Question by Alisa S: How hard is it for Native Russian speaker to learn Ukrainian?
I’m a native Russian speaker. I’d really like GPA booster. I generally pick up on languages quite quickly. My university offers Ukrainian, and I can’t take beginners Russian. Would I be better off taking something else for an arts option?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Bill C
Ukrainian has many similarities to Russian. Both are Slavic languages. I tend to think of Ukrainian as a bridge between Russian and Polish. (i.e., Ukrainians can often understand both languages, and a Ukrainian would understand Polish more easily than a Russian would, and vice versa.)
I would go with Ukrainian… it should be fairly easy for you, and it is a useful language.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
ProstoTak says
Ukrainian is not difficult for Russian speakers, these languages are very similar. Ukrainian grammar has less exception, usually you spell word how you hear it. For example, word "sobaka" ("dog") in Russian sounds like "sabaka" but in Ukrainian is sounds the same way how you write it – "sobaka".
Also, there are lots of Ukrainian words similar to English words.
запятая (rus) – кома (ukr) – comma (eng)
бумага (rus) – папiр (ukr) – paper (eng)
крепость (rus) – фортеця (ukr) – fort or fortress (eng)