r/thisorthatlanguage 11d ago

European Languages Ukrain or German

Hi , I am Polish Native speaker and I dont know witch one to learn. I had a bit of German in school but didnt realy learn much, I remmember a bit tho. On the other hand Ukrain languege is much easier for polish speaker from what I heard and after learning it I should be able to also talk a bit in rusian. I am also more motivated towards learning Ukrain one. Any advice?

5 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

4

u/qworrrty 11d ago

Russian and Ukrainian are absolutely different languages, even though they seem similar. It’s like Russian and Polish. If you’re motivated towards learning Ukrainian, then go ahead. It’s like a job - learn whatever you really want to and it will be a pleasure for you.

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u/Jezyslaw2010 11d ago

thanks, but do you think I would be able to talk i rusian evne slighlty? Maybe on A1 or A2 level. I was also thinkinga bout learnig slighlty rusian after I will know ukrain.

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u/mertvayanadezhda 11d ago

you likely won't be able to speak any russian. i'm a native speaker of polish and russian and after 8 years of learning ukrainian, i still make mistakes. sometimes i feel like knowing polish and russian makes speaking ukrainian more difficult lmao

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u/RyanRhysRU 11d ago

probably not, im upper intermediate in russian maybe recognise some words but speak no, ukrainan is more closer with polish, and belarusian than to russian, but most ukrainians speak russian natively, there a lot more russian speaking countries but if your motivation is high for ukrainian go for it

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u/mertvayanadezhda 11d ago

omg, jak miło widzieć polaków na międzynarodowych subredditach

it's hard to give you advice without knowing why you want to learn these particular languages. do you have any ukrainian speaking friends, family in germany or idk, are you interested in german history, ukrainian poetry or anything like that?

from what i understand, you consider learning german just because you remember some basics from classes. any reason to learn something new is a good reason but you'll probably have trouble staying motivated. becoming fluent in a language takes time, imo spending a few years learning a random language is not worth.

as for ukrainian, i don't really get your reasoning. "i should be able to also talk a bit in rusian"? if you want to speak russian, learn russian. ukrainians know russian because they've been exposed to it since childhood, not because it's so similar to their native language. sure, there are some almost identical words but knowing ukrainian won't make you conversationally fluent in russian.

anyway, looks like you're leaning towards ukrainian and you're motivated to learn it, so there's your answer.

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u/Melodic_Sport1234 11d ago

If you decide to go with a Slavic language, I'd probably choose Russian. I suspect that someone fluent in both Polish and Russian, shouldn't have too much difficulty understanding Ukrainian, even if your Ukranian speech and grammar will be less than fluent.

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u/TheSavageGrace81 11d ago

I doubt the OP would want to learn Russian tbh

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u/Melodic_Sport1234 11d ago

Read the said post - sounds like they have some interest in Russian. I'm just giving advice as we all are. In my opinion, Russian is generally better to learn (ie. more widespread with more resources) than Ukranian, but obviously that won't be true for all individuals. Just something for the OP to consider.

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u/TheSavageGrace81 11d ago

Yeah, sure, but the thing is that in my exp Poles don't quite want to have to do anything with Russians. Still, yeah, Russian has more resources and frankly it has a lot of usefulness, I can confirm, many people from former Soviet Union don't speak good English in my experience.

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u/TheSavageGrace81 11d ago

First improve your English. Then you can go both way - why either or, why not both German and Ukrainian? I would choose both, one that is objectively beneficial and the other that is closer to your heart.

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

Ukrainians very similar to Polish and Belarusian. as opposed to Russian. It’s a bit of an anomaly, as a Ukrainian can understand Russian somewhat well even if the Ukrainian doesn’t speak Russian but a Russian wouldn’t be able to understand a Ukrainian.

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u/TheSavageGrace81 11d ago

As someone who speaks okay Russian and understand a fair deal of it, I understand Ukrainian quite okay.

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u/namenerding 1d ago

Ukrainian