I don’t know if you ever thought about how language operates before but can I just say that it royally sucks to try to learn it?

Russian, for example, has one way of conjugating for the past tense that is universal for verbs with some exceptions, and basically one way of conjugating for the future. This is very different from English where there are, I believe, six forms of the past tense ALONE. But where Ruski gets you is in its cases.

If you’ve ever taken any language that’s not English, you’ve probably dealt with gendered words. The table is a man, the bed is a woman, and the sun is so confused it could start teaching courses at SF State and in a few years demand the university offer a diploma in gender neutral studies.

To go along with this fun past time of assigning gender to things that have no sexual organs, Russian also likes to make all genders agree depending on the “case.” This is all fine and dandy when things are simple, like Ya oocheetal. (I am a teacher). But they get really fun when you try to tell people you took the bus to get to the library. Then “bibliotecka” becomes “bibliotecku” etc. Or if you don’t have some thing masculine things get an “a” or “ya” ending, the feminine things that had the a or ya ending now have an “ee” or “bwe” ending and neutral things follow masculine rules.

I’ve found ways around this though. In Russian, you don’t change case endings for words like “café” and “taxi” because they were borrowed other languages. Nowadays, when we have to practice sentences in class, I’m always walking to the café. Which isn’t far from the truth. Also, I always have things. I answer in one-word sentences, and I’ve made the phrase “my friend” gender neutral by screwing it up so badly that it comes out as “muy pa-droogee.”