14 messages over 2 pages: 1 2
zsombor Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 4915 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: Russian, English* Studies: Ukrainian
| Message 9 of 14 08 June 2012 at 12:58pm | IP Logged |
Just received the Assimil Ukrainian course. I'll try to answer questions if anyone has
any, but I can only devote so much time to the course at the moment, so I won't be
finished for a while. The only other course I've looked at in depth is Teach Yourself
Ukrainian.
I imagine I'm not the typical L2 Ukrainian learner, as I speak fluent Russian and have
heard Ukrainian regularly (if perhaps not very often) my entire life.
1 person has voted this message useful
| showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6083 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English*, Czech*, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch
| Message 10 of 14 27 July 2012 at 12:09am | IP Logged |
I bought the Assimil Ukrainian course (in French) as well, but haven't started it yet. I am also a fluent Russian speaker and when I was a kid I could speak Surzhyk, which is a mixed dialect of Ukrainian and Russian (so in that way I know a lot of words already and understand the language). Even though I've been exposed to Ukrainian from childhood, I can't speak it, so hopefully this will help me.
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| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5165 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian
| Message 11 of 14 27 July 2012 at 3:44pm | IP Logged |
I like the textbook Conversational Ukrainian, even though it doesn't include audio.
http://www.amazon.com/Conversational-Ukrainian-English-Editi on/dp/9998088607
As for the Assimil, I like it overall. Must say the typography of the new Assimil editions rock! It is reported to be a bit dry because it was done in a hurry for the Eurocup, but I think you get what you need.
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| tennisfan Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5359 days ago 130 posts - 247 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: German
| Message 12 of 14 08 August 2012 at 10:11pm | IP Logged |
Forgive me if this is ignorant, but isn't Russian the most spoken language in Ukraine? I was under the impression that very few people use Ukrainian anymore, young people speak to each other in Russian, most people speak in Russian to each other.
1 person has voted this message useful
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4706 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish
| Message 13 of 14 08 August 2012 at 10:39pm | IP Logged |
It depends on where you are - the western part very much prefers Ukrainian ;)
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 14 of 14 08 August 2012 at 11:03pm | IP Logged |
This depends on the region. It's more or less true about the East, but not about the West. The speakers from the Western regions can be as difficult to understand (for an average Russian) as those who speak Polish.
As for young vs old, it's vice versa, actually. Nowadays it's the language of the instruction at practically all schools at universities, and, being the only official language, required for many jobs. So it's only the older generation that might not be fluent, if they learned it at school, practically as a foreign language, and never actually needed it.
I'd guess that the attitude to Russian is more hostile than in say Moldova. Perhaps because Romanian/'Moldovan' is not mutually intelligible with Russian, so there's no way an average person can understand more just by trying harder - he/she either speaks the language or not. I suppose Ukrainians think it would've been easy for us to learn at least some tourist phrases, as the languages are so similar, while many Russians don't believe that there are Ukrainians who really don't understand Russian.
It's nowhere near as bad as in Latvia, though, as most Russian speakers are not immigrants, and because it's far easier for a native speaker of Russian than Latvian (plus there are more resources!).
What you describe is true about Belarus, btw :(
Edited by Serpent on 08 August 2012 at 11:10pm
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