Hi, am i better off learning Russian rather than Ukrainian/ Belarusian,

>>1251816
You can use Russian in Ukraine and Belarus; in some parts of UA (Odessa for sure, and more or less all other big cities apart from maybe Lviv, which considers itself the Ukrainian Cultural Heartland) you hear a lot more Russian than Ukrainian on the street. And I believe Minsk, at least, is predominantly Russian-speaking as well. Meanwhile, although Belarusian and Ukrainian will be predominant in a lot of mostly rural areas, you can't use either language effectively outside the countries' borders.

So in short, yeah. If you intend to visit both Ukraine and Belarus Russian it's probably your single most useful language. I speak decent Russian, and no Ukrainian at all, and I had very effective communication.

> I did actually try to speak a little bit of Ukrainian from a phrase book, causing a nice lady at the Odessa bus station to mistake me for a Pole and try (badly) to speak to me in Polish. Gave up and stuck with Russian thereafter, with great results.

shut up jake

>>1251816
it depend on how good you are with languages. Good Russian will let you communicate just fine, and it will open you some nice possibilities

On the other hand, if you're going to learn the language quite poorly, the native one should be of more use than poorly spoken foreign language.


>>1251879
>Lviv, which considers itself the Ukrainian Cultural Heartland
that's funny, for seventy years ago it was still Polish.

>>1251816
Belarusian is hardly spoken in Belarus itself.
Everyone in Ukraine speaks both Ukrainian and Russian.
You can use Russian in all of Ukraine but some people might respond in Ukrainian.

Russian is what you should be learning.

Russian is popular in all of Ukraine, but obviously in Ukraine they have a different accent. I am here in Chernihiv and, while I roll my R's, nobody else does, and they have trouble understanding some words because of it

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>>1251816
It's going to give you access to some high-quality literature and the people in this region.

If you're interested in this region - yes, only Russian is worth learning.

>>1251816
Well, I've been to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus,
and if you speak and understand standard Russian (even a little) it helps a lot. In my experience even they have an accent all understand standard russian. Be aware that belarussian/ukrainian do have some different letters than the russian alphabet.

>>1251816
Yes

>>1251906
>Belarusian is hardly spoken in Belarus itself.

Belarusian here.

We speak Belarusian almost everywhere in the country, everyone knows it and it is the most used language in day to day life.

The only thing is everybody is also bilingual in Russian too (very similar languages in the first place), using Russian is fine everywhere and nobody expects anyone to learn Belarusian. The only area where Belarusian specifically would be useful is Brest near Poland (Polish would also get you pretty far here).

The majority language in Ukraine is actually Russian too (or was a few years ago before the anti-Russia movement), though maybe in some places like Lviv people may get upset if you speak to them in Russian (mainly due to political reasons as opposed to practicality). Like Belarussian, Ukrainian is similar to Russian and can be understood to some extent by Russian speakers (and vice versa).

Understanding it is like listening to a person talking a creole of English, its hard to understand sometimes but you can get the general idea (like trying to listen to a Jamaican person speaking in a very strong Jamaican accent).

I'd personally go with Russian.

>>1251888
>that's funny, for seventy years ago it was still Polish.
For what - 20 years? It's a Habsburg city and its people firmly believe that they're part of Vienna cultural sphere. Which is more or less a delusion ofc and what's more pisses dudes from Kiev with their own vision of Ukraine.
It would be funny if it woudn't be kinda sad.
Op should learn russian.

>>1252353
>We speak Belarusian almost everywhere in the country, everyone knows it and it is the most used language in day to day life
What? 95% of urban population uses Russian in day to day communication and while everyone understands Belarusian few people can properly speak it. Belarusian is a half-dead language and nobody reaaly cares, me including.

>>1251816
Russian of course. Russian language is Imerial language in English/French/Spanish style - citiezens of many ex-Russian states understand Russian speech. Meanwhile Ukrainian and Belorusian languages are local languages of minorities - they are absolutely useless.

>>1251816
Russian of course. Most of Ukrainian/ Belarusian cant speak their own languages.