The US foreign service classifies Russian language as a category 4 difficulty for English speakers on a scale of 5
To put this in perspective for those who haven't ever learned a non romance or germanic language, it takes approximately three times as long for a native English speaker to learn Russian as it does to learn Spanish. Now, things like passion for the language, high motivation, etc can make the extra difficultly feel like a small bump in the road, but I think many normies who have only ever been exposed to learning Spanish, French, or German don't truly grasp how much more difficult it can get.
I am learning Polish, which is even more grammatically complex than Russia--albeit not by much. I've been learning Polish for 7 years, immersed and speaking everyday and I still have only just now made it into the C-level. Slavic languages are HARD for english speakers. I only needed 2 years to get to the C-level in German.
Most Americans and Brits are completely ignorant of how complex a language can actually be and wouldn't stand a snowballs chance in hell of learning Russian.
To put this in perspective for those who haven't ever learned a non romance or germanic language, it takes approximately three times as long for a native English speaker to learn Russian as it does to learn Spanish. Now, things like passion for the language, high motivation, etc can make the extra difficultly feel like a small bump in the road, but I think many normies who have only ever been exposed to learning Spanish, French, or German don't truly grasp how much more difficult it can get.
I am learning Polish, which is even more grammatically complex than Russia--albeit not by much. I've been learning Polish for 7 years, immersed and speaking everyday and I still have only just now made it into the C-level. Slavic languages are HARD for english speakers. I only needed 2 years to get to the C-level in German.
Most Americans and Brits are completely ignorant of how complex a language can actually be and wouldn't stand a snowballs chance in hell of learning Russian.