I came to America as a teen and went to 6th grade, the MATH in my school here in the states was stuff I learned in like SECOND GRADE back in Russia. I thought it was crazy!
Because the education is very different in US - it's much more specialized, and it't much more like college. For example If you excel in math, you will move to Advanced Placement and learn higher level stuff. But by default the overall program is held back until much later. And then in college everything kicks in full force.
@@opart I actually prefer it in the US. Former communist countries absolutely ruin children's minds with all the unnecessary information. Let people specialize and don't bother them with things they don't care about.
@@MassachusettsTrainVideos1136 AP classes start in middle school, 6 grade... But I guess that depends on the state. Anyway, I went through Soviet/Russian education, and had experience with US education too. They are pretty different, and there are pluses and minuses to both.
Everyone (including Lex) seem to always mention the same 2 writers Dostoevsky and Tolstoy as if there's no beauty in Derzhavin, Mandelstam, Yesinin, Akhmatova, Bryusov.
In this discussion the most interesting author is Nabokov. He wrote novels in Russian and English, are the books written in Russian more emotional, those in English with more emphasis on factuality?
@@batner I have a same feeling as a native Polish speaker. The youngest generation is nowhere near the level of my parents’ emotionality, nostalgia, resentment when speaking the language. This focus on practical elements of the supposed English language truly is about the English in USA. South Africans, Scottish, Irish also can be natively English speakers but the mostly mentioned topics vary completely from Americans.
Because they're recognizable names to even the most cultured American, also pretty entry level literature for someone who wants to get into russian literature
I was born in Russia, grew up in the States (lived there from 1986 to 1999), since 1999 I've been living in Russia, having spent so much time in both countries I've got a decent knowledge of both languages. And nowadays I don't even try to distinguish between them in terms of which is more poetic, versatile, which is easier to sound eloquent in. It's all very subjective and all people will see things very differently (for example - in my opinion the Russian language lends itself much better to sarcasm and satire than English, but that's just me, I could be wrong), so there's not much of a point in such analysis. All I can say is that I love both languages, English and Russian, they're both awesome and beautiful in their own way.
Russian language is immensely flexible which you should know by now. There's nothing subjective about that. It's just the way it is. I've been poking at different languages trying to learn something new. What I've realised is that in Russian one can replicate the structure of a sentence in any language. E.g. in English you're quite restricted with the order of parts of the sentence. More so in German. It's so strict your sentence must be solid from beginning to end. So when you translate a sentence from English to say Japanese most of the time you're going to have to change your sentence and only communicate information filtered from any details and nuances you might have wanted to communicate. It's much easier for Russian speakers because we can first form our thought in Russian and then translate it as close as possible to the original. These things make Russian superior to most languages in my opinion. It simply allows you to understand other people better and to communicate your thoughts clearer. Not to mention that we think in the language that we carry mostly. I personally think in both English and Russian as a habit developed in the past to learn English as my second. However I revert to Russian every time when I struggle with forming my thoughts. Language is so important to our ability to think.
@@backtoussrsoviet5694 which both? I've mentioned 4 languages. And that realisation of mine I spoken of came when I started to try to learn different languages. Maybe you'd understand what I am talking about if you'd have done the same.
Actually, you can say very similar things in English with "I love you" as you can in Russian. You can say "I love you", "You, I love", "I love YOU", "Love you", etc. They all have slightly different meanings. Word accenting and pauses convey in speech what case markers do in Russian.
As a speaker of both languages myself, I can say English is more “user friendly” if you want to quickly express something easily, kinda quickly get to the point and go on about your business.. It feels easier to express them in English Russian language however feels better for reading, or reading poems or stories, if you want to express or experience something deeper, more personal, something more interesting.. The better versions of books are better in Russian language between the two.. Best is to know both, though!
This is a great video. It really makes your channel more well-rounded. The conversation is interesting and as a Russian learner I've noticed these kinds of nuances (like English being a more logic-based language). I don't think any language is necessarily better at conveying emotion than another, they just do it and/or prioritize it differently. In English you can convey anything you want, providing you have a sufficient vocabulary or are willing to use an extra adjective or two.
Any of the world's highly developed languages will allow you to say everything you want, it is rather determined by literary abilities and the level of language proficiency. But each language has some specialization where it is especially good. I know English much worse than Russian and my opinion is not objective enough. But it seems to me that English is especially good at describing actions, and Russian is good at describing objects and their states. English is good where unambiguity is needed, and Russian is good where adaptability is needed. Perfect Continuous puzzles Russian, although in fact Russian has the appropriate tools to say this, but it is more convenient in English. At the same time, Russian has an extremely developed mechanism for creating the necessary word form (most English speakers simply do not know how to use it in Russian) for the most accurate description of each property of any object. Descriptions of objects in English seem too general and imprecise to a Russian speaker. It is more convenient to write laws in English, or a protocol of events. It seems more convenient to accurately describe a state of mind or just a stone in your hands in Russian.
@@АндрейНикитенко-ф4с You can't expect me to read all that...just joking. But yeah I agree with what you're saying. Some languages can certainly be more natural than others at conveying certain emotions or meanings or situations. That makes a lot of sense given their development stems from completely different societies. I guess my comment is just trying to distinguish that concept from what a language is capable of doing. Namely, calling out the people that say one is better than another.
I disagree with some of the ideas, as most of the conversation was just negative things (that are not true at all) about the heavenly English language, which is objectively the most practical and the most expressive language that has the most descriptive terms and more idioms and more slang and more base words than any other language, with over 1.5 million definitions / words, and, one could never express intricate ideas in Russian or in any other languages in a way that’s as detailed as it is in English, plus English is also objectively the easiest language to use and learn and speak and type on any device and memorize etc, which is also why the speaker used mostly English to express all those ideas 'gainst English, despite being a native speaker of Russian, which is kind of irønic, so if one is truly convinced that it is so easy to use Russian and express complex ideas in Russian, why not use Russian instead, and, re the word order, one can also use other word orders in English, so, i can say, thee I asked, or, thee asked I, even though most speakers would say, i asked you, or, i asked thee, but the other word orders can also be used, and they are used a lot in poems, and, re cases, every language has the four main cases nominative and accusative and dative and genitive, including English, as every language has a subject and a direct object and an indirect object and some sort of implied possession in the sentence, even when the language has fewer forms or only one form or only two forms or three forms, and, English has three forms for most pronouns (for example, i / he / they etc are the nominative forms, me / him / them etc are the accusative forms that are also used in dative, while my / his / their etc are the genitive forms) and two forms for each noun (for example, nest is the nominative form that’s also used in accusative and dative, while nest’s is the genitive form with the ‘s ending, and also for plural, nests in the first three cases and nests’ in genitive with the ‘ at the end) and one form for adjectives, and, one can also emphasize any word in a sentence in English in multiple ways, both in writing and when speaking, and one can also not use the pronouns in English, so, i can say, i went there, or, went there, or, ALREADY went there, or, WENT there, or, went THERE etc!
Besides being the easiest and most expressive language ever created, English a also a Germanic language, and Germanic languages are objectively the most poetic languages with the prettiest and most refined and most poetic and most modern and coolest words ever created and the coolest sounds, that have the best letter combinations and the prettiest word endings and the coolest sound combinations and pronunciation rules and sound patterns that sound and look very modern and cool and organized, whereas Russian and most other Slavic languages are more of an avrg or avrg-pretty language, because, even though they have a lot of pretty words, they also tend to have lots of words that aren’t pretty that have certain letter combinations and certain word endings that aren’t good and too many words with sh / ts / ch sounds, so they are kinda like the German of the Slavic languages, as German also has too many words with sh / ts / ch sounds, though Slovene and also Latvian and Latgalian have mostly pretty words, being the prettiest Slavic and mostly Slavic languages, but, the Norse languages and most other Germanic languages have almost only pretty words, so it’s not even easy to find a word that isn’t pretty in a Norse / Germanic language, being a perfect or almost perfect language, and they are among the greatest works of art of all time, including Norse and English etc, and, the Celtic languages are also comparable to the Norse / Germanic languages, as they are also super pretty and modern and poetic with gorgeous words, and, English is one of the prettiest and most poetic languages ever created, like Norse and Gothic and Icelandic and Faroese and Dutch and Norwegian and Danish and FornSvenska and Welsh and Breton and Cornish, so I can can write perfect lyrics in English etc!
I started learning some Russian because I like some songs with lyrics in Russian, but still, one cannot say that Russian is more expressive or more poetic than English, as it is totally not true, and, one isn't truly fluent or writer level in English if one doesn't know the fact that English has way more words and way more descriptive words than any other languages, so, just because one doesn't know the descriptive words yet and has a more limited vocab and cannot express very complex ideas in English yet, doesn't mean that English is not as expressive as Russian or other languages, and, one should also consider the fact that in Russian ppl don't even use the verb to be in present tense, so one says i here instead of i am here, which doesn't męik sense logically, so one should use words that mean am / are / is etc, such as yem / yest / ye etc, if one wants to express ideas better in Russian, but still, one could never express complex ideas better and very complex concepts in a more detailed way than in English, as the other languages don't have many of the words that mean many of the complex ideas and concepts and the descriptive terms that are very detailed, so many of the English descriptive words don't have a perfect translation in the other languages, like, English even has a name for every shade, not just for the main colors, and even has multiple terms to express a certain idea with different nuances, and, if one doesn't know at least one hundred thousand base words in English, one isn't truly fluent or writer level, as English has just so many words, compared to other languages, but luckily English words are the easiest to learn!
Meh, I disagree with Lex. His bias is totally at play here. Our mother tongue is an inseparable part of us, like a body part, so much that we think/feel in our language. It's the language we grow up hearing our families speak as children, and therefore feel connected to in a deep deep way. I think that has a lot to do with his idea that Russian has emotion than English.
I agree with you, and disagree with him completely. Everyone disparages English because everyone _thinks_ they know it. I've heard the same thing from people who speak so many languages. Arabs, French, Russians, Hispanics - everyone says, "English is so simple, it can't express deep meaning. [My native language] is just so much deeper and more emotional!" Really, it's either because A. As a second language, you don't know English as well as maybe you think you do. Or B. It's because as a second language, you don't have the same emotional connection you have with English as you have with your mother tongue. Of course you're going to think your own native language, the one you grew up with from childhood, is "more expressive" or "deeper" than something you started learning in your teens or even later.
the reverse could be true though - kinda hard to be an objective person unless you grow up speaking both - but american english as used regularly is more simple objectively; this is because of how many people use it to communicate cross-culturally around the world. the fact that it’s the internet’s language probably made it even more manageable.
@@uservdhdunxinfstinf I would say it's irrelevant. Objectively, no human language is inherently "deeper," "more poetic," or "more emotional" than any other - although many people claim or imagine that they are. This is because we're all human, and ultimately we all want to express the same things. Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder, but it's always a subjective estimate rather than something that can be objectively determined.
@@ShyguyMM that’s a nice thought but it’s actually been proven that language affects the way you think more than the other way around. this explains why mandarin and german speakers are more analytical than hawaiians and filipinos while the islanders tend to be happier and healthier for example
For people who learn in Russian, I wanna give you an advice. Guys Russian is really hard. My mother tongue is Russian back to my school for 11 grades. I’ve been learning Russian every day five days a week two classes a day for 11 years and I wasn’t the beststudent in the class. So be prepared it’s a long journey.
Thanks for presenting this topic and I think you're doing wonderful. Pronunciation is difficult and I appreciate you spotting the particular sounds and sharing those sounds with us. I wouldn't have known the difference until you broke it down into precise patterns. Also, the interview with Lex was interesting.
I am an Arab living in Russia. Russian people actually read books, especially people from the Soviet era. They are very eduacated. The music of language is also fantastic. However, it is way too difficult to learn the language.
@@СергійНаконечний-э3йвы понимаете, что ваши страдания -- от ненависти? Или это из-за близкого соседства с вами евреи выдумали, что у неевреев нет души? Потому что у вас и правда её нет?
I have not been studying for very long, but every time i memorize a new word by heart to see it and pronounce it well in my head and know its meaning, i am ecstatic. Always puts a smile on my face. That is my motivation.
"Russian is the best language to express deep emotions and suffering" Russian language : бляя моя сигарета упала братан! опа это пиздец, я горю ааааасукабляяя
Честно говоря, у каждого языка есть свои особенности, и как носитель русского я, конечно, им горжусь, недаром он велик и могуч)) Но эмоциональный окрас в литературе вряд ли связан именно с языком, скорее всего, это одно из слагаемых и достаточно весомая, но точно не единственная. Мне кажется, что есть взаимосвязь в обе стороны, начиная от истории, культуры, традиций и, соответственно, языка. И особенно в классической русской литературе, где 99% - это философская трагедия. Я даже согласен с автором ролика, что большая часть школьников не читают русскую классику на 100%, как и я в свое время, но, повзрослев, большинство возвращаются к прочтению этой классики, а некоторые, кто читал в школе, делают это для переосмысления в взрослом возрасте. Это я к тому, что это довольно правдивое высказывание, что в России на сложные темы готовы философствовать все, от дворника до депутата, особенно на кухнях с друзьями)) Я последнее время стал много читать, причем по системе, миксуя русскую литературу, иностранную литературу и научную, так вот, может, это предвзято, но русская литература как будто бы сложнее и глубже, и точно более трагична, эмоциональна и, к сожалению, практически без «хэппи эндов», что иногда даже раздражает.
Thank you, this video was very interesting! The clarity of how you and some other Russians I have listened to express themselves is amazing to me. I never thought that a language itself might have limitations or provide better expression. I always thought it's my inability to express myself. I like that the structure of the sentences in the Russian language seem very condensed. It seems to me that you need only half the words to express something in Russian compared to saying the same thing in English
@@LW62FL Russians are going through the darkness of pagan centuries, Russians are going through a host of defeated enemies, Russians are going, liberating the Third Rome, Russians are going to the Heavenly Jerusalem. p.s The song is pretty stupid, superficial and has no cultural value. The lyrics are pretty crappy.
@@Luorawetlan I am not certain as to what song you are referring? I am speaking of a movie made in the US, with the opening lines in Russian, which I have never seen translated online. Basically, a Russian sub runs aground on an island and in the beginning the submariners are wondering what to do: this part isn't tranlated. It's a slapstick comedy made with Russian speaking actors, with the title based on American Paul Revere's message to villagers during the American Revolution. It's funny and has a good message. Respectfully.
What a great video. My grandparents were native Russian speakers and I spent a lot of time with them. They had colorful aphorisms and sayings (in English) that I loved. I always thought that I was only getting about 75% of what they were really trying to convey and that it would be better if I understood Russian.
BTW Lex on his channel has a playlist with episodes DUBBED to Russian, like Kevin Spacey, Elon, Dana White, etc. Just press the Settings cog > Audio Track > Russian. Could help you learn Russian if you need, guys.
Interesting, but I think there is some idealisation going on here. The Russians are always telling us that only they have true душа (soul). We cannot move the words around in English as in Russian, but we do have workarounds to change emphasis, e.g. 'It's you that I love' etc. Also, a far greater variety of verb forms (continuous, pluperfect etc) than they do. So there!!!
you are not exactly right about "far greater variety of verb forms". There are Russian analogs for many English tenses but they are made differently. For example, by using prefixes. Compare "делать" and "сделать". The prefix 'c' adds Perfect tense meaning to the verb. Your mention of Pluperfect is interesting, as it actually highlights a limitation of English in back-in-time referencing: you can't do it in more than two steps. The reason is an absolute time referencing. In Russian language, you attach an action time to the timestamp of a previously mentioned action. From that perspective, you can do infinite amount of time referencing steps, and the Russian language then has an infinite amount of tenses if you would try to express them in terms of English language.
English speakers seem to russians as soulless mainly because of our difference in expressing and describing emotions/experiences. It's like we see one more color that makes huge difference in our perception. We don't have that impression about speakers of languages that we don't know.
@@yyyy12344it's a difference in cultures. the western culture is more pragmatic and materialistic. although I must say that the new generation of people in Russia is more individualistic than the previous one
Russians always do that: boasting about their imaginary advantages. (I know because I was born and grew up there) And yes - English verb tense system is way more efficient.
Very fun episode, subject dear to me - enjoying the quirks of the languages and the expression power. I don't know much about Russian language, but I know that many great Finnish writers (say for example music artist's lyricists) were fans of Russian literature and having read some Dostojevski, it was on another level of deep thinking. It wasn't pushed to you as deep thinking, it was more like the way of dialogue and descriptions that made you think it says more about society, cultural things and personalities than seems on the surface. In Dostojevski's work (even translated in Finnish) you can admire the way he uses language and expresses things, how he makes people phrase their language. It has some of that similar fanciness of speech as Edgar Allan Poe's works do, the "old way of speaking" where the characters are like singing birds when they speak. They don't just state their business, they treat their words like art and their speech as something to demonstrate their creativity and ability to think, they're poetic in their expressions. I think Fridman's words "everyone from athletes to plumbers is philosophical" catches the characters too. And the more I think about it, some ~century old Finnish literature also had that, the characters, even peasants had some beauty to their vocal expression. And the wordplays in multiple different ways is also what I most enjoy in Finnish just as well as Lex and you imply you can do in Russian, or even dropping unnecessary words. You really struggle to do that in English and if you manage to make a little bit of wordplay from interpreting a common phrasing differently with another context, interpreting it perhaps literally, the English speakers are struck in awe that they never thought about it. It's also fantastic when you can switch the word order of the sentence freely in language to emphasize different things, how you're not strictly limited to the standard like in English. I almost regularly make grammatically incorrect sentences when speaking to friends in English, because I use words like "even" etc in different places than grammatically correct, to imply the same effect as in Finnish, shifting the emphasis. By purpose, not by accident, I don't like the idea that it's not dynamic for function. And I fully resonate with the thought of not being able to express emotions as well in English, despite having talked in English with some international friends since teenager. The emotions really don't matter in English if you ever think about it. People say "love" all the time when they speak of the smallest bit of positivity. Saying "I love you" means nothing in English, people say it to everyone all the time. In Finnish you might struggle to say that even to your family, you would say that to your significant other and become really serious, when you perhaps want to marry them. Similarly to "hate" when they speak of smallest bit of negativity. I think other languages use far wider spectrum regularly. I do believe English does have the spectrum in between but the language has evolved to the extremes due to the American culture itself. One curious thing is also how the company you spend your time in and what you do, can greatly affect your ability to express things. At some point I noticed I was repeating the same topics so often with the same people that I had started to struggle with more complicated expressions and talking about other things. I was shocked when I thought if I could even say the same thing I said regularly in some other way and the simple brutal expression annoyed me a lot, it didn't have personality. And then there's books like Mihail Bulgakov's Master & Margarita, or like it's titled in Finland "Satan arrives in Moscow", which is one of the best books I've read and transformed my life in some way. It was so painful yet beautiful at the same time, perhaps it spoke deeply about the passions of Russian people, but it resonated a lot with the Finnish mentality as well. That melancholic beauty. And everything about it was so magical, but also it had some deep message baked into the madness. It had justice too. And let's be fair, even in Finland where people supposedly have good education, we read some fairly inconsequential books most of the time in school (some get to read classics and important works but it's not standardised what you get to read) and the assignments always end up with people googling the summary on the back of the book or someone's summary of the book in case you're being asked about the book you didn't read. If we read Dostojevski (which would be a huge challenge for most, I read a lot of books when I was younger and when I started Dostojevski, it was exhausting, it was a chore to get through Crime and Punishment) and had to analyse the book afterwards, were challenged to think about what it wanted to say in between the lines, that would've been extremely developing understanding of literature skills and new perspectives on life. I respect people who are able to conjure interesting but still understandable ways to express mundane things, because mundane things get repeated A LOT and it's always the same content, same words, same expressions. What I still lack is the ability to express things concisely, which is what I admire in some people. The ability to use less words than it takes to describe the thing yet still have more meaning and implications injected into those words than just normally expressing it. It really is a sign of a well-spoken person. But I also appreciate a bit wordy, poetic ways to say things, building up a bit of a story around what you want to say. And continuing on that thought, I'm a bit saddened that modern day (at least in Finland and seemingly not in English speaking countries) no longer values literacy in terms of being able to use the language correctly, getting the punctuation and words right, the little rules that make the language special but also more coherent to read. And it's a concerning thing in terms of social interactions as well, people can no longer distinguish different types of texts, opinion pieces from facts, sarcasm from serious words, reading between he lines. There's not as much appreciation towards well-spoken people anymore either. You might have started to see it in political figures as well in some places where it's enough to shout nonsensical words and things instead of speaking well. What's fun though is that I just read that even now with the borders closed, many young Russian teens want to come to Finland for high school and many stay for further studies and to work. Up to 25% of the eastern border high school students can be Russian now. Some of them have had for example their grandma live in the area or they just fall in love with the country. Some of them said in an interview that what they really liked coming to Finland was that nobody looked at them and judged them based on what they look like or where they come from or who they were, that people judge them based on who they are. They learn the language surprisingly fast compared to many other people who first start learning Finnish (perhaps it's exactly the challenging nature of the Russian early school system and having to read difficult texts) which is supposedly really difficult language. They don't speak the language perfectly but they express their thoughts well and you can hear that Russian structure affects the way they speak Finnish, but the benefit of Russian language (the little I know of it) is that it's so straight forward and logicla in some sense that their message gets communicated properly even with mistakes, which can be the opposite with people from elsewhere - where their mistakes make the meaning change when they try to form the sentence from another perspective. Aside literature and melancholy, another thing I really enjoy about Russian culture is the love for judo and weightlifting (olympic). Both have become my great interests and it seems that day by day I share more common things with Russian people (obviously not everyone is into these things so it's a bit of a generalisation to say Russian people regarding that). It really is true that you can technically learn the language wherever, whenever, but you really know the language only if you spend time with people natively speaking that language. Russian would have an endless list of ways to "properly" express things and phrases that reflect the Russian way of thinking and what's common that you never knew without spending time with Russian content. And I suppose that's true to all languages, there's rules and then there's how people break the rules and you have to learn how to break the rules like a native and how to adjust the rules in every day speech. Let alone dialects. You can learn all you want and make technically correct sentences that still aren't how people speak the language. Which you said at the end too. I think there's some rules of thumb about "if you can do this in language, you know the language" like being able to joke in that language, being able to express your personal feelings in that language and making wordplays in that language. You will feel like an outsider if you don't have access to those things.
15:49 That is definitely NOT a drop in intonation, it's a raise, since it's a question. The raise isn't as big as in English questions but it's still a raise. If it dropped, it would sound as an affirmative sentence.
Автор этого видеоролика просто замечательно говорит по-английски, имеет неплохой словарный запас в американском английском, да, есть немножечко акцент, но я считаю что просто 90%. Я переехал в США когда мне было 23 года и я точно могу сказать что после 17 лет очень тяжело приобрести хороший акцент в английском языке, ну я не считаю это проблемой потому что Accent это очень личное и индивидуальная черта каждого человека и лично я горжусь свои акцентов
A few thoughts on this. In my opinion, grammatical cases and free word order don’t make significant differences between these languages. I agree that the diminutive forms of Russian nouns can make the language more emotional when used, but aside from that, there isn't a big difference. From the opposite perspective, nothing actually prevents you from expressing deep, philosophical ideas in Russian. In conclusion, I don't believe one language is inherently more emotional, melancholic, or better suited for discussing technical or philosophical topics. I think it’s more related to the fact that Lex had to leave Russia and its cultural environment, which now feels distant and melancholic to him. I’m a native Latvian speaker with good knowledge of Russian and English. I'm speaking from the perspective of someone for whom both of these languages are foreign and learned later in life. Latvian actually has a similar grammatical structure to Russian, with free word order, grammatical cases, and the ability to use diminutive forms for most nouns. So, I’m quite familiar with these linguistic features. Regarding Lex's Russian, I believe he spoke more Russian in his 100th episode with his dad. which was for some reason later removed. As far as I remember his Russian is pretty good, but you can easily sense an accent in his speech.
Your comment should be on the top, I agree with you. The grammatical cases are really what make the Russian and other similar languages so difficult and complex. Lex Fridman is being pompous and tendentious with these comments, nothing new... I'm from Bulgaria - we use the Cyrillic alphabet but we got rid of the grammatical cases around the time of our independence from the Ottomans. The language is expressive still and has its own quirks. The grammatical cases are just a rule and a tedious and unnecessarily difficult one at that, to be honest. The language is a tool to express yourself and every language has its own rules to achieve the same goal. I don't like these generalizations from people like Lex Fridman, wrapping it up with some sort of mysticism for the westerners.
Russian is most melodic among Slavic languages like Italian among Roman languages, Polish is sharp with strong emphasis like Spanish among Roman languages, Cech, Slovak and Croatian have pleasant and subtle sound like Portuguese among Roman languages. In terms of grammar and structure all Slavic languages are very similar, easy to learn if your native language is from Slavic family.
@@SM-ef7ypSerbian and Croatian are same thing mostly. Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian... Its mostly accents that tell the difference... But in songs even that can be less apparent or non apparent
@@ama-giiI kinda doubt Ukrainian has a "Nordic" touch and that Russian has "Mongol" residues. Because the most "nordicized" parts were around Novgorod and also Archangelsk, where in dialects there is sensible Germanic (Scandinavian) as well as Uralic influence. It would make sense to say that Russians have Uralic residues not Mongolian. Uralic speaking peoples were assimilated, while Mongols appeared here as heavy cavalry and army leaders when attacking Rus' cities, going back to their steppes afterwards and leaving a Baskak and small retinues in the biggest cities to supervise the princes. The genetic data also shows noticeable Uralic admixtures in Russians (around 20% in male lineage) but not Mongolian. And among Ukrainians there would be more pronounced steppe influence than the Nordic. And if you're talking about the languages then I'm completely at loss what's Nordic about Ukrainian and Mongolic about Russian language-wise.
@@mihanich oh yeah, you're right actually. thanks for the rectification. i had watched a video which claimed that the ukrainian "г" came from nordic /h/ like "гарно" or even typical ukrainian names such as "Олег" or "Глiб". that was false
He's an engineer dude, that's what we do. After we are "accomplished" in engineering we turn to philosophy. And I think here Lex was in the beggining of his journey.
He's an engineer dude, that's what we do. After we are "accomplished" in engineering we turn to philosophy. And I think here Lex was in the beggining of his journey.
Привет друг, есть ещё Kazhun Jiles, она утверждает что много лет назад сама в одиночку изучила русский язык, и довольно хорошо говорит. Работает дальнобойщицей в США.
I remember there was excelent comment under that interview between Fridman and Buterin - "it sounded like two AI language models were talking to each other". And if you know russian, it is exactly how they both sounded - on paper it is russian, though every word sounds a bit off.
It is common for most Slavic languages. It is property of a language and has quite a deep impact on a way people interact and form relationship with each other. I have found the same for the Hungarian language.
English and Russian languages can mostly express each other, because they were born at a similar time and in similar conditions and among common similar concepts
Isn't that a big mistake, deciding what you think of a person and then ignoring anything they say regardless of what they say? Well, maybe this was shallow thinking by Lex, but he seemed to still agree with Lex's thoughts on the language.
Shallow is a great word to describe him. He is supposed to be "smart" cause he teaches AI in MIT and stuff. But at the same time I'm always surprised how naive he is when he speaks about politics and other stuff outside IT.
As someone who left Russia at the same age as Lex, I relate to his experience with accents and nuanced expression. However, there's a crucial aspect of the Russian language we must address: the rise of "Newspeak." Echoing Orwell's "1984," this manipulative language distorts reality, particularly regarding the war in Ukraine. Euphemisms and controlled narratives are weaponized to manipulate public perception and silence dissent. This alarming trend demands attention. Understanding "Newspeak" is crucial for anyone engaging with the Russian language and its impact on the world today. Cheers & Миру Мир!
He sounds drunk and depressed. Actually, I have no idea who he is, since I'm not American, but Mediterranean. I speak 4 languages fluently and learning Russian for the past 3 years. It's a very difficult, but extremely beautiful language and very dense, meaning it can contain a lot of meaning within just a few words. I'm struggling to understand the hints and word puns often used in this language, as they're often rooted in idioms and historical or cultural references
As soon as someone is calm, collected, thoughtful, not pushy, he's not normal? What twisted values. No wonder when you're Mediterranean, where everybody is chaotic, stressed, obnoxious, pushy, and 0% thoughtful. This world desperately needs exactly people like him. I bet you just hate the fact he had anything good to say about Russia, though.
Fascinating topic. I've often wondered about this very thing. Currently reading Dostoevsky (Demons), and I can't help but wonder if my English translation is (naturally) a sissy version of the Russian text. Much respect. 🙏 Thanks for making this video!
I've read one Turkish classic in Russian. And since I speak both languages on a native level, I can tell you there's huuuuuuge difference between original and interpretation. Interpretations are naturally adopted to another culture. Since then I try to read originals. But I had to read Dumas in Russian cos I don't speak French. Of course I missed a lot. But one thing is for sure, I could feel the admiration Russian interpreters felt for everything French and Dumas specifically
The Demons/Devils is a book I finished about three months ago. Very hard going and the two villainous heroes only appear halfway through. FD was definitely a great genius.
there is also a lot of a difference between original "crime and punishment" and it's polish translation we read in school, polish version is just wack and bland
Thanks for the video. ❤ I’m sending it to my American friend who knows some Russian. I’m fluent in Russian (as a native speaker), English and Chinese. I agree with Lex’s perspective on languages and how you experience life through their usage. Your whole personality expressiveness varies depending which language you are speaking now.
Speaking poetically in english is degraded these days. Read some writings from Thomas Jefferson or George Washington. Or even just letters written 80 years ago. People talked more eloquently. No one likes to speak with expressiveness anymore.
Russian is definitely much more expressive than English. I often wish that my American friends would study some Russian just to be able to enjoy the beauty of the language.
What does this even mean? I I've worked with russian speakers for years to the point my russian is likely far better than Lex's. No particular expressiveness that I've noticed though. What I've noticed is the language sounds unpleasant and stupid most of the time. Also, they hardly have any original words - every second word is stolen from either turks, Fenno-Ugrics, English, German, French, Tatar or Mongol.
@@Bac4-qu6qg7sk4v, same with English. English words are 50-70% borrowed. And Russian is more expressive at least due to fact of the opportunity to change word order thereby changing slightly the meaning which is not the case in English
He grew up in a Russian speaking home, even lived in Russia til he was 13, so of course that’s his emotional language. Languages use different tools to express the same meanings. English has cases, too, expressed in a number of ways. Etc. Does he really not know all the same things can be expressed in English? Well he’s a science tech guy. Regarding his sight reading in Russian, even people who grew up speaking it may not have grown up reading it.
Thanks Pal, very deep feeling in the different context. Surely, very glad I have watched this clip. I somehow feel it when I watched BBC documentary -- The Art of Russia, British art historian Andrew Graham Dixon-- said "It totally visceral and utterly emotional....."
Indeed, your observation is accurate. Russian is a synthetic language, where words serve as a base to which various prefixes and suffixes are attached, forming complex grammatical constructions. In contrast, English is an analytical language, relying on grammatical words and strict word order to convey meaning. While Russian lends itself beautifully to poetry, English excels in technical precision and stands out for its flexibility and richness
When you count by the number of words, this is true in most cases. However, Russian words often tend to be longer than English words. So, in general, if you write the same text in English and in Russian, the Russian version tends to be longer in terms of the number of letters used, even if the total word count is smaller.
Eh, not always. I've noticed playing military games, strstegy games that when saying callouts, often English gets the point of the call-out across faster. It mostly just has to do with the word order of the sentence or the length of words. Yes, both English and Russian use the same word order (Subject Verb Object). But in english it is much more fixed, and only changes for a couple exceptions. In Russian though, it is much more flexible and arguably more complex. Also, for certain phrases/things/objects etc. In English it is just 1 or 2 words. In Russian it can be 2-5 sometimes. And like someone else mentioned, sometimes just the often longer length of Russian words means it takes longer to get the point across. Whereas with english & the typically short words + word order, my teamates know what im saying before I even finish my sentence. Whereas sometimes in Russian, the sentence will not make sense or have meaning until I fully complete the sentence. On the contrary. Russian does have a LOT of examples where there is just 1 word to say the same thing that english needs 3-5 words for. Which always feels awesome and makes me wish english had that too. I still think in general, you can say more with fewer words in Russian. But is is NOT always the case. Sometimes english is "faster" or more "efficient"? Now, imagine if everyone knew 2 languages and combined them based on practically and getting the point across faster 🤯. It would be like a super language.
Very interesting. My sense is that is a pretty typical way that Russians think about their language in relation to English, and it certainly seems that poetry, and poetically expressive language, is more important for most Russians than for the typical American. Yet I don’t think that English is actually less expressive than Russian-it’s just that the expressiveness is achieved less through grammar and more through vocabulary, idioms, emphasis. Take “I love you”… First, English speakers do often omit the “I” - “love you”. Or even “love ya”… Both suggesting less formality. Or “it’s you I love” Or “oh I love you” (stressing the momentariness of the feeling) “I love you too” (I.e. I’m saying I love you because you said you love me). Grammatical inversion can be achieved through subtle shifts in emphasis. And then there are all the other words for love-including cute words-“fancy”. “Adore” “smitten” - all which tease playfully at a declaration of love. Or just “I really like you” - “I like him, but I don’t like like him”
I believe that both languages are equally suitable to express feelings and pain although each of them is doing it using different means. As regards Lex Fridman, he left Russia when he was a teenager and is therefore not able to appreciate the full colour of the Russian language and his Russian vocabulary is rather limited.
Yeah I totally agree with this video, as a foreigner in Russia who has been learning Russian for less than a year, my Russian is far from perfect.. but even if I don't make any mistakes in grammar or pronunciation my friends still can hear my foreign accent.. I am very curious about this and I keep asking my friends to tell me how I sound to a native, what I came to conclude is that ударение, and where you stress the letters in the word is super important for a good accent, I didn't pay much attention to the ударение when I started learning, now I try to improve
Spanish is my native tongue, English I was raised with, Russian is what I study-I find Spanish the richest of all. The figures of speech & conversational language is far more intimate-this is my biased opinion, as is the biased opinion of Lex. His attempt of proving one language more sentimental or expressive than another is laughable. Naturally we will prefer what is innate to us. ¡infórmate un poco Lex, y luego hablas! 😂
5:14 in the Arabic language as well, we have a saying "خير الكلام ما قل ودل" which means "the best speech is the brief and informative" But modern Arabic is deviating from that because of the effects of other languages and cultures on Arabic which is met with a lack of care from the media and the institutions
Crazy when two UA-cam channels I like cross streams like this. Like, when I listen to Lex I am in a completely different frame of mind than when I listen to Be Fluent.
What is being said at 9:18 is false. English allows for modifications of word order away from the standard order. It is just that people who were not raised in English culture (all the songs, poems and novels) are not aware of the expressive possibilities. So misinformed is the dude in video this.
@@Kultus1337 It's a blanket statement that was cultivated by propaganda. It's like saying "USA is the best country on earth". Lex Friedman falls into the same pit by saying that "Russian is more emotional". It is not, because you can't compare mother tongues. The language you grew up with will always seem "more emotional".
Please read the Culture Map....American English is a very low context language in comparison to Russian. There are other high civilisation high context languages, Russian, Chinese, Japanese....You can also use "Ya tebya lyjubyu" or I love you in the same order with a different meaning via intonation or emphasis.....It's awesome! :))) Just imagine, that you also can use facial expressions in Russian.....so even without changing the word order OR emphasis but only through your face you can change the meaning. :) But he misses one point. Lex is saying "How did your Russian roots helped it?". This is a very self assertive american way to speak. In Russian you would say "Did your Russian roots help you in any way?"
For Lex to say that English language is more ''simplistic'' compare to the Russian language is not true at all, English is also very rich language if not even more richer on words than the Russian language, maybe in Russian language you can be more playful with your words but definitely not a more simplistic.
Fyodor my friend! I noticed when you said literature numerous times in this video, you pronounced the more like [lɪʔɹ] (most noticeable at 4:23), whereas in American English we say it more like [lɪɾɹ] and phonemically we perceive it more like /lidr/
Interesting hearing you break down my observation of the nuances even of something like “I love you” … I was struck while I lived over there that the language had so much flexibility .. makes it a bit difficult to learn ha
@@elkigirl123 I definitely don’t think anyone is shorted the ability to express deep emotional thought because of their language. However, there are some interesting nuances in various languages that in certain context allow for an added richness. For example, when I was with the Evenki people, I noticed in their language when they lived in the woods they had incredibly unique and detailed ways of explaining directions through the forest and referencing specific animals that would be incredibly hard to get across in a different language. For example, they had a word for the type of forest where you see a lot of red moss on the ground and a bunch of tamarack trees growing, and they had another word for a different sort of forest so when you were explaining ways to get from point a to point B through the woods, you could in a much more accurate and nuanced way give directions in a way that was hard to do in English or Russian. Just an example. When you know a couple languages to you often recognize certain words in one language that really nailed a that is hard to convey in another. I always feel like English is lacking a good word for Наглый as an example 🤷🏽♂️
@@hobojordo 😆 “When you know a couple languages?“ You assume other people don’t know a couple languages? That’s so funny lol. Anyway all languages have vocabulary specific to their setting and different idiomatic expressions etc, goes without saying. One language has more terms for their most common trees and others more descriptors for moors or heaths or deserts or fish or football moves or worshipping in their religion etc. But this mythical belief in one language being inherently more nuanced or more spiritual or more logical, or about only being able to say I love you multiple ways in Russian but not English etc lol. Just false and a cultural construct. “Added richness?” 😂 ps doesn’t наглый mean “impudent” (“cheeky” if you’re British)- some other words: brazen, shameless, boldfaced, many other possibilities and constructions in English depending on your exact meaning/context I would think. The word actually sounds maybe a bit Germanic derived to me but no mention of that when I did a quick look at etymology, maybe further back or maybe not at all.🤷🏻♀️
What he says about pre college American education is true. I once helped a friend get prepared for the ACTs, so i downloaded a mock test and started going through it. The level is ridiculous, i could nail 80% of the test with no prep. To pass the university entry bar here i'd need to bust my ass for at least one year before the exam. And keep in mind im from Brazil, education here is pretty bad, i can only wonder what taking the ACT feels like for a japanese person 😂.
Ну, мужик, и глубоко же ты копнул, я тебе скажу! Классное видео, и ты здорово раскрыл свое видение вопроса бытия билингвов 😊👍🤝. Вопрос выражения эмоций проверяется легко - на каком языке ты выругаешься, когда ударишь молотком по пальцу 😁.
не думаю что это работает. попробуй общаться несколько дней на чужом языке, ты начнешь на нём думать автоматом. Но, справедливости ради теорию с молотком по пальцу проверить не случалось
Total hubris. So many people make the mistake of thinking that because YOU as a non-native speaker of a language cannot perform a function of communication, it must be the language's inherent brokenness and flaws lol. Definitely not possible that you haven't developed advanced enough proficiency to do that function in the language yet! It's also dehumanizing to the speakers of that other language to think they cannot express deep feelings in their language (implying they must not even have the same range of human emotion you have).
He didn't say that, he said there's more to grammar and sound of words that may carry the meaning, which enriches the way how to express something specific or poetical, and there's more space "in between" words that are carrying the meaning and due to harder education most of people get it, which enriches the everyday communication.
@fruitfulvine222 Damn, how "smart" are you? I speak Russian on an intermediate level, English on an Advanced level, and I agree with him. And I don't think of my native language the way he thinks about his, I feel no connection to it at all, so it has nothing to do with what your native language is. You can be objective about your own things, too, you know.
But it's true tho. You have to know both languages to make comparison. English just doesn't click most of the times when you know how things can be different with other language.
@@vitamartinenko4747 имеет. просто она омофонична. берем любую тематическую глагольную основу с "д" перед темой: породити, поводити, победити и спрягаем по стандартной парадигме порожу, повожу, побежу. так же хня с якобы отсутствием полной парадигмы у класть кладу ложить ложу. или отсутствием грамматического согласования местоимения их ихний ихняя ихнему ихней. последний кейс не столь очевиден, но, если слово выступает определением при существительном, то именно определение обязано указывать (определять) род, число и падеж. так образуются определенные (по школьному "полные") прилагательные и местоимения. все они прирастают указательной энклитикой *jь
@@vitamartinenko4747 ни одиною же си орѹжъѥ погѹби· да не нагъ обрѧщешисѧ· и на брани побѣженъ бѹдеши· орѹжъѥ бо наше ѥсть тѣло а дш҃а храбъръ· оже прилежить къ трѣбованию [Изборник 1076 г.]
Interesting that he compares Russian education to American education. He's probably correct, but the fact that he comes from an intellectual family, he probably has a biased perspective. It's possible that many Russians are exposed to hardcore readings at a young age but did not absorb it. This is also true in China. Chinese students are exposed to Classical Chinese from a young age. This is like learning Latin or Greek that used to be core languages in European (and American) liberal arts education. Not all Chinese become good at reading Classical Chinese.
о да! И сѐ размысливъ, ѹстро́и зелїє на ѹбииство, єгоже не тръпѧше сѹдина мѣдѧнаа, ни стьклѧ́наа, ни глиненаа, но̀ абиє рассѣда́шесѧ. въ ѡловѧнъ ѹбо съсудъ в̾ложи зе́лиє антипа́тръ, и покрывъ дрѹгымъ сѹ́дномъ железнымъ, и вда́ сн҃ѹ своємѹ, и посла въ вавилонъ къ илѹ, чръпцю алекса́н̾дра цр҃ѧ, съгл҃авсѧ̀ с ни́мъ ѡ лю́тости зѣ́лиѧ и смрътоно́снѣи си́лѣ.
He hadn't internalized the word корни, and I believe the second question was read from the paper. But I'd also say that's just his quirky style of speaking, as he often does unusual pauses in English as well. I'd say he's always thinking really deeply about his thoughts when speaking, so sometimes it doesn't come out smooth.
He sounds a little stoned but could just be because he’s kind of a science/tech type guy (I read he also does martial arts, hopefully not too many head blows.) Or maybe he was jet lagged or something. I don’t know, never listened to him before.
I've read Russian literature and speak both languages fluently, and hot take Russian literature is not great. And russian language is not any better at emotional expression than English. There's a type for people saying things like that.
Exactly. All languages are equally expressive and work just as well as each other. It’s so silly when people make these kinds of characterizations about languages lol. You see so much ignorant language nationalism on the internet unfortunately.
PS when I responded to your comment there was a typo at first lol. Autocorrect turned “when people do that” or “when you see people do that” into “when you people do that”! 😂 That was not my meaning.
Here's thoughts from 100% native russian speaker: "твои русские корни помогли тебе?" (have your russian roots helped you?) - Technically it is correct, buuuut... The sentence consists of 2 logical 'cores': 1 - the guy has russian roots. 2 - did those help him? Having this in mind one could build russian phrase way more natural if was divided into two separate sentences: "У тебя русские корни. Тебе это как-то помогло?" (You've got russian root. Was it helpful in any way?) or "У тебя русские корни. Тебе это упростило жизнь [при изучении языка]?" (You've got russian root. Had it made your life easier [while learning russian]?) You see, I can't tell for english, since I am not that good in it, but in russian you would try to cut your thought into shorter sentences, at least when it's some common talking. Longer, sophisticated sentences are used in literature, or some official documents. So when you try to talk like Lex does in that case, you sound pretty strange even though the phrase was 100% correct in terms of rules of russian language. And yeah, the intonation... It's giving Lex out completely. It sounded like foreigner reading it from a note. Absolutely unmistakable. If I didn't know better I would've thought he was an actor reading his script written in russian (even though he doesn't have an obvious accent).
I disagree with him entirely. Everyone disparages English because everyone _thinks_ they know it. I've heard the same thing from people who speak so many languages. Arabs, French, Russians, Hispanics - everyone says, "English is so simple, it can't express deep meaning. [My native language] is just so much deeper and more emotional!" Really, it's either because A. As a second language, you don't know English as well as maybe you think you do. Or B. It's because as a second language, you don't have the same emotional connection you have with English as you have with your mother tongue. Of course you're going to think your own native language, the one you grew up with from childhood, is "more expressive" or "deeper" than something you started learning in your teens or even later. For people who say, "English has no nuance, it's too straightforward and literal," here's something from Game of Thrones: a character says to another, "Do you want to be a queen?" She responds, "No... I want to be _the_ queen." Try and translate that into Russian.
Agreed. I speak both English and Dutch natively. Whilst I moved to the Netherlands at young agee and was completely educated in Dutch, English is my mother tongue and I struggle to express the same depth of feeling in Dutch, whilst logically it is no problem.
-- тоже хочешь быть королевой? -- нет... хочу быть само́й королевой. you don't know enough Russian to be a translator. what is the difference between са́мой and само́й? what about definite adjectives that have an indicative enclitic, in fact a definite article in the postposition? what is the difference between добр and добрый? the pronoun *jь only represented in the inflected forms, which have often become part of a suppletive paradigm, and are combined with a nominative form from an unrelated root (*onъ or *tъ).
@@ShyguyMM Wrong. "Хочу быть самой королевой," means "Wanna be the queen herself" (since "Я" is missing). "I myself want to be a queen" would be "Я сама хочу быть королевой"
Hey! I was wondering if you could make a video on Russian vocabulary for a wedding? I am going to be attending a friends wedding and would love some russian insight on what people say and what some vocabulary words for this would be
I lived in Moscow for some years. I noticed no talk of Pushkin the greatest. French was the in thing he put Russian back in poetry and literature. Lets not forget he was of African and Russian roots.
In summary I think you can describe English as being a very precise language thanks to its huge vocabulary making extremely good at technical instructions, scientific research and legal documents. Russian on the other hand is extremely flexible allowing you to add a lot of nuances and enables poetic and philosophical thought. Both languages are perfectly capable at expressing either case, but these are their specific strengths. Also it’s a misnomer to say that English is inflexible, you can change the word order, but you have change the structure of the sentence to do so. For example “I love you” but you can also say “you are the one I love” or you can say “you are loved by me” or you can say “you are my love” etc.
Of course, as someone mentioned in this section, we can only compare when we speak and are exposed to those we compare, and sure enough languages ARE different, with its comparative strengths and weaknesses (that's one optics). And if I'm monolingual my language is cosmos to me which expresses everything I need (untill I discover other boundaries hence the notion of lacunas)
Everyone always says their native language can express more emotion than English because doesn't have a bunch of cases and conjugations. I don't think I'll ever understand that argument.
It's not so much cases and conjugations (although it obviously adds some complexity with all the consequences) but rather suffixes and the mentioned flexibility (not randomness) of word order, I'd say, if I'm to defend that POV which I think although exaggetated still stands some ground
...основная цель языка - дать возможность кому-то что-то сообщить, и каждый язык развивался по-своему. Ошибочно говорить, что один язык превосходит другой, но если сравнивать, то английский - это язык технологического, художественного, гуманистического, медицинского, биологического, кинематографического, модного и т. д. прогресса, причем настолько, что другие языки вынуждены перенимать неологизмы, созданные в английском языке (особенно выходцы из США). Мы знаем, что Россия - отсталая страна, почти третьего мира, валовой национальный продукт которой меньше, чем, например, у штата Калифорния. Английский - красивый, выразительный и звучный язык, на нем говорят во всем мире. Везде песни поются на английском, а не на русском языке. Если сравнивать, то по красоте испанский, французский и итальянский языки значительно превосходят русский... и на этом список преимуществ не заканчивается... Большинство тенденций в моде, технологиях, искусстве и т. д. создаются в США и Великобритания или другие страны Западной Европы... Россия только копирует, вставляет и потребляет... она не вносит почти ничего значимого...
I was born and raised in Central Asia. I moved to United States when I was 23 now I’m 38 for my understanding American English is a bit simpler compared to English from Great Britain. In my opinion, Britain English is very poetic We’re just not using much words from old English.
Russian language is extremely rich and emotionally diverse. It has words that can make you wonder if feelings they bring are possible to really exist and be expressed in words..And the answer is is "yes". I am Bulgarian and our language is the same, unique in richness and very difficult too...🙂
For most English speakers I’d say they can’t express how they feel other than “good or bad”. If you use the full English language which has the most words out of any language you’d be getting somewhere.
I came to America as a teen and went to 6th grade, the MATH in my school here in the states was stuff I learned in like SECOND GRADE back in Russia. I thought it was crazy!
Я тебе прошу, Мокші є мокші, сірі та вбогі. Така доля
Because the education is very different in US - it's much more specialized, and it't much more like college. For example If you excel in math, you will move to Advanced Placement and learn higher level stuff. But by default the overall program is held back until much later. And then in college everything kicks in full force.
@@opart I actually prefer it in the US. Former communist countries absolutely ruin children's minds with all the unnecessary information. Let people specialize and don't bother them with things they don't care about.
@@opart Stop the cap 🧢 that’s only in high school and college
@@MassachusettsTrainVideos1136 AP classes start in middle school, 6 grade... But I guess that depends on the state.
Anyway, I went through Soviet/Russian education, and had experience with US education too.
They are pretty different, and there are pluses and minuses to both.
Everyone (including Lex) seem to always mention the same 2 writers Dostoevsky and Tolstoy as if there's no beauty in Derzhavin, Mandelstam, Yesinin, Akhmatova, Bryusov.
In this discussion the most interesting author is Nabokov. He wrote novels in Russian and English, are the books written in Russian more emotional, those in English with more emphasis on factuality?
@@SM-ef7yp That "russian is more emotional" is BS. I speak both languages fluently.
@@batner I have a same feeling as a native Polish speaker. The youngest generation is nowhere near the level of my parents’ emotionality, nostalgia, resentment when speaking the language. This focus on practical elements of the supposed English language truly is about the English in USA. South Africans, Scottish, Irish also can be natively English speakers but the mostly mentioned topics vary completely from Americans.
@@SM-ef7ypI agree about the younger generation but I think it is because they haven't experienced the repressions, martial law etc.
Because they're recognizable names to even the most cultured American, also pretty entry level literature for someone who wants to get into russian literature
I love this type of clip. Please, bring us more videos of this kind. They are really useful.
Russian is more succinct in fewer words, english is more detailed and technical.
@@mr.kinkade2049 Lol, any Russian would say otherwise :)
I was born in Russia, grew up in the States (lived there from 1986 to 1999), since 1999 I've been living in Russia, having spent so much time in both countries I've got a decent knowledge of both languages. And nowadays I don't even try to distinguish between them in terms of which is more poetic, versatile, which is easier to sound eloquent in. It's all very subjective and all people will see things very differently (for example - in my opinion the Russian language lends itself much better to sarcasm and satire than English, but that's just me, I could be wrong), so there's not much of a point in such analysis. All I can say is that I love both languages, English and Russian, they're both awesome and beautiful in their own way.
Russian language is immensely flexible which you should know by now. There's nothing subjective about that. It's just the way it is. I've been poking at different languages trying to learn something new. What I've realised is that in Russian one can replicate the structure of a sentence in any language. E.g. in English you're quite restricted with the order of parts of the sentence. More so in German. It's so strict your sentence must be solid from beginning to end. So when you translate a sentence from English to say Japanese most of the time you're going to have to change your sentence and only communicate information filtered from any details and nuances you might have wanted to communicate. It's much easier for Russian speakers because we can first form our thought in Russian and then translate it as close as possible to the original. These things make Russian superior to most languages in my opinion. It simply allows you to understand other people better and to communicate your thoughts clearer. Not to mention that we think in the language that we carry mostly. I personally think in both English and Russian as a habit developed in the past to learn English as my second. However I revert to Russian every time when I struggle with forming my thoughts. Language is so important to our ability to think.
@@Mr440c 😂😂😂 Enjoy your superiority and thanks for the laughs.
@@elkigirl123 ignorance is bliss
Master Yoda would disagree with you. On a serious note, I am fairly fluent at both and find each has it’s own charm.
@@backtoussrsoviet5694 which both? I've mentioned 4 languages. And that realisation of mine I spoken of came when I started to try to learn different languages. Maybe you'd understand what I am talking about if you'd have done the same.
Actually, you can say very similar things in English with "I love you" as you can in Russian. You can say "I love you", "You, I love", "I love YOU", "Love you", etc. They all have slightly different meanings. Word accenting and pauses convey in speech what case markers do in Russian.
that thumbnail though😂
Right?! Teehee!
Russian is hard. From a Peace corps volunteer who lived in Kazakhstan.
Ain’t that the fucking truth 😂😂😂
It certainly is. Now try Arabic - it's a whole other level of pain. 😵💫
@@philipmulville8218 Ah hell naw, I love Arabic though
Not so hard. But it does make you think. Hm, maybe why they seem to have some of the most intelligent people...
As a speaker of both languages myself, I can say English is more “user friendly” if you want to quickly express something easily, kinda quickly get to the point and go on about your business.. It feels easier to express them in English Russian language however feels better for reading, or reading poems or stories, if you want to express or experience something deeper, more personal, something more interesting.. The better versions of books are better in Russian language between the two..
Best is to know both, though!
This is a great video. It really makes your channel more well-rounded. The conversation is interesting and as a Russian learner I've noticed these kinds of nuances (like English being a more logic-based language). I don't think any language is necessarily better at conveying emotion than another, they just do it and/or prioritize it differently. In English you can convey anything you want, providing you have a sufficient vocabulary or are willing to use an extra adjective or two.
Any of the world's highly developed languages will allow you to say everything you want, it is rather determined by literary abilities and the level of language proficiency. But each language has some specialization where it is especially good.
I know English much worse than Russian and my opinion is not objective enough. But it seems to me that English is especially good at describing actions, and Russian is good at describing objects and their states. English is good where unambiguity is needed, and Russian is good where adaptability is needed. Perfect Continuous puzzles Russian, although in fact Russian has the appropriate tools to say this, but it is more convenient in English. At the same time, Russian has an extremely developed mechanism for creating the necessary word form (most English speakers simply do not know how to use it in Russian) for the most accurate description of each property of any object. Descriptions of objects in English seem too general and imprecise to a Russian speaker.
It is more convenient to write laws in English, or a protocol of events. It seems more convenient to accurately describe a state of mind or just a stone in your hands in Russian.
@@АндрейНикитенко-ф4с You can't expect me to read all that...just joking. But yeah I agree with what you're saying. Some languages can certainly be more natural than others at conveying certain emotions or meanings or situations. That makes a lot of sense given their development stems from completely different societies. I guess my comment is just trying to distinguish that concept from what a language is capable of doing. Namely, calling out the people that say one is better than another.
I disagree with some of the ideas, as most of the conversation was just negative things (that are not true at all) about the heavenly English language, which is objectively the most practical and the most expressive language that has the most descriptive terms and more idioms and more slang and more base words than any other language, with over 1.5 million definitions / words, and, one could never express intricate ideas in Russian or in any other languages in a way that’s as detailed as it is in English, plus English is also objectively the easiest language to use and learn and speak and type on any device and memorize etc, which is also why the speaker used mostly English to express all those ideas 'gainst English, despite being a native speaker of Russian, which is kind of irønic, so if one is truly convinced that it is so easy to use Russian and express complex ideas in Russian, why not use Russian instead, and, re the word order, one can also use other word orders in English, so, i can say, thee I asked, or, thee asked I, even though most speakers would say, i asked you, or, i asked thee, but the other word orders can also be used, and they are used a lot in poems, and, re cases, every language has the four main cases nominative and accusative and dative and genitive, including English, as every language has a subject and a direct object and an indirect object and some sort of implied possession in the sentence, even when the language has fewer forms or only one form or only two forms or three forms, and, English has three forms for most pronouns (for example, i / he / they etc are the nominative forms, me / him / them etc are the accusative forms that are also used in dative, while my / his / their etc are the genitive forms) and two forms for each noun (for example, nest is the nominative form that’s also used in accusative and dative, while nest’s is the genitive form with the ‘s ending, and also for plural, nests in the first three cases and nests’ in genitive with the ‘ at the end) and one form for adjectives, and, one can also emphasize any word in a sentence in English in multiple ways, both in writing and when speaking, and one can also not use the pronouns in English, so, i can say, i went there, or, went there, or, ALREADY went there, or, WENT there, or, went THERE etc!
Besides being the easiest and most expressive language ever created, English a also a Germanic language, and Germanic languages are objectively the most poetic languages with the prettiest and most refined and most poetic and most modern and coolest words ever created and the coolest sounds, that have the best letter combinations and the prettiest word endings and the coolest sound combinations and pronunciation rules and sound patterns that sound and look very modern and cool and organized, whereas Russian and most other Slavic languages are more of an avrg or avrg-pretty language, because, even though they have a lot of pretty words, they also tend to have lots of words that aren’t pretty that have certain letter combinations and certain word endings that aren’t good and too many words with sh / ts / ch sounds, so they are kinda like the German of the Slavic languages, as German also has too many words with sh / ts / ch sounds, though Slovene and also Latvian and Latgalian have mostly pretty words, being the prettiest Slavic and mostly Slavic languages, but, the Norse languages and most other Germanic languages have almost only pretty words, so it’s not even easy to find a word that isn’t pretty in a Norse / Germanic language, being a perfect or almost perfect language, and they are among the greatest works of art of all time, including Norse and English etc, and, the Celtic languages are also comparable to the Norse / Germanic languages, as they are also super pretty and modern and poetic with gorgeous words, and, English is one of the prettiest and most poetic languages ever created, like Norse and Gothic and Icelandic and Faroese and Dutch and Norwegian and Danish and FornSvenska and Welsh and Breton and Cornish, so I can can write perfect lyrics in English etc!
I started learning some Russian because I like some songs with lyrics in Russian, but still, one cannot say that Russian is more expressive or more poetic than English, as it is totally not true, and, one isn't truly fluent or writer level in English if one doesn't know the fact that English has way more words and way more descriptive words than any other languages, so, just because one doesn't know the descriptive words yet and has a more limited vocab and cannot express very complex ideas in English yet, doesn't mean that English is not as expressive as Russian or other languages, and, one should also consider the fact that in Russian ppl don't even use the verb to be in present tense, so one says i here instead of i am here, which doesn't męik sense logically, so one should use words that mean am / are / is etc, such as yem / yest / ye etc, if one wants to express ideas better in Russian, but still, one could never express complex ideas better and very complex concepts in a more detailed way than in English, as the other languages don't have many of the words that mean many of the complex ideas and concepts and the descriptive terms that are very detailed, so many of the English descriptive words don't have a perfect translation in the other languages, like, English even has a name for every shade, not just for the main colors, and even has multiple terms to express a certain idea with different nuances, and, if one doesn't know at least one hundred thousand base words in English, one isn't truly fluent or writer level, as English has just so many words, compared to other languages, but luckily English words are the easiest to learn!
Спасибо. That was so interesting listening to both you and Lex!
Interesting conversation and analysis. I’m glad you decided to make this video.
Meh, I disagree with Lex. His bias is totally at play here. Our mother tongue is an inseparable part of us, like a body part, so much that we think/feel in our language. It's the language we grow up hearing our families speak as children, and therefore feel connected to in a deep deep way. I think that has a lot to do with his idea that Russian has emotion than English.
I agree with you, and disagree with him completely. Everyone disparages English because everyone _thinks_ they know it. I've heard the same thing from people who speak so many languages. Arabs, French, Russians, Hispanics - everyone says, "English is so simple, it can't express deep meaning. [My native language] is just so much deeper and more emotional!"
Really, it's either because A. As a second language, you don't know English as well as maybe you think you do. Or B. It's because as a second language, you don't have the same emotional connection you have with English as you have with your mother tongue. Of course you're going to think your own native language, the one you grew up with from childhood, is "more expressive" or "deeper" than something you started learning in your teens or even later.
@@ShyguyMM well said, couldn't agree more.
the reverse could be true though - kinda hard to be an objective person unless you grow up speaking both - but american english as used regularly is more simple objectively; this is because of how many people use it to communicate cross-culturally around the world. the fact that it’s the internet’s language probably made it even more manageable.
@@uservdhdunxinfstinf I would say it's irrelevant. Objectively, no human language is inherently "deeper," "more poetic," or "more emotional" than any other - although many people claim or imagine that they are. This is because we're all human, and ultimately we all want to express the same things.
Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder, but it's always a subjective estimate rather than something that can be objectively determined.
@@ShyguyMM that’s a nice thought but it’s actually been proven that language affects the way you think more than the other way around. this explains why mandarin and german speakers are more analytical than hawaiians and filipinos while the islanders tend to be happier and healthier for example
For people who learn in Russian, I wanna give you an advice. Guys Russian is really hard. My mother tongue is Russian back to my school for 11 grades. I’ve been learning Russian every day five days a week two classes a day for 11 years and I wasn’t the beststudent in the class. So be prepared it’s a long journey.
But most of the stuff that’s learned in school is essentially linguistics and has no bearing on the spoken or written language for the most part
What an amazing podcast !!! ❤
We always express ourselves better in the language we know best, no matter what the laguage is.
Man this is exactly what I was looking for, for my beginning to learning Russian :) thank you :)
Thanks for presenting this topic and I think you're doing wonderful. Pronunciation is difficult and I appreciate you spotting the particular sounds and sharing those sounds with us. I wouldn't have known the difference until you broke it down into precise patterns. Also, the interview with Lex was interesting.
I am an Arab living in Russia. Russian people actually read books, especially people from the Soviet era. They are very eduacated. The music of language is also fantastic. However, it is way too difficult to learn the language.
They had nothing but books to escape many bad periods of history. Also, cold climate- reading is better than drinking.
@@elkigirl123 the american people had a terrible time in 1929 and they didn't read more books, suffering and reading are not correlated.
So you live in a country that you don't want to learn the language?
Then why have I been having no problem learning it if it's so difficult?
@@railroad_of_oregon No, but they did EAT newspapers to fill their belly.
почему я хочу выучить русский язык?
🗿: to articulately express my suffering
... lol ... lol ... lol ... !!! ... you nailed it ... !!!
Ну, мокші є мокші, сірі та вбогі. Така доля
@@СергійНаконечний-э3йвы понимаете, что ваши страдания -- от ненависти? Или это из-за близкого соседства с вами евреи выдумали, что у неевреев нет души? Потому что у вас и правда её нет?
😂 страдание наше всё, I'm not sure I could properly translate my comment. 😅 But I suppose "suffering is all we have" would be somewhat accurate 😊
I have not been studying for very long, but every time i memorize a new word by heart to see it and pronounce it well in my head and know its meaning, i am ecstatic. Always puts a smile on my face. That is my motivation.
Love these reaction and commentary videos, like with Milla Jovovich and Mila Kunis. Definitely encourage to to keep going with them :)
"Russian is the best language to express deep emotions and suffering"
Russian language :
бляя моя сигарета упала братан!
опа это пиздец, я горю ааааасукабляяя
🤣
All french are t4rded or it just you ? 🤡
😂
Я прочувствовала всю твою боль😂
)))))) не то что бы я гуру в английском, но склоняюсь к тому что бы согласиться с автором видео
Lex comes across as a very thoughtful individual.. brilliant video. I've learned so much :) Thank you.
if only he weren't talking nonsense
Честно говоря, у каждого языка есть свои особенности, и как носитель русского я, конечно, им горжусь, недаром он велик и могуч)) Но эмоциональный окрас в литературе вряд ли связан именно с языком, скорее всего, это одно из слагаемых и достаточно весомая, но точно не единственная. Мне кажется, что есть взаимосвязь в обе стороны, начиная от истории, культуры, традиций и, соответственно, языка. И особенно в классической русской литературе, где 99% - это философская трагедия. Я даже согласен с автором ролика, что большая часть школьников не читают русскую классику на 100%, как и я в свое время, но, повзрослев, большинство возвращаются к прочтению этой классики, а некоторые, кто читал в школе, делают это для переосмысления в взрослом возрасте. Это я к тому, что это довольно правдивое высказывание, что в России на сложные темы готовы философствовать все, от дворника до депутата, особенно на кухнях с друзьями)) Я последнее время стал много читать, причем по системе, миксуя русскую литературу, иностранную литературу и научную, так вот, может, это предвзято, но русская литература как будто бы сложнее и глубже, и точно более трагична, эмоциональна и, к сожалению, практически без «хэппи эндов», что иногда даже раздражает.
Спасибо за ваш комментарий! Он меня очень вдохновил. 🌹🌹🌹
Thank you, this video was very interesting! The clarity of how you and some other Russians I have listened to express themselves is amazing to me. I never thought that a language itself might have limitations or provide better expression. I always thought it's my inability to express myself.
I like that the structure of the sentences in the Russian language seem very condensed. It seems to me that you need only half the words to express something in Russian compared to saying the same thing in English
You should react Hollywood Russian :))
I would love to know the opening lines of THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!!
yes, hollywood is often unfair to russian people to say the least
I believe he has done that before.
@@LW62FL Russians are going through the darkness of pagan centuries,
Russians are going through a host of defeated enemies,
Russians are going, liberating the Third Rome,
Russians are going to the Heavenly Jerusalem.
p.s
The song is pretty stupid, superficial and has no cultural value. The lyrics are pretty crappy.
@@Luorawetlan I am not certain as to what song you are referring? I am speaking of a movie made in the US, with the opening lines in Russian, which I have never seen translated online. Basically, a Russian sub runs aground on an island and in the beginning the submariners are wondering what to do: this part isn't tranlated. It's a slapstick comedy made with Russian speaking actors, with the title based on American Paul Revere's message to villagers during the American Revolution. It's funny and has a good message. Respectfully.
Lex should have you on 🎉
What a great video. My grandparents were native Russian speakers and I spent a lot of time with them. They had colorful aphorisms and sayings (in English) that I loved. I always thought that I was only getting about 75% of what they were really trying to convey and that it would be better if I understood Russian.
in Korean also the order of words doesnt matter.
BTW Lex on his channel has a playlist with episodes DUBBED to Russian, like Kevin Spacey, Elon, Dana White, etc. Just press the Settings cog > Audio Track > Russian. Could help you learn Russian if you need, guys.
Interesting, but I think there is some idealisation going on here. The Russians are always telling us that only they have true душа (soul). We cannot move the words around in English as in Russian, but we do have workarounds to change emphasis, e.g. 'It's you that I love' etc. Also, a far greater variety of verb forms (continuous, pluperfect etc) than they do. So there!!!
you are not exactly right about "far greater variety of verb forms". There are Russian analogs for many English tenses but they are made differently. For example, by using prefixes. Compare "делать" and "сделать". The prefix 'c' adds Perfect tense meaning to the verb. Your mention of Pluperfect is interesting, as it actually highlights a limitation of English in back-in-time referencing: you can't do it in more than two steps. The reason is an absolute time referencing. In Russian language, you attach an action time to the timestamp of a previously mentioned action. From that perspective, you can do infinite amount of time referencing steps, and the Russian language then has an infinite amount of tenses if you would try to express them in terms of English language.
The Russian Participle system: let me introduce myself
English speakers seem to russians as soulless mainly because of our difference in expressing and describing emotions/experiences. It's like we see one more color that makes huge difference in our perception. We don't have that impression about speakers of languages that we don't know.
@@yyyy12344it's a difference in cultures. the western culture is more pragmatic and materialistic. although I must say that the new generation of people in Russia is more individualistic than the previous one
Russians always do that: boasting about their imaginary advantages. (I know because I was born and grew up there)
And yes - English verb tense system is way more efficient.
Very fun episode, subject dear to me - enjoying the quirks of the languages and the expression power.
I don't know much about Russian language, but I know that many great Finnish writers (say for example music artist's lyricists) were fans of Russian literature and having read some Dostojevski, it was on another level of deep thinking. It wasn't pushed to you as deep thinking, it was more like the way of dialogue and descriptions that made you think it says more about society, cultural things and personalities than seems on the surface. In Dostojevski's work (even translated in Finnish) you can admire the way he uses language and expresses things, how he makes people phrase their language. It has some of that similar fanciness of speech as Edgar Allan Poe's works do, the "old way of speaking" where the characters are like singing birds when they speak. They don't just state their business, they treat their words like art and their speech as something to demonstrate their creativity and ability to think, they're poetic in their expressions. I think Fridman's words "everyone from athletes to plumbers is philosophical" catches the characters too. And the more I think about it, some ~century old Finnish literature also had that, the characters, even peasants had some beauty to their vocal expression. And the wordplays in multiple different ways is also what I most enjoy in Finnish just as well as Lex and you imply you can do in Russian, or even dropping unnecessary words. You really struggle to do that in English and if you manage to make a little bit of wordplay from interpreting a common phrasing differently with another context, interpreting it perhaps literally, the English speakers are struck in awe that they never thought about it. It's also fantastic when you can switch the word order of the sentence freely in language to emphasize different things, how you're not strictly limited to the standard like in English. I almost regularly make grammatically incorrect sentences when speaking to friends in English, because I use words like "even" etc in different places than grammatically correct, to imply the same effect as in Finnish, shifting the emphasis. By purpose, not by accident, I don't like the idea that it's not dynamic for function. And I fully resonate with the thought of not being able to express emotions as well in English, despite having talked in English with some international friends since teenager. The emotions really don't matter in English if you ever think about it. People say "love" all the time when they speak of the smallest bit of positivity. Saying "I love you" means nothing in English, people say it to everyone all the time. In Finnish you might struggle to say that even to your family, you would say that to your significant other and become really serious, when you perhaps want to marry them. Similarly to "hate" when they speak of smallest bit of negativity. I think other languages use far wider spectrum regularly. I do believe English does have the spectrum in between but the language has evolved to the extremes due to the American culture itself. One curious thing is also how the company you spend your time in and what you do, can greatly affect your ability to express things. At some point I noticed I was repeating the same topics so often with the same people that I had started to struggle with more complicated expressions and talking about other things. I was shocked when I thought if I could even say the same thing I said regularly in some other way and the simple brutal expression annoyed me a lot, it didn't have personality.
And then there's books like Mihail Bulgakov's Master & Margarita, or like it's titled in Finland "Satan arrives in Moscow", which is one of the best books I've read and transformed my life in some way. It was so painful yet beautiful at the same time, perhaps it spoke deeply about the passions of Russian people, but it resonated a lot with the Finnish mentality as well. That melancholic beauty. And everything about it was so magical, but also it had some deep message baked into the madness. It had justice too.
And let's be fair, even in Finland where people supposedly have good education, we read some fairly inconsequential books most of the time in school (some get to read classics and important works but it's not standardised what you get to read) and the assignments always end up with people googling the summary on the back of the book or someone's summary of the book in case you're being asked about the book you didn't read. If we read Dostojevski (which would be a huge challenge for most, I read a lot of books when I was younger and when I started Dostojevski, it was exhausting, it was a chore to get through Crime and Punishment) and had to analyse the book afterwards, were challenged to think about what it wanted to say in between the lines, that would've been extremely developing understanding of literature skills and new perspectives on life.
I respect people who are able to conjure interesting but still understandable ways to express mundane things, because mundane things get repeated A LOT and it's always the same content, same words, same expressions. What I still lack is the ability to express things concisely, which is what I admire in some people. The ability to use less words than it takes to describe the thing yet still have more meaning and implications injected into those words than just normally expressing it. It really is a sign of a well-spoken person. But I also appreciate a bit wordy, poetic ways to say things, building up a bit of a story around what you want to say. And continuing on that thought, I'm a bit saddened that modern day (at least in Finland and seemingly not in English speaking countries) no longer values literacy in terms of being able to use the language correctly, getting the punctuation and words right, the little rules that make the language special but also more coherent to read. And it's a concerning thing in terms of social interactions as well, people can no longer distinguish different types of texts, opinion pieces from facts, sarcasm from serious words, reading between he lines. There's not as much appreciation towards well-spoken people anymore either. You might have started to see it in political figures as well in some places where it's enough to shout nonsensical words and things instead of speaking well.
What's fun though is that I just read that even now with the borders closed, many young Russian teens want to come to Finland for high school and many stay for further studies and to work. Up to 25% of the eastern border high school students can be Russian now. Some of them have had for example their grandma live in the area or they just fall in love with the country. Some of them said in an interview that what they really liked coming to Finland was that nobody looked at them and judged them based on what they look like or where they come from or who they were, that people judge them based on who they are. They learn the language surprisingly fast compared to many other people who first start learning Finnish (perhaps it's exactly the challenging nature of the Russian early school system and having to read difficult texts) which is supposedly really difficult language. They don't speak the language perfectly but they express their thoughts well and you can hear that Russian structure affects the way they speak Finnish, but the benefit of Russian language (the little I know of it) is that it's so straight forward and logicla in some sense that their message gets communicated properly even with mistakes, which can be the opposite with people from elsewhere - where their mistakes make the meaning change when they try to form the sentence from another perspective.
Aside literature and melancholy, another thing I really enjoy about Russian culture is the love for judo and weightlifting (olympic). Both have become my great interests and it seems that day by day I share more common things with Russian people (obviously not everyone is into these things so it's a bit of a generalisation to say Russian people regarding that).
It really is true that you can technically learn the language wherever, whenever, but you really know the language only if you spend time with people natively speaking that language. Russian would have an endless list of ways to "properly" express things and phrases that reflect the Russian way of thinking and what's common that you never knew without spending time with Russian content. And I suppose that's true to all languages, there's rules and then there's how people break the rules and you have to learn how to break the rules like a native and how to adjust the rules in every day speech. Let alone dialects. You can learn all you want and make technically correct sentences that still aren't how people speak the language. Which you said at the end too. I think there's some rules of thumb about "if you can do this in language, you know the language" like being able to joke in that language, being able to express your personal feelings in that language and making wordplays in that language. You will feel like an outsider if you don't have access to those things.
15:49 That is definitely NOT a drop in intonation, it's a raise, since it's a question. The raise isn't as big as in English questions but it's still a raise. If it dropped, it would sound as an affirmative sentence.
Автор этого видеоролика просто замечательно говорит по-английски, имеет неплохой словарный запас в американском английском, да, есть немножечко акцент, но я считаю что просто 90%. Я переехал в США когда мне было 23 года и я точно могу сказать что после 17 лет очень тяжело приобрести хороший акцент в английском языке, ну я не считаю это проблемой потому что Accent это очень личное и индивидуальная черта каждого человека и лично я горжусь свои акцентов
Lex Friedman is amazingly good at emulating depth and intellectualism, especially for a guy in his +1SD range of cognitive aptitude.
A few thoughts on this. In my opinion, grammatical cases and free word order don’t make significant differences between these languages. I agree that the diminutive forms of Russian nouns can make the language more emotional when used, but aside from that, there isn't a big difference. From the opposite perspective, nothing actually prevents you from expressing deep, philosophical ideas in Russian.
In conclusion, I don't believe one language is inherently more emotional, melancholic, or better suited for discussing technical or philosophical topics.
I think it’s more related to the fact that Lex had to leave Russia and its cultural environment, which now feels distant and melancholic to him.
I’m a native Latvian speaker with good knowledge of Russian and English. I'm speaking from the perspective of someone for whom both of these languages are foreign and learned later in life. Latvian actually has a similar grammatical structure to Russian, with free word order, grammatical cases, and the ability to use diminutive forms for most nouns. So, I’m quite familiar with these linguistic features.
Regarding Lex's Russian, I believe he spoke more Russian in his 100th episode with his dad. which was for some reason later removed. As far as I remember his Russian is pretty good, but you can easily sense an accent in his speech.
Your comment should be on the top, I agree with you. The grammatical cases are really what make the Russian and other similar languages so difficult and complex. Lex Fridman is being pompous and tendentious with these comments, nothing new... I'm from Bulgaria - we use the Cyrillic alphabet but we got rid of the grammatical cases around the time of our independence from the Ottomans. The language is expressive still and has its own quirks. The grammatical cases are just a rule and a tedious and unnecessarily difficult one at that, to be honest. The language is a tool to express yourself and every language has its own rules to achieve the same goal. I don't like these generalizations from people like Lex Fridman, wrapping it up with some sort of mysticism for the westerners.
@@antoniytsekov7606 Exactly. Good description.
Yeah. He was just using stereotypes while also conflating his own emotions with language characteristics.
Russian is most melodic among Slavic languages like Italian among Roman languages, Polish is sharp with strong emphasis like Spanish among Roman languages, Cech, Slovak and Croatian have pleasant and subtle sound like Portuguese among Roman languages. In terms of grammar and structure all Slavic languages are very similar, easy to learn if your native language is from Slavic family.
Nice parallels. Where would you place Serbian, Bulgarian and Ukrainian languages?
very poetic description and comparisons
@@SM-ef7ypSerbian and Croatian are same thing mostly. Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Serbian... Its mostly accents that tell the difference... But in songs even that can be less apparent or non apparent
@@ama-giiI kinda doubt Ukrainian has a "Nordic" touch and that Russian has "Mongol" residues. Because the most "nordicized" parts were around Novgorod and also Archangelsk, where in dialects there is sensible Germanic (Scandinavian) as well as Uralic influence. It would make sense to say that Russians have Uralic residues not Mongolian. Uralic speaking peoples were assimilated, while Mongols appeared here as heavy cavalry and army leaders when attacking Rus' cities, going back to their steppes afterwards and leaving a Baskak and small retinues in the biggest cities to supervise the princes. The genetic data also shows noticeable Uralic admixtures in Russians (around 20% in male lineage) but not Mongolian. And among Ukrainians there would be more pronounced steppe influence than the Nordic. And if you're talking about the languages then I'm completely at loss what's Nordic about Ukrainian and Mongolic about Russian language-wise.
@@mihanich oh yeah, you're right actually.
thanks for the rectification.
i had watched a video which claimed that the ukrainian "г" came from nordic /h/ like "гарно" or even typical ukrainian names such as "Олег" or "Глiб".
that was false
Lex is such a faux intellectual. 🤣
He's an engineer dude, that's what we do. After we are "accomplished" in engineering we turn to philosophy. And I think here Lex was in the beggining of his journey.
He's an engineer dude, that's what we do. After we are "accomplished" in engineering we turn to philosophy. And I think here Lex was in the beggining of his journey.
Agreed. He's full of shit. Even what he's saying here is just regurgitating common cliches. On top of that, he's a spook.
We engineers also press submit twice
We engineers also press submit twice
Привет друг, есть ещё Kazhun Jiles, она утверждает что много лет назад сама в одиночку изучила русский язык, и довольно хорошо говорит. Работает дальнобойщицей в США.
I remember there was excelent comment under that interview between Fridman and Buterin - "it sounded like two AI language models were talking to each other". And if you know russian, it is exactly how they both sounded - on paper it is russian, though every word sounds a bit off.
Hey, nice. I'm subbed to both these channels.
It is common for most Slavic languages. It is property of a language and has quite a deep impact on a way people interact and form relationship with each other. I have found the same for the Hungarian language.
English and Russian languages can mostly express each other, because they were born at a similar time and in similar conditions and among common similar concepts
can’t wait to see you on a full episode with Lex!
I think Lex is intellectually shallow, I have no interest in what he is thinking.
you are not alone.
it's what usually happens when there's a guest on Joe Rogan's
Isn't that a big mistake, deciding what you think of a person and then ignoring anything they say regardless of what they say? Well, maybe this was shallow thinking by Lex, but he seemed to still agree with Lex's thoughts on the language.
@@Yupppi It isn't when there is a multitude of videos showing Fridman's shallowness. Not a difficult thing to follow buddy. Maybe for you?....
Shallow is a great word to describe him. He is supposed to be "smart" cause he teaches AI in MIT and stuff. But at the same time I'm always surprised how naive he is when he speaks about politics and other stuff outside IT.
As someone who left Russia at the same age as Lex, I relate to his experience with accents and nuanced expression. However, there's a crucial aspect of the Russian language we must address: the rise of "Newspeak."
Echoing Orwell's "1984," this manipulative language distorts reality, particularly regarding the war in Ukraine. Euphemisms and controlled narratives are weaponized to manipulate public perception and silence dissent.
This alarming trend demands attention.
Understanding "Newspeak" is crucial for anyone engaging with the Russian language and its impact on the world today.
Cheers &
Миру Мир!
Great content, brother, keep it up!
He sounds drunk and depressed. Actually, I have no idea who he is, since I'm not American, but Mediterranean. I speak 4 languages fluently and learning Russian for the past 3 years. It's a very difficult, but extremely beautiful language and very dense, meaning it can contain a lot of meaning within just a few words. I'm struggling to understand the hints and word puns often used in this language, as they're often rooted in idioms and historical or cultural references
He interviews famous people. He has a huge youtube channel. And yes, he always sounds drunk and depressed.
As soon as someone is calm, collected, thoughtful, not pushy, he's not normal? What twisted values. No wonder when you're Mediterranean, where everybody is chaotic, stressed, obnoxious, pushy, and 0% thoughtful. This world desperately needs exactly people like him. I bet you just hate the fact he had anything good to say about Russia, though.
@@Дчёрный I would say you are wrong for everything you say.
@@Дчёрный you are wrong on everything you say
@@DM-wv6to It's mutual.
Fascinating topic. I've often wondered about this very thing.
Currently reading Dostoevsky (Demons), and I can't help but wonder if my English translation is (naturally) a sissy version of the Russian text.
Much respect. 🙏
Thanks for making this video!
I've read one Turkish classic in Russian. And since I speak both languages on a native level, I can tell you there's huuuuuuge difference between original and interpretation. Interpretations are naturally adopted to another culture. Since then I try to read originals.
But I had to read Dumas in Russian cos I don't speak French. Of course I missed a lot. But one thing is for sure, I could feel the admiration Russian interpreters felt for everything French and Dumas specifically
The Demons/Devils is a book I finished about three months ago. Very hard going and the two villainous heroes only appear halfway through. FD was definitely a great genius.
there is also a lot of a difference between original "crime and punishment" and it's polish translation we read in school, polish version is just wack and bland
Thanks for the video. ❤ I’m sending it to my American friend who knows some Russian. I’m fluent in Russian (as a native speaker), English and Chinese. I agree with Lex’s perspective on languages and how you experience life through their usage. Your whole personality expressiveness varies depending which language you are speaking now.
Speaking poetically in english is degraded these days. Read some writings from Thomas Jefferson or George Washington. Or even just letters written 80 years ago. People talked more eloquently. No one likes to speak with expressiveness anymore.
Russian is definitely much more expressive than English. I often wish that my American friends would study some Russian just to be able to enjoy the beauty of the language.
What does this even mean? I I've worked with russian speakers for years to the point my russian is likely far better than Lex's. No particular expressiveness that I've noticed though. What I've noticed is the language sounds unpleasant and stupid most of the time. Also, they hardly have any original words - every second word is stolen from either turks, Fenno-Ugrics, English, German, French, Tatar or Mongol.
@@Bac4-qu6qg7sk4v, same with English. English words are 50-70% borrowed. And Russian is more expressive at least due to fact of the opportunity to change word order thereby changing slightly the meaning which is not the case in English
@@Bac4-qu6qg7sk4v Причина тряски?
@@Bac4-qu6qg7sk4v ... you're right ... !!!
Excellent video!
Great video. BTW, in English, you can say, "You, I love" & it still makes sense & means the same as "I love you".
He grew up in a Russian speaking home, even lived in Russia til he was 13, so of course that’s his emotional language. Languages use different tools to express the same meanings. English has cases, too, expressed in a number of ways. Etc. Does he really not know all the same things can be expressed in English? Well he’s a science tech guy. Regarding his sight reading in Russian, even people who grew up speaking it may not have grown up reading it.
ДА Я ЛЮБЛЮ ТЕБЯЯЯЯЯЯ ©
Lovely video! :D
Thanks Pal, very deep feeling in the different context. Surely, very glad I have watched this clip.
I somehow feel it when I watched BBC documentary -- The Art of Russia, British art historian Andrew Graham Dixon-- said "It totally visceral and utterly emotional....."
You can say in russian in fewer words what you can in English. But english is a better language for technical detail.
Indeed, your observation is accurate. Russian is a synthetic language, where words serve as a base to which various prefixes and suffixes are attached, forming complex grammatical constructions. In contrast, English is an analytical language, relying on grammatical words and strict word order to convey meaning. While Russian lends itself beautifully to poetry, English excels in technical precision and stands out for its flexibility and richness
Not sure about that. Russian has a lot of words expressing the same thing, and so appears richer. But I'm not a language expert, so I might be wrong.
When you count by the number of words, this is true in most cases. However, Russian words often tend to be longer than English words. So, in general, if you write the same text in English and in Russian, the Russian version tends to be longer in terms of the number of letters used, even if the total word count is smaller.
Eh, not always. I've noticed playing military games, strstegy games that when saying callouts, often English gets the point of the call-out across faster.
It mostly just has to do with the word order of the sentence or the length of words. Yes, both English and Russian use the same word order (Subject Verb Object). But in english it is much more fixed, and only changes for a couple exceptions. In Russian though, it is much more flexible and arguably more complex. Also, for certain phrases/things/objects etc. In English it is just 1 or 2 words. In Russian it can be 2-5 sometimes.
And like someone else mentioned, sometimes just the often longer length of Russian words means it takes longer to get the point across. Whereas with english & the typically short words + word order, my teamates know what im saying before I even finish my sentence. Whereas sometimes in Russian, the sentence will not make sense or have meaning until I fully complete the sentence.
On the contrary. Russian does have a LOT of examples where there is just 1 word to say the same thing that english needs 3-5 words for. Which always feels awesome and makes me wish english had that too.
I still think in general, you can say more with fewer words in Russian. But is is NOT always the case. Sometimes english is "faster" or more "efficient"?
Now, imagine if everyone knew 2 languages and combined them based on practically and getting the point across faster 🤯. It would be like a super language.
This was a fun and informative video.
Very interesting. My sense is that is a pretty typical way that Russians think about their language in relation to English, and it certainly seems that poetry, and poetically expressive language, is more important for most Russians than for the typical American. Yet I don’t think that English is actually less expressive than Russian-it’s just that the expressiveness is achieved less through grammar and more through vocabulary, idioms, emphasis. Take “I love you”… First, English speakers do often omit the “I” - “love you”. Or even “love ya”… Both suggesting less formality. Or “it’s you I love” Or “oh I love you” (stressing the momentariness of the feeling) “I love you too” (I.e. I’m saying I love you because you said you love me). Grammatical inversion can be achieved through subtle shifts in emphasis. And then there are all the other words for love-including cute words-“fancy”. “Adore” “smitten” - all which tease playfully at a declaration of love. Or just “I really like you” - “I like him, but I don’t like like him”
Isn’t this the same for your native language, you understand all nuances about that language/culture.
I believe that both languages are equally suitable to express feelings and pain although each of them is doing it using different means. As regards Lex Fridman, he left Russia when he was a teenager and is therefore not able to appreciate the full colour of the Russian language and his Russian vocabulary is rather limited.
Great video!
Yeah I totally agree with this video, as a foreigner in Russia who has been learning Russian for less than a year, my Russian is far from perfect.. but even if I don't make any mistakes in grammar or pronunciation my friends still can hear my foreign accent.. I am very curious about this and I keep asking my friends to tell me how I sound to a native, what I came to conclude is that ударение, and where you stress the letters in the word is super important for a good accent, I didn't pay much attention to the ударение when I started learning, now I try to improve
Spanish is my native tongue, English I was raised with, Russian is what I study-I find Spanish the richest of all. The figures of speech & conversational language is far more intimate-this is my biased opinion, as is the biased opinion of Lex. His attempt of proving one language more sentimental or expressive than another is laughable. Naturally we will prefer what is innate to us. ¡infórmate un poco Lex, y luego hablas! 😂
5:14 in the Arabic language as well, we have a saying "خير الكلام ما قل ودل" which means "the best speech is the brief and informative"
But modern Arabic is deviating from that because of the effects of other languages and cultures on Arabic which is met with a lack of care from the media and the institutions
Crazy when two UA-cam channels I like cross streams like this. Like, when I listen to Lex I am in a completely different frame of mind than when I listen to Be Fluent.
What is being said at 9:18 is false. English allows for modifications of word order away from the standard order. It is just that people who were not raised in English culture (all the songs, poems and novels) are not aware of the expressive possibilities. So misinformed is the dude in video this.
Yeah, the way you used it is kinda what he is talking about, but not quite to the extend that it's possible in Russian.
Very well done. It explains why Russians appreciate culture more fully.
Хуюллі. Мокші є мокші, сірі та вбогі. Така доля
Хуюллі. Мокші є мокші, сірі та вбогі. Така доля
they don't, it's a myth.
@@opart why you think so?
@@Kultus1337 It's a blanket statement that was cultivated by propaganda. It's like saying "USA is the best country on earth".
Lex Friedman falls into the same pit by saying that "Russian is more emotional". It is not, because you can't compare mother tongues. The language you grew up with will always seem "more emotional".
Please read the Culture Map....American English is a very low context language in comparison to Russian. There are other high civilisation high context languages, Russian, Chinese, Japanese....You can also use "Ya tebya lyjubyu" or I love you in the same order with a different meaning via intonation or emphasis.....It's awesome! :))) Just imagine, that you also can use facial expressions in Russian.....so even without changing the word order OR emphasis but only through your face you can change the meaning. :) But he misses one point. Lex is saying "How did your Russian roots helped it?". This is a very self assertive american way to speak. In Russian you would say "Did your Russian roots help you in any way?"
For Lex to say that English language is more ''simplistic'' compare to the Russian language is not true at all, English is also very rich language if not even more richer on words than the Russian language, maybe in Russian language you can be more playful with your words but definitely not a more simplistic.
Fyodor my friend! I noticed when you said literature numerous times in this video, you pronounced the more like [lɪʔɹ] (most noticeable at 4:23), whereas in American English we say it more like [lɪɾɹ] and phonemically we perceive it more like /lidr/
good video, thanks 👍
Interesting hearing you break down my observation of the nuances even of something like “I love you” … I was struck while I lived over there that the language had so much flexibility .. makes it a bit difficult to learn ha
All languages have an equal amount of flexibility and nuance.
@@elkigirl123 I definitely don’t think anyone is shorted the ability to express deep emotional thought because of their language. However, there are some interesting nuances in various languages that in certain context allow for an added richness. For example, when I was with the Evenki people, I noticed in their language when they lived in the woods they had incredibly unique and detailed ways of explaining directions through the forest and referencing specific animals that would be incredibly hard to get across in a different language. For example, they had a word for the type of forest where you see a lot of red moss on the ground and a bunch of tamarack trees growing, and they had another word for a different sort of forest so when you were explaining ways to get from point a to point B through the woods, you could in a much more accurate and nuanced way give directions in a way that was hard to do in English or Russian. Just an example. When you know a couple languages to you often recognize certain words in one language that really nailed a that is hard to convey in another. I always feel like English is lacking a good word for
Наглый as an example 🤷🏽♂️
@@hobojordo 😆 “When you know a couple languages?“ You assume other people don’t know a couple languages? That’s so funny lol. Anyway all languages have vocabulary specific to their setting and different idiomatic expressions etc, goes without saying. One language has more terms for their most common trees and others more descriptors for moors or heaths or deserts or fish or football moves or worshipping in their religion etc. But this mythical belief in one language being inherently more nuanced or more spiritual or more logical, or about only being able to say I love you multiple ways in Russian but not English etc lol. Just false and a cultural construct. “Added richness?” 😂 ps doesn’t наглый mean “impudent” (“cheeky” if you’re British)- some other words: brazen, shameless, boldfaced, many other possibilities and constructions in English depending on your exact meaning/context I would think. The word actually sounds maybe a bit Germanic derived to me but no mention of that when I did a quick look at etymology, maybe further back or maybe not at all.🤷🏻♀️
What he says about pre college American education is true. I once helped a friend get prepared for the ACTs, so i downloaded a mock test and started going through it. The level is ridiculous, i could nail 80% of the test with no prep. To pass the university entry bar here i'd need to bust my ass for at least one year before the exam. And keep in mind im from Brazil, education here is pretty bad, i can only wonder what taking the ACT feels like for a japanese person 😂.
Ну, мужик, и глубоко же ты копнул, я тебе скажу! Классное видео, и ты здорово раскрыл свое видение вопроса бытия билингвов 😊👍🤝. Вопрос выражения эмоций проверяется легко - на каком языке ты выругаешься, когда ударишь молотком по пальцу 😁.
Точно! 😂
не думаю что это работает. попробуй общаться несколько дней на чужом языке, ты начнешь на нём думать автоматом. Но, справедливости ради теорию с молотком по пальцу проверить не случалось
Total hubris. So many people make the mistake of thinking that because YOU as a non-native speaker of a language cannot perform a function of communication, it must be the language's inherent brokenness and flaws lol. Definitely not possible that you haven't developed advanced enough proficiency to do that function in the language yet! It's also dehumanizing to the speakers of that other language to think they cannot express deep feelings in their language (implying they must not even have the same range of human emotion you have).
What languages are you proficient in?
He didn't say that, he said there's more to grammar and sound of words that may carry the meaning, which enriches the way how to express something specific or poetical, and there's more space "in between" words that are carrying the meaning and due to harder education most of people get it, which enriches the everyday communication.
@fruitfulvine222 Damn, how "smart" are you? I speak Russian on an intermediate level, English on an Advanced level, and I agree with him. And I don't think of my native language the way he thinks about his, I feel no connection to it at all, so it has nothing to do with what your native language is. You can be objective about your own things, too, you know.
But it's true tho. You have to know both languages to make comparison. English just doesn't click most of the times when you know how things can be different with other language.
Exactly lol. Thank you for the sanity. Such tired old stereotypes in the discussion.
How would you translate in RU: "i will win" ? But not Я выиграю, something like "мы победим", but first person in singular
Commenting to see the replies
This verb unfortunately does not have a singular form. «Я одержу победу» would be the best way to say this!
@@vitamartinenko4747 имеет. просто она омофонична. берем любую тематическую глагольную основу с "д" перед темой: породити, поводити, победити и спрягаем по стандартной парадигме порожу, повожу, побежу.
так же хня с якобы отсутствием полной парадигмы у класть кладу ложить ложу. или отсутствием грамматического согласования местоимения их ихний ихняя ихнему ихней. последний кейс не столь очевиден, но, если слово выступает определением при существительном, то именно определение обязано указывать (определять) род, число и падеж. так образуются определенные (по школьному "полные") прилагательные и местоимения. все они прирастают указательной энклитикой *jь
@@vitamartinenko4747
ни одиною же си орѹжъѥ погѹби· да не нагъ обрѧщешисѧ· и на брани побѣженъ бѹдеши· орѹжъѥ бо наше ѥсть тѣло а дш҃а храбъръ· оже прилежить къ трѣбованию
[Изборник 1076 г.]
We survived together trough history. That is why. We could do that all together.
"Experience the world" is a wonderful way to describe language ability.
Естественно. Russian is a moving target 😅.
This was very interesting!
Lex read a Pasternak poem in Russian on Rogan. Incidentally, Pasternak’s poetry is the reason I started learning Russian
Interesting that he compares Russian education to American education. He's probably correct, but the fact that he comes from an intellectual family, he probably has a biased perspective. It's possible that many Russians are exposed to hardcore readings at a young age but did not absorb it.
This is also true in China. Chinese students are exposed to Classical Chinese from a young age. This is like learning Latin or Greek that used to be core languages in European (and American) liberal arts education. Not all Chinese become good at reading Classical Chinese.
Agreed, I feel that he received an (above) average Muscovite education, not an average Russian one.
о да!
И сѐ размысливъ, ѹстро́и зелїє на ѹбииство, єгоже не тръпѧше сѹдина мѣдѧнаа, ни стьклѧ́наа, ни глиненаа, но̀ абиє рассѣда́шесѧ. въ ѡловѧнъ ѹбо съсудъ в̾ложи зе́лиє антипа́тръ, и покрывъ дрѹгымъ сѹ́дномъ железнымъ, и вда́ сн҃ѹ своємѹ, и посла въ вавилонъ къ илѹ, чръпцю алекса́н̾дра цр҃ѧ, съгл҃авсѧ̀ с ни́мъ ѡ лю́тости зѣ́лиѧ и смрътоно́снѣи си́лѣ.
In the Russian Federation, the school system is standardized, ensuring uniformity of quality, content, and even nutrition in all schools.
There's a longer clip of Lex speaking Russian that comes from Joe Rogan's podcast, where he reads poetry or something for like 2 minutes straight.
He hadn't internalized the word корни, and I believe the second question was read from the paper. But I'd also say that's just his quirky style of speaking, as he often does unusual pauses in English as well. I'd say he's always thinking really deeply about his thoughts when speaking, so sometimes it doesn't come out smooth.
I agree
He sounds a little stoned but could just be because he’s kind of a science/tech type guy (I read he also does martial arts, hopefully not too many head blows.) Or maybe he was jet lagged or something. I don’t know, never listened to him before.
Thank you
But its cool to think of how language, the mind and culture all change and adapt in some sense to each other.
I've read Russian literature and speak both languages fluently, and hot take Russian literature is not great. And russian language is not any better at emotional expression than English. There's a type for people saying things like that.
Exactly. All languages are equally expressive and work just as well as each other. It’s so silly when people make these kinds of characterizations about languages lol. You see so much ignorant language nationalism on the internet unfortunately.
PS when I responded to your comment there was a typo at first lol. Autocorrect turned “when people do that” or “when you see people do that” into “when you people do that”! 😂 That was not my meaning.
Here's thoughts from 100% native russian speaker:
"твои русские корни помогли тебе?" (have your russian roots helped you?) - Technically it is correct, buuuut... The sentence consists of 2 logical 'cores': 1 - the guy has russian roots. 2 - did those help him?
Having this in mind one could build russian phrase way more natural if was divided into two separate sentences:
"У тебя русские корни. Тебе это как-то помогло?" (You've got russian root. Was it helpful in any way?)
or
"У тебя русские корни. Тебе это упростило жизнь [при изучении языка]?" (You've got russian root. Had it made your life easier [while learning russian]?)
You see, I can't tell for english, since I am not that good in it, but in russian you would try to cut your thought into shorter sentences, at least when it's some common talking. Longer, sophisticated sentences are used in literature, or some official documents. So when you try to talk like Lex does in that case, you sound pretty strange even though the phrase was 100% correct in terms of rules of russian language.
And yeah, the intonation... It's giving Lex out completely. It sounded like foreigner reading it from a note. Absolutely unmistakable. If I didn't know better I would've thought he was an actor reading his script written in russian (even though he doesn't have an obvious accent).
I moved to Canada when I was 11 and always remained fluent in Russian as did everyone who moved at that age…
I disagree with him entirely. Everyone disparages English because everyone _thinks_ they know it. I've heard the same thing from people who speak so many languages. Arabs, French, Russians, Hispanics - everyone says, "English is so simple, it can't express deep meaning. [My native language] is just so much deeper and more emotional!"
Really, it's either because A. As a second language, you don't know English as well as maybe you think you do. Or B. It's because as a second language, you don't have the same emotional connection you have with English as you have with your mother tongue. Of course you're going to think your own native language, the one you grew up with from childhood, is "more expressive" or "deeper" than something you started learning in your teens or even later.
For people who say, "English has no nuance, it's too straightforward and literal," here's something from Game of Thrones: a character says to another, "Do you want to be a queen?" She responds, "No... I want to be _the_ queen." Try and translate that into Russian.
Agreed. I speak both English and Dutch natively. Whilst I moved to the Netherlands at young agee and was completely educated in Dutch, English is my mother tongue and I struggle to express the same depth of feeling in Dutch, whilst logically it is no problem.
Agreed. If you think *insert language* isn't as deep as your native language you just dont understand it well enough.
-- тоже хочешь быть королевой?
-- нет... хочу быть само́й королевой.
you don't know enough Russian to be a translator. what is the difference between са́мой and само́й? what about definite adjectives that have an indicative enclitic, in fact a definite article in the postposition? what is the difference between добр and добрый? the pronoun *jь only represented in the inflected forms, which have often become part of a suppletive paradigm, and are combined with a nominative form from an unrelated root (*onъ or *tъ).
@@ShyguyMM herself is сама́ ;-) "хочу быть королевой сама́".
@@ShyguyMM Wrong. "Хочу быть самой королевой," means "Wanna be the queen herself" (since "Я" is missing).
"I myself want to be a queen" would be "Я сама хочу быть королевой"
Hey! I was wondering if you could make a video on Russian vocabulary for a wedding? I am going to be attending a friends wedding and would love some russian insight on what people say and what some vocabulary words for this would be
The advice from Russian is just drink alcohol and have fun.
I lived in Moscow for some years. I noticed no talk of Pushkin the greatest. French was the in thing he put Russian back in poetry and literature. Lets not forget he was of African and Russian roots.
In summary I think you can describe English as being a very precise language thanks to its huge vocabulary making extremely good at technical instructions, scientific research and legal documents.
Russian on the other hand is extremely flexible allowing you to add a lot of nuances and enables poetic and philosophical thought.
Both languages are perfectly capable at expressing either case, but these are their specific strengths.
Also it’s a misnomer to say that English is inflexible, you can change the word order, but you have change the structure of the sentence to do so.
For example “I love you” but you can also say “you are the one I love” or you can say “you are loved by me” or you can say “you are my love” etc.
Let’s put it this way: If we can’t paint as well as Matisse, is it because of the brush? Hint: It isn’t the brush.
You're right. But the brush you choose also matters 😉
Of course, as someone mentioned in this section, we can only compare when we speak and are exposed to those we compare, and sure enough languages ARE different, with its comparative strengths and weaknesses (that's one optics). And if I'm monolingual my language is cosmos to me which expresses everything I need (untill I discover other boundaries hence the notion of lacunas)
Everyone always says their native language can express more emotion than English because doesn't have a bunch of cases and conjugations. I don't think I'll ever understand that argument.
Let's start at the very beginning. How many books by Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy or Chekhov have you read?
@@uglaegilsdottir, I don't speak Russian.
It's not so much cases and conjugations (although it obviously adds some complexity with all the consequences) but rather suffixes and the mentioned flexibility (not randomness) of word order, I'd say, if I'm to defend that POV which I think although exaggetated still stands some ground
...основная цель языка - дать возможность кому-то что-то сообщить, и каждый язык развивался по-своему. Ошибочно говорить, что один язык превосходит другой, но если сравнивать, то английский - это язык технологического, художественного, гуманистического, медицинского, биологического, кинематографического, модного и т. д. прогресса, причем настолько, что другие языки вынуждены перенимать неологизмы, созданные в английском языке (особенно выходцы из США). Мы знаем, что Россия - отсталая страна, почти третьего мира, валовой национальный продукт которой меньше, чем, например, у штата Калифорния. Английский - красивый, выразительный и звучный язык, на нем говорят во всем мире. Везде песни поются на английском, а не на русском языке. Если сравнивать, то по красоте испанский, французский и итальянский языки значительно превосходят русский... и на этом список преимуществ не заканчивается... Большинство тенденций в моде, технологиях, искусстве и т. д. создаются в США и Великобритания или другие страны Западной Европы... Россия только копирует, вставляет и потребляет... она не вносит почти ничего значимого...
I have the same headphones. Surprisingly good eh!?
Amazing vid as always :)
I was born and raised in Central Asia. I moved to United States when I was 23 now I’m 38 for my understanding American English is a bit simpler compared to English from Great Britain. In my opinion, Britain English is very poetic We’re just not using much words from old English.
Russian language is extremely rich and emotionally diverse. It has words that can make you wonder if feelings they bring are possible to really exist and be expressed in words..And the answer is is "yes". I am Bulgarian and our language is the same, unique in richness and very difficult too...🙂
For most English speakers I’d say they can’t express how they feel other than “good or bad”. If you use the full English language which has the most words out of any language you’d be getting somewhere.
Persian is also very expressive
بسی رنج بردم در این سال سی
عجم زنده کردم بدین پارسی
For thirty years,I suffered much pain and strife
with persian I gave the Ajam verve and life