AboutDaniel Reynolds Riveiro Expertise I can answer questions about Ukrainian places of interests and activities, including extreme sports like climbing, skiing and multi-sport racing (yes, they have them in Ukraine). I can also answer questions about Ukrainian culture, customs, language, politics and dating.
Experience I am a Peace Corps Volunteer currently living in Ukraine
Question Hi! I find all the countries in eastern Europe, including Ukraine, very interesting. I really want to study language in some of these countries in order to be able to travel or perhaps proceed to further studies in eastern Europe. I've been told that Russian language will "cover" quite a few countries.
Is this true? Will a Russian speaking person be able to communicate with people from Ukraine, or are there too wide differences in language? Which language should i learn considering being able to visit different countries in eastern Europe and still be able to communicate with the people there.
Lots of questions, I know.
Hope you understand my English and will be able to answer some of them!
Oivind From Norway
Answer A person who speaks Russian will have no problem in Ukraine, as the majority (56%) speak it as their daily language and most of the rest of the population speaks it as a second language. The only problem you may find is that, especially in the western part of the country, some people may drop into Ukrainian without realizing it because they are more comfortable speaking it. Just remind, them, though and they will switch back into Russian. Russian will also be understood in Russia (of course), Moldova and Belarus. You did not mention Central Asia, but it is also undertood in Georgia, Azerbaijan and most of the "-Stan" countries. Russian is close enough to Serbian and Bulgarian to help you out in thos countries, but they are not mutually intelligible to a non-native speaker. For the rest of Eastern Europe, though, German or English is more likely to be known than Russian. Learning Polish will help in Poland, Western Ukraine, Slovakia and (somewhat) Czech Republic as those langauges are very similar. Good luck!
