Ukrainian or Polish: What language should I learn? If you want to learn Ukrainian, you should master the Ukrainian alphabet first. It doesnt matter which Slavic language you learn first. Russian is also a lingua franca in Central Asia and some other countries of the former Tsarist Empire or the former Soviet Union, as well as some countries of Eastern Europe. It has the advantage of taking you by the hand and introducing you to the bases of the language. Whether you are just starting, a polyglot or a language nerd, this is the place for you! My current area of concentration is the Middle East. But dont worry. I worked hard exploring these similar languages, (only a few words and grammatical constructions are different) before our visit. The pronunciation of Polish also becomes easier thanks to this. So, overall, there are even more than 40 million Polish speakers worldwide. In order to get going with your Ukrainian studies, you need to start familiarizing yourself with the alphabet. Is Ukrainian worth learning? You can find eBooks and audiobooks for Czech. (Read why I like Glossika). I have found that once I started a Slavic language, whether Russian, Czech, Ukrainian or Polish, I discovered so much interesting content, often on the history of those countries, that I was just drawn more and more into the language and culture. From there on, the language developed into what was called the Ruthenian language. 3. During the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Ukraine came under the domination of Poland and this resulted in cultural, 1. It gives you the most common Polish words and phrases, so you can learn the language exactly as the locals speak it. If you have a friend, live in a particular country, or have an interest in a particular country or language, for whatever reasons, that is the one to learn. If you want a . Listen to podcasts in Polish, watch videos in Polish or listen to Polish music - whatever you want. Learning Polish? During the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Ukraine came under the domination of Poland and this resulted in cultural Polonization. If you want to stay in Europe (Ukraine, Poland, or maybe some other country like Germany, etc., where's a large Polish community), knowing Polish may be worthy. This resembles the way we learn our mother tongues as children. Are you interested in pets? And two minutes after looking up a word, you'll forget it anyways. When it comes to vocabulary, however, they are more different from each other than Spanish is from Italian or from French. Here are multiple different ways to say "hello" in Italian. If you're more into old-fashioned paper books than reading text on a screen, there are options too. I've read Harry Potter in quite a few languages for example. Polish, as well as Ukrainian, is a highly. Most Ukrainians are bilingual and despite Ukraine being a country of growing influence, it doesn't beat Russia. The above video is a walk-though of the Ukrainian alphabet along with some word examples and some explanations and demonstrations of the pronunciation. This is what Glossika's study screen looks like. And so should you. It won't intimidate you, and you'll feel at ease with your first few words in Ukrainian. Yes, a lot of people speak this language. Because of this similiraties they all belong to same group of Southern Slavic languages, therefore there is no need to confuse people with what should have been and make up names that was non-existing even during Yugoslavia. I recently visited Croatia as well as Bosnia, with my wife, on our 50th anniversary so I made sure that we had Serbian and Croatian on LingQ. If so, write to me your thoughts and experiences with these 2 languages in the comments section below. I recommend that you do something between 5-20 new sentences a day. From Ivan III to Boris Godunov. It's not the best language to speak to Poles in, but it is semi-comprehensive. Ukraine has a great literary tradition and there are many great books worth reading. You can learn Ukrainian but its based Russian/Carpathian..You can learn 2 languages and speak 5. In other words, Czech, Polish and Ukrainian in terms of their vocabulary are closer together. It's simply too slow, and if you're going to get anywhere, you're going to have to continue with a course that's slightly more challenging. When you first start studying with LingQ, you'll be faced with a whole page of words marked in blue. As you progress and you've done around a third of the lessons in your Teach Yourself and Colloquial books, it's time to start branching out to something else. All opinions are welcome and Steve is always interested in a good discussion on language learning topics. The Part of Europe. Or go directly to the LingQ website. Ask MetaFilter is a question and answer site that covers nearly any question on earth, where members help each other solve problems. Furthermore the similarities between Slovak and Polish are greater than the differences. Go look for something about pets. With Czech Ive found this history series Toulky eskou minulost and the political podcast Jak to vid. You can find Polish food shops, and listen to Polish radio stations in the United States. It teaches you useful words and phrases. However, that doesn't mean you should give up on learning Ukrainian. Overnight attacks on eastern Ukraine have killed two young men, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced. Ive never had any trouble communicating with Croats in the language whose existence you deny. Poles were Roman Catholic, and Ukrainians were either Orthodox or "Greek Catholic" (culturally Orthodox but administratively Catholic). Its a great reason why a lot of people learn Polish. Old Ukrainian language in 1397. I know the cyrillic alphabet already. (English, Ukrainian Amazon links). Ukrainian and Russian: How Similar Are These Two Languages? Often it matches, but it doesnt have to match. Do conversation sessions and writing exercises like this 2-3 times per week and you'll be well on your way to reaching an advanced level of Ukrainian. This has left a big influence on the dialects of Ukrainian spoken in the west of modern-day Ukraine where the vocabulary is closer to that of Polish than the Ukrainian spoken in the center of the country. It is spoken by over 40 million people in . I can recommend looking up translations of the books by Earnest Hemingway, Agatha Christie or perhaps Lord of the Rings, but it's up to you. You and I both know that. Body language helps a lot. 580,153 Polish speakers in the United States, four best higher education institutions in Poland, better fighting chance against dementia and Alzheimers, Perfect Your Polish Pronunciation Pleasantly, Crazy Awesome Resources to Learn Polish Online, How to Write and Pronounce the Polish Alphabet. Polish is the official language of Poland. Yes, a lot of people speak this language. How is it possible that Croat speaking Croatian can understand a Serb speaking Serbian 100% while only understanding about 85-90% of a Croat speaking Croatian from a different region? A language buddy is someone who speaks your target language, and who's learning a language that you know well. People with whom I went to school and with whom I grew up spoke Bosnian and Serbian. But, surely, there are also a lot of people you just want to learn Polish as a second language. But you need to know that these sentences will be scheduled for review several times! From wars, peace treaties, inventions, and religions, the clash of history that happened is a fascinating study. It's true that Polish isn't among the easiest languages one can choose to learn, but you can turn this into an advantage. Many thanks, Angus, Your email address will not be published. Here are the top 10 basic Ukrainian words and phrases that everyone should know: Heres a glimpse of how some of these Ukrainian words sound when spoken by a native: Now lets discuss the real reason why youre here: how to learn Ukrainian fast. There were words there that were similar, but I just didnt quite get the gist of what they were saying. ebula (onion) (Also an Amazon link) Colloquial is a course in the same style as Teach Yourself. There are countless more reasons why learning Polish can benefit you. Write each letter carefully, pronouncing it out loud. Previously also known as Ruthenian, Ukrainian is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. Cons: few resources, not widely spoken outside Poland. The Part of Asia. Old and growing. where they will often have texts with audio. For one, it's a Slavic language that's closely related to Czech, Slovak, and Ukrainian, making it an excellent foundation for learning other Slavic languages. But to be honest, you want to learn Czech; and if you want to learn Czech - learn Czech! Additionally, Ukrainians vocabulary also includes a large number of words borrowed from Polish during the Polish rule from the 13th to the 17th centuries. Personally, I love Polish. Even through you do your revisions, you study a lot and you are diligent - there's just nothing like seeing stuff you've already touched upon in another context. But in the end it doesn't matter which one you learn first, overall you will need to spend the same amount of time and effort. I don't recommend that you buy the whole course, however. You will probably be able to look forward to reading Russian literature, watching Russian movies, and following events there. Because greetings should always be no. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. It's actually not that complicated, and many letters look like the ones you know from the Latin alphabet. Spaced out over time, so you absorb your new language organically. The blog switched servers and so some comments had to be approved again. Youll be a singular, unique, and powerful asset. of Ukraine and the unrecognized republic of Transnistria in Moldova. With Nina Feldman. 3. I am not sure how this influenced their languages, but I find that Polish, Slovak and Czech share a lot of vocabulary. figure out which language is spoken in the area . So is a great many popular books. Each time you do your reviews, Glossika will schedule the sentence a little further into the future. 1. As you probably already know, the Ukrainian language uses the same alphabet as Russian the Cyrillic alphabet. A great way of going about this is to read the Ukrainian book alongside an English version of the same text. I read all comments I receive. Which gives you a better fighting chance against dementia and Alzheimers. Answer (1 of 9): You should learn whichever language you'll actually make use of. As I already speak Russian, Ukrainian grammar was very familiar but the vocabulary was not obvious as it is a lot closer to Polish than I had expected. Hanzi were adapted to fit Japanese, and you still have two writing systems (minimum) to learn unique to Japanese. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. And then there's Ukrainian literature of course. Besides, choosing the right Ukrainian course can work wonders. But, this often overlooked part of world literature offers incredible works. I don't recommend this. We learn best when we are most motivated. In his nightly video address, the Ukrainian president said: "The terrorists' missiles took the . The main difference is in the ortography. has great resources for many languages, including a number of Slavic ones. In fact, going back a thousand years there was even a common country, greater Moravia. Your Trusted Source For Language Learning Materials. Mondly allows you to learn Ukrainian from 33 native languages and vice-versa. I don't advice you to do this. 2. The vocabulary is not shared at all, even the so called Chinese readings (onyomi) of kanji. The vocabulary is more or less exotic and doesn't have that many words in common with English and French for example. Similar to other central slavic languages. If you ever had dreams to study abroad in Europe, Poland is a great country to do that. Learn the language in order to visit and experience the differences you don't know about. TIP: The single best resource I've found for learning Ukrainian at present is Pimsleur Ukrainian. Polish, Ukrainian and/or Russian? It really doesnt matter which one you start with, nor the order in which you learn them. Answer (1 of 24): Ahoj! Yes, there are a few words different, but you also have a situation where someone from Zagorje will not understand a person from Dalmatia. I am going to assume, however, that you don't speak French. Historically as I understand it (although I have not studied this question), the Orthodox Church and Old Church Slavonic had a major influence on the evolution of Slavic languages. The successor to the southern part of the Kievan Rus was the Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia, which subsequently came under the influence of Lithuania and Poland. How should you go about finding texts at the appropriate level? I studied Russian first and I would recommend that. Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Literary_Agreement And it has been taught to generations of people for at least 100 years. And so should you. Should I learn Polish before Ukrainian, or Ukrainian before Polish? The truth is that theres no way around it. That goes for Ukrainian as well as any other language. Here is an example: I am a Croat from Bosnia, I grew up in a town of Banjaluka. Here are some popular Slavic languages: Russian ( rosyjski) Czech ( czeski) Ukrainian ( ukraiski) Slovak ( sowacki) Serbian ( serbski) Croatian ( chorwacki) Nobody is saying that American English is identical to Australian English, and yet nobody says they speak Australian or Canadian or New Zelandese.