# Forum Other Languages Slavic languages Ukrainian  Ukrainian & Russian

## Pasha

Today at work, Im a receptionist in a hotel in Logro

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## Pravit

There are lots of Ukrainian nationals who speak only Russian.

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## Dogboy182

Yea i wouldn't waste ur time learning ukrainain if you are worrie that you will never use it, because you probly wont. Russian is much more utilitarian and more people speak it. Most people who speak ukrainian speak russian anyways.

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## translationsnmru

There are some people in Ukraina who make it a point to speak ONLY Ukranian or simply don't know Russian good enough to talk it. However, they are not the majority, AFAIK. A lot of Ukranians are bilingual or speak a weird mixture of two languages, and a lot more use Russian only (even though everyone has to study Ukranian in school).

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## Dogboy182

In the ESL class all the kids from ukraine always speak russian unless they dont want the russian teacher to know what they are talking about, then they are like, let's speak ukrainian, and it lasts for about 7 seconds before they give up or get bored.

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All Ukrainians speak or understand Russian because they had to in the past and the Russian language is still a big part of Ukraine. If you are learning a language simply based on what is the most useful, than Ukrainian might not be the best, but most people don't do that, or else everyone should just choose Chinese, English, or Spanish as they are the most widely spoken and hence most "useful" by the standard definition. However, if you have a sincere interest in Ukraine and its culture you should learn Ukrainian.  Ukrainian is certainly more useful in Western Ukraine and for speaking with most people from Western Ukraine. You can get by on Russian and not have much of a problem although you won't understand the people around you. Essentially you will learn much more about the culture, language, literature of Ukraine if you can speak/understand both.  There are still many people in Ukraine though who use Ukrainian. If you learn Ukrainian very well you'll find that you can probably with some exposure passively understand Russian anyway and vice versa. It all depends really on your reason for choosing to learn a language in the first place.

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## Pravit

I completely agree, guest!

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## Dogboy182

I beg to differ.

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## Линдзи

> I beg to differ.

 Yeah, well, _I_ beg to differ with _you_.

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## Dogboy182

if one more person asks the diffrence between russian and ukrainian (Or belorussian) Im going to .... well you get the idea.

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## Линдзи

> if one more person asks the diffrence between russian and ukrainian (Or belorussian) Im going to .... well you get the idea.

 Bake them a cake?    ::

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## Dogboy182

a cake full of explosives. That's it, I'll declare jihad on the next person who asks.

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## TheMoonMonst3r

How many cakes does it take to declare jihad?

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## djmihow

> How many cakes does it take to declare jihad?

 Ask ALLAH   ::

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## igorfa100

[quote=Pasha]Today at work, Im a receptionist in a hotel in Logro

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## mp510

I'll admit that my Russian is extremely limited, however I have had the oppertunity to use it a couple times. One time, one of my Ukrainian friends relatives spoke to me in Ukrainian and I was able to get the general idea out of what he said. There was quite a few word that I could not get, and some that  were false cognats between Russian and Ukrainian. Also, in writing I have found that I am able to understand some Ukrainian due to similarities with Russian. 
By the way, the man (who is old "a senior citizen"), is fluent at both Russian and Ukrainian. He came to America decades ago. Generally, a he prefers to speak Ukrainian over Russian BIG TIME.  He can also speak English fine (of course).  :P

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