We speak Russian at home (went to Russian Sunday school for like 10 years of my life) and I would say I speak without a noticeable accent. I would be "outed" as a foreigner in Russia if I had to write something because my grammar is abysmal or by using a strange name for a thing. My #1 language is French (Quebecois and France French - I switch accents unconsciously depending on who I'm speaking to). Then I would say my english is pretty good considering I grew up in an all French society and I didn't speak a word until about 11 years old. Strangely, I learned it at the Ukrainian camp because all my friends started speaking english and it was either learn it or have no friends. If any of you guys watched my vlog, you can definitely notice I have a strange accent because I don't speak it very much in everyday life, even if I spend lots of time typing and reading on the internets. Learned 5 years of Italian in High School and we had pretty good teachers. I'm pretty average but it's a fun trick up my sleeve when meeting Italians. It's been a while now, but I'm good enough to watch Italian movies if the Italian subtitles are on. Learned some basic Polish while on my exchange semester: I can comfortably get around, order food, haggle at the markets and generally go along everyday life. I don't think I could sustain a conversation beyond the "where are you from, what do you do, what is your favorite food" platitudes, but it's a decent start :) I also understand Ukrainian fairly well: can't speak without muddling it up with Polish and Russian but after 3 years with my boyfriend and visiting his family there, my listening comprehension is good enough that I speak Russian and people reply in Ukrainian. I was pretty surprised, but people actually speak to each other like that there - in different languages but with 100% understanding on both sides! + learned like 2 words since my month in Vietnam. And people still don't understand 20% of the time. Tonal languages are haaard...
Eh... When people ask me, I only say j speak Russian,French and English because all else is negligible. I honestly feel sometimes like I have no "native" tongue because in no language I have significant mastery. I'd love to speak English like kleinbl00 , or Russian like Posner. I understand it all, but can't express myself fully in that manner. It kinda sucks. Master of none....
Speak two languages: bilingual. Speak three languages: trilingual. Speak one language: American. I am an American. ;-) They killed the Russian class in my High School when I was in 4th grade. My mother arranged for me to study Russian with the teacher's daughter that summer. I can only say that High School Russian is a hard damn thing for a 4th grader to learn during the summer. Growing up, Spanish was predominant but not only is it a dialect disavowed by both the Mexican and Castillian school, it's a dialect used by the locals to isolate the white folx. Spanish was actually a lot easier to understand in Los Angeles because it wasn't intended as exclusionary. I studied German in High School but any language you don't use regularly is a language you lose. I've never been proficient in anything but English. I can understand some spoken German and Spanish but not well enough to bother attempting to converse in it.
That's still hella impressive for an American! Especially considering how good you speak English. I spoke to similarly eloquent people in Russian and I'm always just jealous of the rich vocabulary, expressions and all they can transmit in a sentence. "Understanding" is not the same as being able to come up with the fancy words on the spot.
My Ukrainian contractor and his wife were finishing up building my new bathroom the other day, and I got to hang out and chat with them for about 3 hours. She (Valentina) was clearly Ukrainian, in look and accent. He sounds like he was from New Jersey. (In fact, I didn't know he was Ukrainian until I asked how the two of them met, and they said "in Ukraine!" And I asked Nick, "Oh! How long were you over there?" He laughed and - in his New Jersey accent - told me he was born there.) The Russian vs Ukrainian language divide can be hilarious. I have watched Ukrainians and Russians speak back and forth. The Ukrainian understands the Russian perfectly, but the Russian can't really understand the Ukrainian. It's bizarre. The only thing I can equate it to for my American friends is the difference between an American speaking to someone from Glasgow, or maybe the Australian Outback. The Aussie/Glaswegian understands the American perfectly, but the American gets lost easily, while still being able to understand some of words...
It's two distinct languages, not simply accents or dialects so I would say the difference is probably greater than American/Glasgow dialects. I have had the same discussion with my boyfriend because he claimed at first that Ukrainian was just more diverse and had more words so it was easier to understand the Russian roots (which is bs in my opinion). Here is what I think is happening: growing up in Ukraine, you cannot avoid being exposed to the Russian language on TV, around you etc... which you can't say for Ukrainian language in Russia. It just takes a little adaptation period before "getting" it, learning the basic verbs and then understanding is easy. I can say that because I experienced it myself. My first week I was having trouble but very fast something just clicks and it becomes fairly easy to get the jist. It probably helped we started in Kiev where people speak surjik (Russian/Ukrainian mixed dialect) and then moved on to Lviv where our hosts spoke pure Ukrainian. I think native Ukrainian speakers never have that moment so there is this common sentiment Russians are just not trying :(
Ooooh! Thank you! This really helps my understanding of the languages and their relation to each other. I appreciate it. The Slavic languages were too much for me... I was overwhelmed with Hungarian, so taking on another completely differently structured language was not going to fit into my brain. So I let my Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, and Serbian friends just do whatever their did in their languages, and I focused on my Hungarian.
It's not an opinion - it's a fact... ...and this is the reason. The languages are similar in origin, but one can't say with any sort of integrity that they're similar nowadays. I had a Belarussian friend (her language being one of the three Eastern Slavic languages, the other two being Russian and Ukrainian) speak to me in her native language (despite the fact that we both spoke perfect Russian), and it's indistinguishable to me who's never learned Belarussian. I can discern the written part of both languages, but me being correct on what I think it says is no better than chance. They do have similar roots and one can do fairly good figuring out the written speech, given linguistic intuition and fair knowledge of the roots themselves, but this doesn't make them any closer to each other.(which is bs in my opinion)
growing up in Ukraine, you cannot avoid being exposed to the Russian language on TV, around you etc... which you can't say for Ukrainian language in Russia.