. I don’t know that it’s easy to learn, but I know that I’d like to learn it someday
Since those countries are pretty foreign, maybe besides Russia, I would take Russian just for the heck of it… even if there may be only a few groups of people and communities that can understand the language over in Canada…
If Spanish isn’t on the list, go for Russian. It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it, and it’ll make you sound smart. And isn’t that what life is all about? Just kidding. Seriously though, go for Russian.
why not learn something you would actually use over on this side of the world like french (especially in canada) or spanish?
just a thought. I dont know those other languages well enough to tell you the difficulty levels in learning them
i think you should chose Russian because its becoming very popular and i don’t think you would run into anyone else who speaks the other languages you listed. hope that helped!
they would all have the exact same difficulty since they have the same root. Id pick Russian
RUSSIAN ALL THE WAY! Russian takes 780 hours of instruction to become semi-fluent though!
either russian or spanish.
russia is taking over the U.S so that might be helpful
2. u can earn money working as a part time translater for the spanish speaking
Choose the one you’re most likely to use on any kind of regular basis.
Russian
Russian
find the one most commonly spoke at your job or in your area, that one would be the most beneficial to learn.
Choose Russian for best results
Spanish would be most helpful!
Russian.. They’re taking over the US!!!!
the english laungauge its the best in the world
I know Russian, take it.
It sounds weird, but its cool!