I only have experience with Czech and some Russian, but I wanted to share the fact that Czech feels much more difficult to me. I don’t really know why, but my impression is that it has more complex grammar and more exceptions, and is spoken less clearly. I didn’t get deep enough into Russian to say this is valid also when getting into more advanced levels. So to me, that would suggest Russian is better. It’s also much more useful than any other Slavic language, with a lot of both native and secondary speakers.
Then another thing to consider is the amount of material there is for Russian, that doesn’t exist for other Slavic languages. This makes a language much easier to learn. For Russian there is tons of good resources.
Another thing to consider is that the first one you learn will affect the others. Most other Slavic countries don’t really like Russian. And it might be better to, say, speak Russian with a bit of a Czech touch, than the opposite. If you make Russian mistakes in Czech, some people might not like it, I guess because of history that is ingrained in the general consciousness. I wouldn’t personally care too much, but it’s something I’ve thought of.
Personally, I would probably still go with Russian, because it’s useful, I find the culture and history interesting, and I like the fact that it has a different alphabet.
I would say Polish of course Seriously I wouldn’t recommend Polish. It is often considered as one of the most difficult Slavic languages. Grammar is a bit complicated, a lot of exceptions. I suppose you would have a really hard time especially with verbs, but of course it is doable. On the other hand, once you have done Russian, Ukrainian would be a piece of cake.
I’ve studied some Russian, Croatian and Polish. The thing I like about Slavic languages is that there seem to be more loan words than there are between romance or Germanic languages.
I found that Croatian has a good orthography, whereas Polish doesn’t! In Polish you can have two differently spelled words that are pronounced the same, e.g. morze (sea) and może (he/she/it can). Also, Polish has lots of combination letters, like dz, cz, sz which I found difficult at first. The equivalents in Russian would be one cyrillic letter. In Croatian, there is never any variation in pronounciation when reading (like German for example). However, I love Polish. There are lots of resources. It’s useful as there is a big Polish diaspora. It sounds great! And you can practise the tongue twister: “W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie…”
Neither Bulgarian nor Macedonian. I am learning Macedonian, my 15th language, but my 1st Slavic language. (Although I have very basic knowledge of Polish and Croatian, I find Macedonian extremely easier, like Bulgarian.)
I could say a lot about grammar and pronunciation and whatnot…but honestly, the answer is whichever you’re passionate about. Don’t learn a language for the sake of learning it or of learning other languages
First of all, I am not expert on slavic languages although I did dabble in some in the past.
I understand your questioning but frankly, I think that there is not better slavic language to start with, as Israel Lai said, it all comes down to passion and personal preference. You might have better answers by asking yourself what is the slavic country I’m most passionate about, the culture that strikes most my attention. Maybe from that perspective, you’ll see the things differently and you’ll be willing to start your new language undertaking.
During a long time I was caught by the idea to learn the most spoken slavic language, which is russian because it could bring me more possibilities and so forth. The point is that I didn’t develop at this stage any particular interest of it. (it was mere calculations). Years later, it turned out that my interest for slavic language drew me more around the Balkan region (I’ve developed personal preferences for those slavic languages).
They all have their specificities, their difficulties and their charm.
It’s a difficult question really! I would say with any language, you need to be also interested in the wider culture…and have a clear aim as for the language learning.
My background is that I took a degree in Russian with Czech. By the time I started Czech I was probably B1 in Russian. However, I found it tricky to keep them separated and in the end I dropped Czech for 2 years and only restarted it once my Russian was at (C1) level.
I never spent more that a week or so at a time in the Czech Republic, however then I moved to Slovakia for a year to work. Slovak was therefore pretty simple to pick up, as I already had a solid basis in Russian and Czech. iIwould say that for an English native-speaker, Slovak pronunciation and grammar are more accessible than Czech (but I still love Czech too
As for other slavic languages, well it’s now not too hard for me to get a gist of others, such as Ukrainian, Polish, Croatian… with a solid basis of Russian/Czech/Slovak. I wouldn’t, however, want to try learning another ‘properly’, as I can imagine Russian just creeping in there all the time. I’m just happy to be able to understand the general gist.
Russian has also been useful for me in terms of studying Armenian and Georgian (my two little faltering projects:) as there are more resources for these via Russian, also I have been able to use Russian as a means of communication in Georgia. This was mainly with the older generation though.
Interesting, I hadn’t realised it had lost the case system! However, it seems to have some definite articles? The only thing is, if you wanted to then branch out into other slavic languages, maybe the lack of understanding the case system would be a disadvantage?
@michagoe If we would talk only about the influence of German language on Slavic languages, I would guess that Czech could be the best option. We use a huge quantity of German origin words, but also to be honest, we use them specially in spoken language and kind of slang. As for the declinations, we have 7 declinations, so it’s not so funny (or maybe on the contrary it’s more fun ). It depends also on where you want to use this language, as obviously Russian would be the most used and Polish is also used by a lot of people compared to Czech and Slovakian for instance. Oh and don’t forget that Czech language has the sound Ř, which is impossible to describe in written way
I don’t want to discourage anybody from learning Czech. Czech is an amazing language, but I am conscious of the fact, that it’s difficult and you would hardly use it in different country than in CR or Slovakia.
In any case I wish you good luck with your decision!
I agree with many others - look first at why you want to learn a Slavic language and let that guide you and then think about what motivates you when you are learning,
For example - I was randomly assigned Czech during a language challenge earlier this year. It was only for a weekend, but I found myself frustrated as it was hard to find the tools that motivate me to learn most easily (modern, colourful textbooks, music in a style I enjoy, tv shows that were easily available to watch and in genres I would enjoy). It made it harder to motivate myself to learn, even though I found the language interesting, because I am so used to learning Korean and Spanish, both of which have a wealth of materials which match both my learning style and my motivational needs. I experienced similar problems with Persian too - I have very strong desire to learn in order to talk to friends but the lack of materials have meant I often end up giving up before I even begin. Whereas I recently started learning Chinese for fun because the materials and cultural products (dramas and music) pulled me in even though it isn’t a language I have a need to learn.
If I were choosing a Slavic language right now, I would most likely go with Russian purely because I know there are great learning materials out there and that motivates me, even though I already have some basic Czech learnt and I’m half Polish (I don’t speak a word of Polish though). In maybe 2-3 years, I might change that to Polish because the learning materials and access to different media may have improved!
Seriously I wouldn’t recommend Polish. It is often considered as one of the most difficult Slavic languages. Grammar is a bit complicated, a lot of exceptions. I suppose you would have a really hard time especially with verbs, but of course it is doable. On the other hand, once you have done Russian, Ukrainian would be a piece of cake.
