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Question / Հարց
I have a strong love for Armenia and intend to visit the country in the future, would learning the language be a challenge and are there good resources towards learning it?
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Thank you very much for this response, God bless you :)
Armenian isn't an easy language, but it isn't the hardest either. I personally don't have an experience with native English speakers, but I have a German friend who was able to hold a conversation (with some minor mistakes here and there) in Armenian after 6 months. The fact that he lived here and was surrounded by Armenian speakers most likely accelerated his learning process.
Download the app AYOlingo.
Judging by how well this native English speaker (non-Armenian) mastered Armenian, I'm inclined to say yes! https://youtube.com/@english_for_?si=6bydMpIaSBCTYY4R
It will be difficult due to the fact that it's an entirely new language and alphabet. However, since it is an Indo-European language, it'll be easier to learn as an English speaker compared to learning a non Indo-European language like Arabic, Hebrew or any of the East Asian languages.
Another thing that makes Armenian easier to learn compared to a lot of other languages is the fact that we don't have masculine and feminine words. For example, there is no word for he or she.
Are you planning on learning Eastern or Western Armenian?
Would it be your first time learning a foreign language?
Western Armenian since its more common in the disapora.
I want to learn it fluently so in that sense it would be the first time, but I have learnt some words and sentences in other languages.
Do you have access to any real-life sources? As in, do you have relatives/friends who are fluent in Western Armenian? Are there are Western Armenian tutors where you live?
I live near Manchester which has an Armenian Disapora Community, i'm also oriental orthodox christian like armenia so there are definitely people there and around the city I can speak to. Resource wise i don't really have any books or anything that could help the process, i know watching videos in the language can help speed up fluentcy.
I personally found it easier than Russian when I went and did the Aspirantum course in Yerevan back in 2021.
The fact there are no grammatical genders in Eastern Armenian makes the cases a bit more tolerable. The verbs can be tricky especially the irregular ones (of which there are many).
Native speakers will have more to say than I possibly could but once you have the alphabet nailed, you’ve won half the battle.
Most of the difficulty is in the inflections i.e. verb conjugations and noun declensions. Cases especially are hard to crack at first if you're coming from English, and there's a couple differences between eastern and western Armenian.
I think it depends on your level of immersion and how good you are at learning languages. For me learning the grammar wasn't hard but remembering the vocabulary was/is (horrible memory). If your purpose is preserving western Armenian then do that, but otherwise I would recommend learning eastern since you won't have to deal with the extra frustration of re-learning some things when you visit Armenia.
Alongside with the learning you can check r/hayeren and ask your questions there people are happy to answer them
Also why do you need Armenian?
Wishing to travel there, also potentially immigrating in the future so its a good way to respect the nation by learning its language and culture and people.
You're on the right way :)
Grammar in Armenian is relatively easy straightforward and simple. No genders, word order is fluid. Sounds are tough for English speakers. Especially Americans they have a hard time with all the Kh Gh ts Dz and in eastern the aspirated consonants.
The pronunciation would be the hardest part I would imagine, then grammar to a lesser extent. Armenian grammar isn't as frivolous as some other languages due to a lack of gendered inflection. I remember learning German and Russian and it was such a pain in the ass to remember whether or not a table was a man or a woman. Or if a watermelon is a boy or a girl. then remember the suffix and the matching article you would use (specifically in german honestly fuck that).
Same with Persian, get past the pronounciation and change in grammatical order/convention and you can speak it with some effort fairly easily. Reading/writing is another beast and most of my family can't even read or write in Armenian. (Those who can flex on those who can't).
Go check this website for ressources : https://www.learnarmenian.org/