Lithuanian and Latvian

Robert   Sun Feb 21, 2010 3:53 pm GMT
Are Baltic languages are difficult to learn because of their rather complex grammar? Does anybody got some expierence?
Mithridates   Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:47 am GMT
I'm not sure about Latvian but I've written a post on that before on Lithuanian:

http://www.pagef30.com/2009/09/how-difficult-is-it-for-speakers-of.html

The short answer is that it's not super easy, but its difficulty is definitely overstated. Lithuanian verbs aren't hard at all, and it only has two genders. On top of that, you can usually identify the gender just by looking at the ending (like in Latin), whereas with a language like German you usually just have to remember it along with the word with very few indicators as to what the gender is.

One other thing that makes learning Lithuanian not too difficult now is the presence of an excellent podcast called Lithuanian Out Loud.

http://lithuanian.libsyn.com/

This site is also good for grammar:

http://www.debeselis.net/grammar.php

And of course Google Translate also has Lithuanian, which though imperfect is a nice tool. So learning Lithuanian online has become much much easier over the past three years or so.
Mithridates   Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:49 am GMT
Oh, and this course is very good too:

http://labs.ikindalikelanguages.com/courses.php?id=16
Mithridates   Mon Feb 22, 2010 5:53 am GMT
Just remembered one more place to get some practice in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCnBiOssAxs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0f89B8wzgU