French or Russian?

[Darkness]

I need some advice from all my friends, here. First my situation: I am a Political Science major with a concentration in international relations at my University. Being the economy is in stagnation in my country (United States) and is expected to maintain high levels of unemployment for years to come, I am considering doing a PH.D. in politics. I would get a small salary, maybe free living on campus and access to a cheap health insurance plan. In order to do a PH.D. in International Relations, however, you are expected to be fluent in a foreign language. For the last year I have been teaching myself Russian, because I am fascinated by Eastern Europe. However, I have been struggling and my University does not offer a Russian language program. Thus, I have a two-year window to be able to understand a second language reasonably well. If I have to teach myself a second language, should I aim for an easier language such as French or stick with the Russian being I am already into it? Does anybody here speak French?

 

[The Voice of Reason]

From a purely business standpoint, learn Russian. Buy a copy of the Rosetta Stone program, and go to town.

French sounds prettier, but Russian is spoken by more people, and business with Russia is growing - not so with France.

 

[Darkness]

From a purely business standpoint, learn Russian. Buy a copy of the Rosetta Stone program, and go to town.

French sounds prettier, but Russian is spoken by more people, and business with Russia is growing - not so with France.

I have Rosetta Stone and I am still struggling.

 

[Gabethewiking]

From a purely business standpoint, learn Russian. Buy a copy of the Rosetta Stone program, and go to town.

French sounds prettier, but Russian is spoken by more people, and business with Russia is growing - not so with France.

I think there is something around 200 million people speaking French, possible slightly less, Russia has around 140 million people plus former Eastern States, say a maximum of 180 million people.

Are you sure Russians is spoken by more???????????? Where do you get that from?

 

[Gabethewiking]

I need some advice from all my friends, here. First my situation: I am a Political Science major with a concentration in international relations at my University. Being the economy is in stagnation in my country (United States) and is expected to maintain high levels of unemployment for years to come, I am considering doing a PH.D. in politics. I would get a small salary, maybe free living on campus and access to a cheap health insurance plan. In order to do a PH.D. in International Relations, however, you are expected to be fluent in a foreign language. For the last year I have been teaching myself Russian, because I am fascinated by Eastern Europe. However, I have been struggling and my University does not offer a Russian language program. Thus, I have a two-year window to be able to understand a second language reasonably well. If I have to teach myself a second language, should I aim for an easier language such as French or stick with the Russian being I am already into it? Does anybody here speak French?

You already Speak Mandarine or Spanish as you go for lesser spoken languages? Or some specific reason?

I would personally recommend French as it would be more suitable as well as you can get work in France, good salary and nice place. Russia is still poor and any business with them would force you to speak English as they prefer improving their own language skills.

Negative is that Russian has a different alphabet (Cyrillic one) which would put you on square one whiles French is using similar to ours at the same time as our own language is based on French (French, English, Spanish and Latin are all intertwined).

Most Russian people you would meet would prefer speaking English to you to practice their own skills, if you go deeper into to Russia (poor) you may have to speak Russian if you want to communicate but that wouldn't be much of a problem as when you get kidnapped and/or robbed, they dont really care about what you got to say :thud: (Experience).

 

[The Voice of Reason]

I think there is something around 200 million people speaking French, possible slightly less, Russia has around 140 million people plus former Eastern States, say a maximum of 180 million people.

Are you sure Russians is spoken by more???????????? Where do you get that from?

Let me rephrase that. There are more people that speak Russian that do not speak English.

How's that?

Almost everyone in France below the age of 45 speaks English to some degree. They may not act like they do, but they really do.

From a business standpoint, there is more emerging market share to be had in Russia than France (or areas like Montreal, Belgium, etc.).

 

[Gabethewiking]

Let me rephrase that. There are more people that speak Russian that do not speak English.

How's that?

Almost everyone in France below the age of 45 speaks English to some degree. They may not act like they do, but they really do.

I had a look at it, you where correct, According to "numbers" there is a TOTAL of more then 260 million speaking Russian, BUT this is SECONDARY so I do not know about the quality of it and how flexible they are with the definition.

Around 170 million (close to my number) speaks Russian as first language, I was only thinking about first language not secondary. My bad.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Not a problem.

 

[Gabethewiking]

Not a problem.

I retract my previous statement, by the figure I managed to shake out we got almost 400 million people speaking French (First, Second and Foreign) whiles Russian gets something under 300 million being nice with the numbers. (dont know if I can trust the figures but I take a point anyway).

Personally. I would vote for French, we got France, French Colonies and Canada, always useful and respectful, yes Russia is growing but is still poor as well as the people you would do business with would indeed speak English...

But taking it your way, yes, you are more likely to run into French speaking english then Russian speaking English, so I guess itd epends.

 

[Darkness]

Negative is that Russian has a different alphabet (Cyrillic one) which would put you on square one whiles French is using similar to ours at the same time as our own language is based on French (French, English, Spanish and Latin are all intertwined).

I can understand Cyrillic quite well. But, I am still more confused than ever.

 

[Erebus]

I need some advice from all my friends, here. First my situation: I am a Political Science major with a concentration in international relations at my University. Being the economy is in stagnation in my country (United States) and is expected to maintain high levels of unemployment for years to come, I am considering doing a PH.D. in politics. I would get a small salary, maybe free living on campus and access to a cheap health insurance plan. In order to do a PH.D. in International Relations, however, you are expected to be fluent in a foreign language. For the last year I have been teaching myself Russian, because I am fascinated by Eastern Europe. However, I have been struggling and my University does not offer a Russian language program. Thus, I have a two-year window to be able to understand a second language reasonably well. If I have to teach myself a second language, should I aim for an easier language such as French or stick with the Russian being I am already into it? Does anybody here speak French?

I would personally go for French for one simply reason: doing a PHD is TOUGH so you need to ease the pressure on yourself in any way you can. French is far easier to learn than Russian and therefore less stressful.

Besides, if you feel the need, you can learn Russian at a later date.

 

[dust1n]

I would go with Russian first, then French.

Plus, Russian accents are so much more seductive when negotiating with secret agents.

 

[Smoke]

If I had to get proficient in a foreign language in a short time and it didn't matter which one, I'd go for Spanish. Much easier than French or Russian, and much more widely spoken than either.

 

[Darkness]

If I had to get proficient in a foreign language in a short time and it didn't matter which one, I'd go for Spanish. Much easier than French or Russian, and much more widely spoken than either.

I want to pick a language that I am attracted to, though. I don't just want to pick any language. I had Spanish in high school and I did not like it.

 

[Darkness]

I would go with Russian first, then French.

Plus, Russian accents are so much more seductive when negotiating with secret agents.

The worst part about Russian is that it is ****** up. Seriously! There are six different noun declensions, meaning that the ends of nouns change depending on where they are in the sentence. For example the word "car" has the forms: Машина, Машину, Машины, Машине, Машиной, Машинам, Машинах, Машинами. Not to mention that each verb has a perfect and imperfect aspect, which may not be related in an significant way Брать (imperfect) and Взять (perfect).

 

[The Voice of Reason]

... But, I am still more confused than ever.

We're here to help ...

 

[The Voice of Reason]

If I had to get proficient in a foreign language in a short time and it didn't matter which one, I'd go for Spanish. Much easier than French or Russian, and much more widely spoken than either.

Good point, Smoke. And you have the added benefit that they say most of the incoming secret agents will be speaking Spanish in the near future.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

The worst part about Russian is that it is ****** up. Seriously! There are six different noun declensions, meaning that the ends of nouns change depending on where they are in the sentence. For example the word "car" has the forms: Машина, Машину, Машины, Машине, Машиной, Машинам, Машинах, Машинами. Not to mention that each verb has a perfect and imperfect aspect, which may not be related in an significant way Брать (imperfect) and Взять (perfect).

Maybe you could just convince them that the Appalachin form of English is its own language.

As an example, "RAT CHEER" is the accepted answer to the question "Where did you leave your keys"?

 

[Darkness]

Maybe you could just convince them that the Appalachin form of English is its own language.

As an example, "RAT CHEER" is the accepted answer to the question "Where did you leave your keys"?

Maybe I can convince them that speaking English with a Russian accent is a separate language.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Da! Good idea.