While the Cyrillic characters of the Russian alphabet may seem daunting for speakers of English and Western European languages to learn, Russian has been determined to be somewhat easier for them to tackle than Chinese. Sites such as Learning Russian.net and How to Learn Any Language concur that the Russian alphabet's Cyrillic characters can be learned within a week, while Chinese characters may take years of study before a language student feels familiar enough with most of the characters. Many letters of the Russian alphabet are written and articulated in virtually the same way as are those in English. Also, certain words in Russian, such as "kosmos" and "komputer," are strikingly similar to their English counterparts.

On the Other: Both Are Difficult Languages

A poll run by the website LexoPhiles shows both Chinese and Russian in a list of the top 10 most difficult languages to learn. Although Chinese is ranked more challenging to learn than Russian, more people in the world speak Mandarin Chinese than any other language.

Bottom Line

Learning to speak Chinese can be more useful considering the sheer numbers of people who speak it, but speakers of English may have an easier time learning Russian. Both Russian and Chinese are included in the United Nation's list of five official languages. Both have large numbers of speakers and are ranked as important world languages.

Source:

LexoPhiles: Top List of the Hardest Languages to Learn

LearningRussian: Introduction to the Russian Language

How to Learn Any Language: What Is the Easy Part of Learning the Russian Language?

More Information:

Omniglot: What Language Should I Learn?