Found a bunch of sites with free emails of RW

[BrianN]

... in response to Re: French is definitely harder to learn..., posted by Quick Fix on Mar 19, 2002

from way up north, around Lac-St-Jean, certain perfectionists (friends) that resent everything to the south, and to france.  oh well, I no longer speak even hello in french, so it doesn't matter.

last final act of defiance on this one.  best I can do.

[Quasimoto]

... in response to Re: French is definitely harder to learn..., posted by Quick Fix on Mar 19, 2002

Yes! I lived in France for one year. They are fanatics about proper speech and phonetics. The French Canadians are sloppier and have their own quirks. You are right on Quick Fix. The only thing they have absolutely in common is a certain social rudeness!

Steve

[BrianN]

... in response to Re: French is definitely harder to learn..., posted by Quick Fix on Mar 19, 2002

on french, looks like that brain on drugs commercial.

might be easier for others, but it's just too difficult for me.  The light could never turn on.

[Richard]

... in response to Re: French is definitely harder to learn..., posted by Quick Fix on Mar 19, 2002

most of the verbs fell into the irregular rather than the regular category requiring most verbs to be memorized individualy.  I remember having many pages of verbs to memorize in high school french.

On the other hand, I never had to do that for Russian because almost everything seems to follow the rules.

just my humble opinion...

[micha1]

... in response to I found French very difficult in that, posted by Richard on Mar 19, 2002

If you and Brian are right, which I do hope so very much.
Then  russian will a cinch for me.
The problem for now, is really the cyrillic  alphabet as far as I am concern, once I do get over that, my hopes are very high.  Also the ear has to be work on.
I have decided that when I do meet with a girl that I am writing to, that we will, each of us, have  pocket electronic
translator with the voice included.  French, english and russian.
For that girl has studied french and can write it fairly well, but when we try to speak french on the phone, the fun
starts, because her ear is not adapted, so when she speaks she is scare that I will not understand.
So we have decided that we will try the translators and also the non-verbal will be very important in getting to
know each other.  

[Richard]

... in response to Re: I found French very difficult in tha..., posted by micha1 on Mar 19, 2002

I can understand what you are saying about the alphabet.  I remember learning the alphabet as being more time consuming than difficult.  My first encounter with Russian was in a summer school class after high school:  Once I realized I had to work harder in college than high school I finally made the effort to memorize the alphabet.

I found myself a quiet location where I could recite the alphabet to myself many many times until I recite the alphabet completely without any problems.  I'm not sure I could still do it, but I can still read it.  (I didn't use my russian for many years and am pleasantly surprised at what I do remember.)

[Zink]

... in response to Re: I found French very difficult in tha..., posted by micha1 on Mar 19, 2002

The alphabet was the easy part for me in learning Russian. But then I don't know how it corresponds with the French pronunciations. I only speak a handful of phrases in French, but from what I know of the grammar it is closer to Russian than English grammar. Male-female-neuter nouns, etc. I'm constantly expanding my vocabulary but it is the different cases that give me trouble. Russian is supposedly one of the top 10 most difficult languages to learn. I've heard that Spanish is the easiest for English speakers to learn.