Learning German to help access Russian materials?

[Robert Orr]

I think a couple of ideas are mixed up here.  As a historical linguist
specialising in Slavic  I find a reading knowledge of German (and spoken
German, for conferences) absolutely essential.  There is just so much
material in German (especially for those of us whose research interests are
the stage(s) Indo-European > Common Slavic!)

But to help actually learning Russian?



Robert Orr


>I wonder - how helpful would
>learning German be in learning Russian?
>
>Not in the sense of any kind of closeness
>to the languages, but rather - isn't there
>a lot more German-based materials in
>learning Russian, or papers, etc, than there
>is in English?
>
>Sometimes on this list and elsewhere, I'll
>see what looks to be a fastinating text, having
>something to do with Russian language, or Russian
>culture, or Russian religious practices, or whatnot -
>but it will be in German.
>
>Thoughts?
>
>--
>-- Kenneth.Udut at SPCORP.COM
>--
>