Should I Learn Russian or German?
I am going to college and only have room in my schedule for one language. I'd like to learn the 2nd language sometime in the near future. I'm a political science major focusing on international studies. I love both Russian and German-language culture (Germany, Austria & Switzerland) as well as their languages. That's why it's so hard to choose!
I'm somewhat leaning towards Russian because I've heard not many Russians speak English fluently or at least not enthusiastically. For the other side, I've heard that most German-speakers (Germans in particular) speak excellent English and using German is not incredibly useful.
Lastly, I've heard that both languages are pretty difficult to learn, Russian in particular because of its declension system. Any comments on that? Thanks.
German is good choice. It is language of science,economy and culture.German is most spoken language in Europe.
Russian is a better choice for a political science major. Russia is a curious case with a lot of international importance. Germany just sold off its linguistic importance to the EU. That is, the 'international politics' side of Germany will be now carried out through the EU and in English.
Many people speaks German in Europe Union.Geman language is official in Germany,Austria,Switzerland (with others),Belgium(with others),Liechtenstein,Bozen/Bolzano province of Italy.Very small number of people speak Russian in Europe.Russian is official language only in Russia.
Without doubt German was, is, and will still be more important than Russian in the future.
Sorry,I omitted Luxembourg state,where German is one of three official languages.
The Amish speak a form of German, so if you learn German, you might be able to converse with them.
German is no longer a national language, but rather a provincial tongue. Like Tibetan, or Uighur or Yakut or Sioux.
German is official in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. It is also official in Bolzano, Italy. It is spoken by some 150 million people in Europe as first or second language.
Russian is official in Russia, Belarus, parts of Moldavia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, parts of Georgia, and Crimea in Ukraine. It is also the lingua franca of the former USSR and official language in the United Nations. It is spoken by some 270 million people in Europe and Asia.
German is more important in the economic field and Russian is perhaps more important in the politics and diplomatic field.
Economic languages (Steinke Index): English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German and French.
Diplomatic languages (UNO): English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese.
"I've heard that most German-speakers (Germans in particular) speak excellent English"
Don't believe that.
<<I've heard that most German-speakers (Germans in particular) speak excellent English and using German is not incredibly useful>>
Depends on where you go and who you talk to. Young professional people will probably have good English skills but there are also many millions of Germans who are not comfortable speaking English, or simply cannot.
And if you venture into what used to be East Germany then you will find that English speakers are very thin on the ground. My father-in-law was brought up in the GDR and there is no way he could even begin to say a sentence in English.
russian is spoken all over the former the soviet union. in ukraine, where i'm from, everyone knows russian, but not everyone knows ukrainian. however, if you study russian, you'll have to learn a completely new set of words, a different way of expressing your thoughts, and a grammar which is far more difficult than that of english or german. declension system is only part of it. add to it verbs conjugation, verbs aspects, short forms of adjectives, participles and their short forms and so on. to express even very simple ideas you need some grammar knowledge. take, for example, plurals. in english as well as in german you can say: houses, 21 houses, 24 houses, 28 houses, the word, in this instance houses, remains in the same form. but in russian to express these four ideas we use the word in four different grammar forms: nominative plural, nominative singular, genitive singular, genitive plural correspondingly. that is why if you want to speak correct russian, you will need much more time, practice, and dedication. at the same time some points of russian grammar are easier. we have only several tenses, no articles, and a much easier subjunctive
by the way, i forgot to mention that in the former ussr still live old people who lived during the war and who know some german, namely "hitler kaputt", "alles kaputt", "ich verstehe nicht", "polizei", "reichstag", "deutshe schwein", "russische partisanen", "weg", and "minen".
Artem, thanks for the info. I understand the level of difficulty for an English speaker like myself, but I'm willing to work at it. I don't think I'll be fluent overnight of course, but I hope to be so someday. Fluent in both Russian and German actually. Along with French, too (I've already been studying this for a long time). :)
<<I understand the level of difficulty for an English speaker like myself>>
German and English are Germanic languages. Some parts of vocabularies of both languages are similar to each other.Russian is Slavic language,it's vocabulary is totally different from English.