Re: Spanish and Portuguese

From: Alexander Stolbov
Message: 800
Date: 2000-01-08

> >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.

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