Re: Spanish and Portuguese

From: Marc Verhaegen
Message: 812
Date: 2000-01-09

>> >Gerry here: Perhaps Spanish isn't any easier to learn than English, but
it certainly is easier to learn than Russian. Even for Russian natives!

>> Dou you think so? I once read somewhere that declension (eg, German,
Russian) is only fully mastered at the age of 7, but perhaps the same can be
said about conjugation in languages without much declension? Marc


>May I interfere in the discussion? Russian is my native language. To my
mind Russian-speaking children usually have no problems with declension (6
cases, 3 kinds of declension which don't coincide completely with genders, 2
times). Moreover, it seems that they "feel" the language even better than
adults. A typical thing is inventing new funny words or expressions by small
children following the formal rules of word- and phrase-formation.

At what age do Russian children completely master the declension? I may be
wrong about 7 years, but I red somewhere that the declension is the last
thing that has to be completed?

(When I was 15, I had to learn German & English at school (1 hour every
week -- until then I had had Dutch, French & Latin). German was easier to
understand, to read, to pronounce & to write for me (Dutch speaking) than
English, but I never completely learned the German declension.)

>Much more difficult is to learn the Russian grammar at school even if you
speak perfect. As to me, having graduated from an university and obtained a
Ph.D. degree, I'm not sure that I would pass now an examination work for 7th
form (for 13 years old children) without a single mistake. The main problems
are spelling and punctuation in written Russian and sometimes correct stress
in the colloquial language (too much non-standard but widely spread
variants). Actually Russian declension is a problem only for our
politics of the Prime Minister or President rank, not for ordinary people.
Alexander

Marc