Re: Russian soft/hard 'l' minimal pairs (was: glottals)

Philippe Caquant wrote:
> The idea is that, if I happen to travel through Russia
> for instance, and want to buy a newspaper from a
> native mastering only his native language, which is
> Russian, I don't have to study Russian for 12 years,
> which seems to me to be the minimum to master it more
> or less. This is even more true if after Russia, I go
> over to Ukraine, and from Ukraine to Georgia and so
> on. According to you, I should spend about 500 years
> to spend all the languages a need for a single 3-weeks
> trip, or just talk French all the time, be it in
> Moscow, Kiev or Tbilissi, because it would be more
> polite !?
Well, certainly if you're only making a short trip, there's no need to
be perfect.  But, from what you were saying earlier, it seems that you
were studying Russian seriously.  And if you are seriously studying a
language, you shouldn't just say "Ah, this distinction isn't important,
so I won't even try to master it."

But, yes, if you're just learning a few words for a trip, then just
getting them understood is certainly all you'd need.

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