Learning Sanskrit depends a lot on motivation, discipline and, of course, the need. You need to find out the reasons why you are learning Sanskrit. Otherwise, you won’t be able to learn the language. The “śāstra” studies need much dedication to learn.
Sanskrit language is very technical language. 90% of all Sanskrit works are in “padyam” (poetry) format with ‘metrical structure’, understanding poetry requires more focus than “gadyam” (prose) during the early stage of studies.
Sanskrit is not just “bhāṣā” but “vāk” – This simply means Sanskrit is more than just a language. The word “vāk” means ‘thought’, ‘sound’, ‘word’, ‘sentence’, ‘meaning’, ‘phrase’, ‘discourse’, ‘vision’, ‘intentionality’, ‘yoga’ (a method of liberation) and even ‘language’.
Modern Sanskrit follows all the rules of grammar and most words have only one meaning. This modern Sanskrit is taught in Indian schools and it is relatively easy to learn. But the classical Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas. This language was widely spoken during the Vedic age. This is a complicated language like all other old languages. Due to this, very few people learn it today. There is a solution to this challenge and that is to hop on to the Classical Sanskrit at a later stage. Learn the modern version first and then move to the religious scriptures.
Due to the flexibility of the ‘partial free-word-order structure’ of Sanskrit, one needs to be good in the “anvaya-racanā” method of deciphering and understanding a sentence.
Some words are big enough especially when you learn shlokas. So understanding the proper meaning of the word seems difficult sometimes.
Understanding Sanskrit by translating the sentences into English is really a difficult process. It needs a lot of dedication, motivation and understanding. For Indian learning, Sanskrit is not that difficult compared to foreigners. It is difficult for foreigners because of the complexity of the rules. Declensions are based on gender and word-ending requiring a lot of memorization. Every language has exceptions to the rules and Sanskrit has its fair share, which adds to the burden of memorization. Sandhi (combining letters and words) adds a whole layer of complexity.
The difference between written Sanskrit and spoken Sanskrit is huge, apart from when an experienced pandit is speaking.
Research reveals that most of the people learning Sanskrit find it difficult to translate the Sanskrit language, while the average number of peoples reported that they find it difficult to speak in pure Sanskrit language. They soon lose interest in learning Sanskrit as they not only find it difficult to understand but also feel Sanskrit grammar is difficult to learn without adequate Sanskrit grammar resources. They wished Sanskrit grammar to be taught by giving more easy examples from day to day life with practice in reading, writing and speaking.
