should i learn polish or ukrainian should i learn polish or ukrainian

Some people say if you have a thousand words you understand 70% of any context. So is a great many popular books. But, with the best learning methods, you can reach Polish fluency faster than this. Today Polish is the official language of Poland while Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine and the unrecognized republic of Transnistria in Moldova. ? Nobody is saying that American English is identical to Australian English, and yet nobody says they speak Australian or Canadian or New Zelandese. Ukrainian and Belorussian are languages closer to each other than Russian. If you need it because you want to go to eastern Europe or contact eastern Europeans remotely, then think of language as of a tool. It has quickly become one of my favorite courses for the lower intermediate stage and upwards. Although it may seem a bit daunting in the beginning, the Cyrillic alphabet is not the hardest alphabet in existence (Im looking at you, Japanese). When you start your first study session with Glossika, you will be faced with an English sentence and the equivalent in Ukrainian. My Germanic languages include Swedish, English, and German. 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. Often it matches, but it doesnt have to match. Many words are basically the same, like for example: 1. There are also non-trivial syntactical differences. Your email address will not be published. Please name one word that is used in one variant of Serbo-Croatian that is completely unknown and never used in any other. Here are multiple different ways to say "hello" in Italian. The 10 Best Language Learning Apps for Kids. 2. It doesnt matter which Slavic language you learn first. If I were to start to learn Slavic languages I would begin by learning Russian. Why youve deleted my comment? In other words - you need to do a lot of reps with Glossika, but they'll take you a long way. Reading is one of the most important activities when learning a new language. Your brain gets happy, and it'll just love that word a little more, and it'll be so much harder to forget. Also most people in Ukrane speak Russian and Ukranian, while other places speak. Dach (roof). It's available in Ukrainian on Amazon. Perhaps you could even go to Ukraine and catch one? I recommend that you take charge of your tutoring sessions. It should lure learners away from other languages that are more greedy. Polish communities usually stick together. Learning Ukrainian you will speak Ukrainian. has great resources for many languages, including a number of Slavic ones. If you speak French, however, I can't recommend enough checking out Assimil L'Ukrainien. no verb infinitive (! Jagiellonian University, University of Warsaw, Adam Mickiewicz University, and the Gdansk University of Technology are the four best higher education institutions in Poland. a phenomenal resource because every day there are new interviews on a wide variety of subjects, mostly with transcripts. This is immensely helpful when trying to read interesting content in Ukrainian. Once you learn the rules, you should be able to guess how a word is pronounced. New to the sub or want to post? Ukrainian is pretty consistent in its spelling. If you need some inspiration here are some reasons why learning Polish is such a rewarding experience: Enjoy the rich culture. This isn't because of linguistics but because of politics and history . , while the Ukrainian is written in Cyrillic. There are many great reasons to become fluent in the language. Polish has a lot in common with Slovak, Czech, Ukrainian and Bulgarian, although the last two use the Cyrillic script. If you do this for each word you're learning, you'll create a memory about that word. But, dont overestimate the difficulty or the time it takes to learn Polish. Well, it was easier. I am learning Persian at the same time. Kajkavian has been wrongly boxed in as simply a dialect of Serbo-Croatian for decades, but it has finally begun to receive recognition few years ago. Here is an example: I am a Croat from Bosnia, I grew up in a town of Banjaluka. Ukrainians often know Russian, but Russians don't often know Ukrainian. Ukrainian is not an easy language to learn! FLedison Additional comment actions I just took one semester of Russian two years ago. Or The Museum of Abandoned Secrets, a multi-generational drama by one of Ukraine's great modern feminist writers Oksana Zabuzhko. OptiLingo is the most useful Polish app. Join 8,034 readers in helping fund MetaFilter. So, if youre ready to get started on your Polish journey, why not learn it with OptiLingo? Ukrainian has too many palatal consonants for my taste (ty, dy . , which subsequently came under the influence of Lithuania and Poland. These can all serve as your motivation to keep studying. Over time, as more of Ukraine came under Russian control, it became the turn of the Russians to impose their language on the Ukrainians. With respect to pronunciation, it is pretty regular in Polish. Youll reach Polish fluency effectively with plenty of speaking practice through this app. Learning Polish? I have found the Ukrainian language version of Orest Subtelnys history of Ukraine, in Ukrianian, both in ebook form and audiobook form. I know both Russian and Polish people, although significantly more Polish people. In fact, going back a thousand years there was even a common country, greater Moravia. It also comes with audio, which is extremely important when you learn Ukrainian by yourself. Well, Polish is much easier to learn. Ukrainian is an Eastern Slavic language related to Russian, Belorussian and Polish. Scan this QR code to download the app now. Today we have an unprecedented ability to learn about many things without going very far. Answer (1 of 23): Before coming to Poland I started to pick up some Polish in the UK due to that Polish groceries were the only places where I could find food products that I'm accustomed to and Russian food stores were too overpriced due to obvious reasons (though in the US the situation is oppo. And you'll become fluent in Ukrainian. Personally, Id say it is both. If you want to learn more about how the Cyrillic alphabet is written and pronounced, you can do so by reading more about its usage in Russian. In his nightly video address, the Ukrainian president said: "The terrorists' missiles took the . Go to About > Click here. And if you cannot afford it or dont feel like paing you dont have to. 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? Each new Slavic language is a voyage unto to itself. This gets back to this idea that you cant just have a few words. Okay, take that with a grain of salt. These latter two languages though they borrowed a lot of vocabulary from Chinese are part of a different language family. There were a lot of kings that were common to Poland, Czech Lands and Moravia. Thanks a lot for your article! Ukrainian is a fascinating language with a long history of foreign influences. First, read the English translation to get an idea what the dialogue is about. Whatever the reason, the fact is they are all quite similar but completly individual languages with its own grammar and vocabulary. But, if you learn Polish, youll definitely stand out. Recent events in Ukraine and former Soviet countries also make the language extremely relevant. You can either pick one, or you can click "I know this word" if you already know it. However, you dont have to get discouraged. 2. If you search in Ukrainian you will find them, and more, as I did. However, these languages are connected by history and geography, even though they belong to three different language families. Polish is the official language of Poland. For me, in languages, exploration is the name of the game. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Sara, Please name ONE difference in grammar. Serbo-Croatian / Croato-Serbian was a standard name for yugoslavian language that really is same as Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Croatian or whatever you want to call it. There are some different words and accents but its the exact same language. Many thanks, Angus, Your email address will not be published. 3. One that many new learners might be tempted to try, is reading a Ukrainian book while looking up unknown words in a dictionary. The Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia subsequently came under considerable German influence while Slovakia was under the influence of Hungary. 11 Spanish Audiobooks You Can Listen to for Free, How Did A 4-Year Old Girl Learn 7 Languages, Why I Speak Russian and How It Will Change Your Life. Thats because bilingual employees are more valuable to a company. The Part of Asia. Try mimicking the speaker exactly is it's spoken. Go look for something about pets. In the beginning, aim for 100-300 words. Say goodbye to dry memorization techniques and notebook pages full of verb conjugations that lack context. Polish, as well as Ukrainian, is a highly. Audioteka has great resources for many languages, including a number of Slavic ones. You can probably imagine what a Ukrainian equivalent would be. That's why I've decided to write this article which I'm hoping can help you make a plan for self-studying Ukrainian. It's not the best language to speak to Poles in, but it is semi-comprehensive. You need to pick up a beginner's course for Ukrainian and get into a daily study routine. The two sounded so similar I felt as if I should understand Ukrainian. As for grammar, Polish, as well as Ukrainian, is a highly inflected language, with relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is subjectverbobject (SVO). Old and growing. History of Russian State. A few points: I have always felt, and been told, that Polish grammar is the most difficult of all Slav languages. Check out this LingQ blog post to find out! If you pick a translation, the word color will change to yellow. In late 2016, I started learning Ukrainian and have in the past dabbled with Polish. From Ivan III to Boris Godunov. Is Ukrainian worth learning? Doing these revisions or "reps" is one of the key aspects of how Glossika works. A language buddy is someone who speaks your target language, and who's learning a language that you know well. Similarly, there was a lot of interaction between the Czechs and the Poles. The truth is that theres no way around it. Hanzi were adapted to fit Japanese, and you still have two writing systems (minimum) to learn unique to Japanese. It can however be difficult to find a language partner who has the same ambition, dedication and approach as you do. They are quite similar in terms of grammar. Very often the most important words are just those words that you dont understand. I learned Polish to a very basic level prior to this, and while it definitely helped with vocabulary and grammar, I don't think that learning it first was any more of a "gateway" choice than learning Russian first would have been. At the same time, when I vacationed on Adriatic Sea in Croatia, or spoke to my relatives from Croatian Zagorje and Zagreb, I had trouble understanding them. 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. Cons:not many resources, many people in Ukraine speak Russian as well. Uwiezenie (imprisonment) Russian is on my list next, however, and there are a lot of resources in Polish for learning Russian, although the inverse is probably also true. Reading with a dictionary can be done as an exercise in intensive reading, where you do it for one page per session for example. Ukrainian Is The World's 3rd Most Beautiful . Unfortunately, they no longer publish the transcripts for Jak to vid, but that series was very helpful to me. For each time you review the sentence, it will be scheduled a little further into the future. With Czech Ive found this history series Toulky eskou minulost and the political podcast Jak to vid. Chinese is not a good basis for Japanese. Do you need to read Ukrainian children stories for months before being able to advance to interesting content? Its so easy on the learner. Just learn the one you like the sound of or would use more often or whatever criteria you pick. I've read Harry Potter in quite a few languages for example. The Lithuanian leadership at first adopted the language of their Orthodox Ukrainian and Belarusian subjects, and later, in many cases, Polish and the Catholic religion, as Poland came to dominate. You can either import your own texts into LingQ or you can study the material that is already available in their archive. Hi, Your ad says, start Mondly for free Could you tell me the costs ongoing please, if I were to use the site maybe 30 per day, over several months, In Byelorussia and Ukraine the Russian is more spoken as shown. When it comes to vocabulary, however, they are more different from each . I am subscribed to it on my iPhone. Poles were Roman Catholic, and Ukrainians were either Orthodox or "Greek Catholic" (culturally Orthodox but administratively Catholic). This won't automatically make you know all words in the Ukrainian book you're learning, but it'll help you actually read in Ukrainian completely fluently. Thanks for thoughtful article. He is currently learning Japanese, French and Indonesian. Once you learn the rules, you should be able to guess how a word is pronounced. LingQ also has lots of content, audio and text, in its libraries for five Slavic languages. So why is this so effective? Polish is also the second most spoken language in England, making it a valuable skill for anyone looking to work or study in the UK. Personally, I love Polish. Uroda (attractiveness) I studied Russian first and I would recommend that because, while Slavic language speakers are a large group of people, the Russian speakers are the largest group. Tuition fees are not as high as it is in the most of the educational establishments in other parts of the world. There are many benefits to learning Polish. That would argue against Russian. Lastly, go through the Ukrainian phrases one by one, pausing the recording to repeat out loud. But you CAN become fluent in it if you lay out a plan from the beginning to the end. No languages are difficult to learn. If you want a . It's similar to Russian, but with a few letters being a little different. Reaching fluency is a great sense of achievement. Hundreds of thousands of people speak Polish in Germany (867,000), Russia (67,400), the UK (660,000), France (275,288), and even the United States (580,153). TIP: The single best resource I've found for learning Ukrainian at present is Pimsleur Ukrainian. As such, I've found it easier to practice with them. Grammar of the Slavic Languages. It is worth saying that learning a language written in the alphabet that you are most familiar with is always easier. I never understood any Czech when I was growing up. There's not a lot of helpful info out there on how to learn Ukrainian, however. As for my Asian-language, obviously Chinese, or Mandarin, was a good base for Japanese and Korean. Doing another course in parallel will make you notice and recognize stuff that you've already studied in a whole other way. A great way of going about this is to read the Ukrainian book alongside an English version of the same text. No matter the difficulty, Ukrainian is a fascinating language supported by a rich history and culture. In fact, at the time that Poland and Lithuania merged to form what was at that time the largest country in Europe, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, there were far more Ukrainians and Belarusians in the Commonwealth than Lithuanians. 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. History of Russian State. It is spoken by over 40 million people in Ukraine, but there are great numbers of Ukrainian immigrants and expats in many parts of the world. Any language definition that claims that the language I spoke as a kid is the same as the language a kid from Zagorje or Dalmatia spoke (regions of Croatia), but DIFFERENT from the language Serb kid from Banjaluka spoke is either idiotic or deceiving. because, while Slavic language speakers are a large group of people, the Russian speakers are the largest group. Did you know we have a language learning app? Ideally, Serbo-Croatian should have been called Yugoslavian, as it is the language of Southern Slavs (Jugo-slavs), exactly as shown on the map. This means, that learning other Slavic languages after learning Polish will be a breeze. In 2018, Olga Tokarczuk received a Nobel Prize for Literature as well as the Man Booker International Prize for her novel Flights. What many people dont know is that Ukrainian resembles Belarusian more than it does Russian. Lets get one thing straight once and for all: anyone who says that Serbian or Croatian or Bosnian or Montenegrin are different languages is either straight up lying or has difficulties perceiving reality. ebula (onion) in one of the best sounding languages in the world, so soft and so musical! Sit down while drinking your morning coffee and work through a lesson. You need to put in the work and do it every day. Don't forget to read through the corrections afterwards and take note of all of the corrections. Because greetings should always be no. Check it out. So lifeless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Literary_Agreement. 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. And two minutes after looking up a word, you'll forget it anyways. Since there are 38 million people living in Poland today, you'll surely find a lot of people to talk to. Ukrainian Alphabet: How to pronounce in Ukrainian Share Watch on Ukrainian "" is pronounced like the English ee (sweet ) It's a very useful word by itself: "" means "and" in Ukrainian Click on the picture to practice your pronunciation and notice the difference between Ukrainian words and their English equivalents. 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. The map is slightly misleading. Presented in a natural, everyday context. We learn best when we are most motivated. 1. You need to work at it with consistency and dedication and eventually your hard work will pay off. If you're completely new to learning languages by yourself, it can be helpful to start by doing this course. So, you need to be absolutely sure you want to study that language. This can ideally work really well, and you can use the same approach as the one I described above with a paid tutor. Id like to recommend a series of books on Russian history written by Boris Akunin, contemporary russian author. This makes Polish a much much easier language to learn than Russian. However, the best is to search the web yourself. and our LitRes is a great resource for things Russian. See my favorite language resources (personally tested): Ukrainians are bilingual and despite Ukraine, strategies to reading in a foreign language, read Harry Potter in quite a few languages, How To Learn Romanian By Yourself (From Beginner To Advanced). Now, is Ukrainian more difficult than other languages? What is debatable is the teritory covered by Kajkavian, as there are variants of Kajkavian that have fairly minor differences with Serbo-Croatian, and there are variants with significant differences. 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. What are you talking about? Best answer: I think Polish is prettier, too; it's smooth and rhythmic, and sounds sort of like a middle ground between other Slavic languages that have more distinctive (and sometimes less appealing) sounds - for example, Czechs sound like they're from Chicago, in my opinion, and South Slavic languages aren't nearly as melodic. As a matter of fact, if you can convince me that I didnt understand them, and that we spoke different languages, you should be equally able to convince me that the sky is greenish brown, and that the clouds are orange. Do it out loud, with the same intonation, speed and rhythm! Check out this LingQ blog post to find out! Similarities & Differences Between the Slavic Languages, Through our own language world we discover things about the wider world. As a matter of fact, if you can convince me that I didnt understand them, and that we spoke different languages, you should be equally able to convince me that the sky is greenish brown, and that the clouds are orange. Yes, a lot of people speak this language. Don't worry if you mumble at first of if it's difficult. Required fields are marked *. figure out which language is spoken in the area . Ukrainian is not an exception. Youre only one click away! The Mongol invasions also had an important influence. The award-winning app uses a fast and highly efficient learning method that will almost literally glue the Ukrainian language into your brain. I don't recommend this. Besides, choosing the right Ukrainian course can work wonders. One of the great things about learning languages is that its a way of discovering the world. The Part of Asia. Ask MetaFilter is a question and answer site that covers nearly any question on earth, where members help each other solve problems. It's worth noting, however, that you can largely get by in Ukraine with the Russian language too. The algorithm tries to predict for how long you'll remember a word you just studied. Maybe you are happy to pay but young people or more poor cannot afford it and russian provides the most adavantages opportunity. Another thing that I firmly believe is that culture and language are not in any way associated with our genes or DNA, so language doesnt equal some kind of ethnic division necessarily. All posts copyright their original authors. You will be able to talk (and sing!) This is a subreddit for anybody interested in the pursuit of languages. From Ivan III to Boris Godunov. Due to it being profoundly different from English, many people consider learning Ukrainian a personal triumph. It's not that hard! As you probably already know, the Ukrainian language uses the same alphabet as Russian the Cyrillic alphabet. I am subscribed to it on my iPhone. With Glossika, instead of analytically dissecting sentences and intellectually studying their grammar, you learn it by habit. Ukrainian and Russian: How Similar Are These Two Languages? Ukrainian is an Eastern Slavic language related to Russian, Belorussian and Polish. Both Polish and Ukrainian are Slavic languages from the Indo-European family. Many words are basically the same, like for example: All of them speak ENGLISH, with different accent and somewhat different dialect. It won't intimidate you, and you'll feel at ease with your first few words in Ukrainian. In my (limited) experience even the Russian-English dictionaries are head and shoulders above the Polish- or Ukrainian-English dictionaries. The vocabulary is not shared at all, even the so called Chinese readings (onyomi) of kanji. 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. Just as it is the case in Northern Slavic languages there is no clear distinction b/w languages as one moves East to West, but rather smooth transition. (Link to Amazon). Some people in Ukraine will be more open to . Work your way through the text in that manner until all blue words are gone. As soon as you've finished the text, I recommend that you go have a look at your collection of yellow words (or "LingQ's" as they're called). To learn the Ukrainian alphabet, I recommend that you sit down and do a little handwriting exercise. I bet you never thought about reading Polish literature. Do this three times for each letter. It's got dialogues, audio, grammar explanations and drills and you can use it in pretty much the same way. It gives you the most common Polish words and phrases, so you can learn the language exactly as the locals speak it. Learning Polish will equip you with tools you can use to learn other languages, meaning you'll pick up subsequent languages with much greater ease.