Loving Ukraine
I moved to Ukraine last summer, having tried a little to learn Russian before I came. I then spent about three to four months understanding very little of what was happenning, gradualy learning a little. I found I very quickly picked up simple things, was able to go shopping in the market. Lots of my friends enjoyed for a while practicing their English with me, everyone learns it in school and of the people I know many hope to learn more. I have now been here nearly a year, and speak Russian fairly fluently, which I really enjoy. I will soon be moving back to England and will really miss speaking Russian. An interesting thing living where I do, in Cherkasy, is the mix of Ukrainian and Russian. I have mostly learnt Russian, it's what my friends speak, but in schools nearly everything is taught in Ukrainian and I have visited villages where only Ukrainian is spoken, which can be really annoying, having spent so long learning Russain, to not be able to understand people so well. Soon im going to Moscow and it will be interesting to see how different the language is there. I know I sometimes use Ukrainian words and prases. I have a friend in Siberia who has learnt some Ukrainian and we enjoy trying to speak to each other using as much Ukrainian as possible.
Sent by: Fred
Comments
Ukraine is a modern country just 20 years old, anyone who has visited or traveled in Ukraine will know that there is a large mix of culture and heritage, from Slavonic, Tartars, Russian to Vikings and Greek. until the collapse of the Soviet Union Russian was the official language taught in all schools and used in all forms of official documents, now Ukrainian is used. This created a big dilemma as many people where not totally fluent in Ukrainian including many politicians. Ukrainian was and is spoken predominanlty in the north and western areas of Ukraine as the east was an area of resettlement for Russian people during the Soviet era. Several languages withtin a country is nothing new ... Great Britain can testify to this ... Welsh, English and Scottish, along with now many different ethnic languages, so long as there is a common language for communication there is no problem ...
Old and Modern English are nothing less than Creolic constructs based on Ukrainian. Preposterous? For the last five years, along with Ukrainians we at the Polish Historical Society (USA) are preparing Ukrainian-Slovyan-English Etymological Dictionary. We already catalogued over 40,000 English words of Proto-Ukrainian origin. Our Dictionary will tremendously ease learning of Slovyan languages by Anglophones. Jutes were an Ukrainian tribe of Lyutychi, who via Denmark settled in Kent and the Isle of Wight 1500 years ago. Russian is nothing but 400-years-old Ukrainian surzhik [Creole]. Not really. Examples? > Eng. child- Ukr chado
When you visit Ukraine, you should keep in mind that people in the northern and western parts mostly speak Ukrainian, and in the south and east, they speak mostly Russian. The reason why most people in Ukraine know how to speak Russian is because it was the official language during the Soviet Union, and now that Ukraine is an independent country, Ukrainian is back to being the official language as it was a long time ago. So there are historical aspects that are involved here. It's a good idea to read up a little bit about the country before you visit it and not make too many assumptions. I'm originally from Ukraine and had to learn both languages, even though everybody where I lived spoke Russian.
Ukraine is a beautiful country! Sounds like you had a great time there.
I lived in Ukraine for two years and have very recently returned to the UK, I really miss it a lot. What Fred's saying is a totally realistic view of the language situation in Ukraine. In a lot of cities and towns the absolute default is Russian, not Ukrainian and it's not only a generational thing. Even younger people say they can speak both but were brought up with mostly Russian at home so that's what they prefer to use to express themselves. Obviously it's totally different in the west of the country as the history there is separate from the parts that were historically the Russian Empire, such as Kiev/Kyiv.
While I was there I tried not to mix and speak Surjik (a mix of Ukrainian and Russian) as I wanted to be able to use my Russian language skills professionally at a later point.
Fred, I'd be interested to know more about your impressions of Ukraine, and Russia too.
One more point about the language issue in Ukraine: It's not black and white, people should be able to accept that a country can effectively have a geographically and historically influenced mix of language. Take Switzerland or Belgium as perfect examples where multiple languages are used.
Nothing weired and nothing silly in Fred's story. In the part of Ukraine where Fred lives people in cities really speak mostly Russian though Ukrainian was once declared an official language. Even Ukrainians are bilingual, and they speak Russian because they are used to this language. Older generation is not to blame - they have grown with this, many are not fluent in Ukrainian at all. But in villages, yes, Ukrainian is spoken widely.
Fred, it is a bit weird to expect 30 million Ukrainians to stop using Ukrainian just for you and your friends
Well, I'm Mexican and I'm a buff in languages sort of, and I'm learning Russian on my own, even this week I met a Russian lady , she speaks a little English so I have to put much interest in helping her and at the same time trying to write in Russian at least the transliteration because here the Russian letters are so difficult to type. It is great to learn more languages and get to know cultures ... good luck.
Why didn't you try to learn Ukrainian in the first place? It would really be much more appropriate, taking into account the country you were in.
Unfortunatelly, or luckily, Ukraine got bilingual from former Soviet Union.
There are advantages and disadvantages.
All people know Russian but very few know English.
I see more disadvantages and I am gonna teach my children English as a second langauge, not Russian.
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