# Attitude towards Russian language in the Ukraine?



## memark

Hi!

I've been reading some threads about the Russian/Ukrainian languages, and their similarities.

In about a month's time, I'll be travelling to the Ukraine for work. I speak no Ukrainian and no Russian. I do however have access to Pimsleur's Russian beginner course. Would it do me any good to study some Russian before my trip? What is the attitude towards the Russian language in the Ukraine today? Will people be happy that I try to talk to them (in Russian) or maybe be plain offended (for historic reasons)?

Any advice is greatly appreciated
Magnus


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## DarkChild

First of all, it depends where you're going to. The Eastern part and Crimea are Russian-speaking. The rest is Ukranian-speaking but the vast majority are fluent in Russian as well. I don't think you'd have any problems.


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## memark

I'm going to Kharkiv in the eastern part. Sounds like some Russian will be useful then. Thank you for your answer!


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## ahvalj

An old joke on the topic:
"Западная Украина. Городской тролейбус. В тралик заваливает толпа мужиков и один из них, доходя до середины спрашивает:
- Ну шо, а хто мени скажэ, котора зараз годына?
С одного из сидений привстаёт негр и отвечает:
- Пив на сьому, дядьку!
- Да ты сидай, сидай сынку! Я й так бачу що ты не москаль!"
http://anecarchive.ru/tag/moskal/page/2/


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## oveka

- Ну шо, а хто мени скажэ, котра зараз годына?
С одного из сидений привстаёт негр и отвечает:
- О пив на сьому, дядьку!


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## memark

It sounds really great! Any one care to translate?


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## tekton61

I will try to translate. To the trolleybus come crowd of angry men. "Who can say me what time is now?" - loudly tell one of the crowd (in Ukrainian). From one of the place answered man of African American appearance in pure Ukrainian language: "Six and a half, mister". "Sit down, my sun I see, you certainly not Russian!"


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## memark

Thank you! Could you also explain the joke?


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## TriglavNationalPark

*MOD NOTE: I left this thread open until now because there was a linguistic component to most of the posts, but topics primarily or solely about cultural attitudes to various languages are outside the scope of this subforum. The Culture Café is a more appropriate subforum for such threads.*


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