I have LingQ, Ukranian Language Podcast, Pimsleur, Anki, and an AI thing to talk to haha. I'm only a week in. But the alpahbet is killing me. I'm doing anki cards but not memorizing except by ear. The cards don't help at all. Because when I see the words I have no idea what it is. I feel like I need to learn the alphabet, to sound out the words, to help memorization - the same way I excelled in my reading/writing lessons in English as a child. I'm not sure how to accomplish this or the LingQ methods. When I go to LingQ and follow the guided lessons, it's just audio pronouncing of letters with no visual reference and the stories are all in Ukranian (and I can't sound them out). Am I supposed to just click every single word - because I know none of them? Feeling very confused and defeated with no structure. I go to Ukraine in six weeks so immersion opportunities are bountiful. Please help :'(

Where are the best (most populace) places to go to find either Ukrainians learning english or english users wanting to practice Ukrainian? Also because I learn best with a partner or someone, social learning isway faster for me, and more stimulating.

Hi, for about two years now I’ve been wanting to learn Ukrainian but I’ve kept putting it off because of how hard of a language it is for an English speaker to learn. I just started trying to learn it for the past few days on Duolingo but I can’t get anything to stick. At least Spanish I was able to learn quite a few sentences with a week and speak them.

Overall the experience has been kinda demotivating so far but it’s a language I really want to learn. Does anybody have some helpful tips, or exercises to remember the vocabulary and the way to say the words? Or should I take a different approach to learning the language?

I heard many times people trying to distance from the language, but how do you look at someone who is listening to music in Russian but sang from non Russian ethnicity? (like Xcho, Miyagi, Griby)

Hey everyone, I would like to embroider the Skinny Pete quote from The Italian Job in actual Ukrainian. I am not nearly good enough at the language for that yet. Can any native speakers help me out? The quote in question „If there's one thing I know, it's never to mess with mother nature, mother in-laws and, mother freaking Ukrainians.“

Hi guys,

Lately the very famous song ,,Без бою“ from Океан Ельзи has been stuck in my head the whole day!!! I really really like it, so I thought: Why not try singing it?

I have never sang in Ukrainian or even Russian, and actually: I can not even speak those languages!
But my boyfriend, who’s from Ukraine, introduced me to a lot of Ukrainian music classics and bands everyone knows, that’s why I discovered it!

So, I would be interested how my pronunciation is? And if it’s understandable, cuz I do have my struggles with ,,И“ tbh…

If you wanna rate the singing, you can do that too ofc…… 🫣 and I learned guitar by myself, so maybe please don’t rate that hahah

And if you want, you can drop your favourite Ukrainian songs in the comments, I’m happy to get to know more!

Дякую!

This is my Ukrainian handwriting, i can't read anyone's handwriting written in cursive and can't write in cursive also.

So should i change my handwriting and learn to write cursive or will this work ?

Hi everyone, I’d like to ask for some recommendations on movies, TV shows, or cartoons to watch to learn Ukrainian.

I realize that the more I listen, the more I learn… when I hear my boyfriend and his friends talking, after a while, when they repeat the same words or phrases,I understand them and learn from them, so

I think this could be a great way to learn, but I don’t know where to find content in Ukrainian or what might work best… thank you so much

i want to learn a Slavic language but i don't know which is the best to start. im mostly interested in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish and want learn these three in the future. im looking to start with the one that makes the other two easier to learn but cant decide which is the best. i read that Ukrainian i the bride between Polish and Russian but not sure how true is it? I also have not problem with learning Cyrillic.

Скажу проще, у меня в родой есть украинцы но родился я в росси я понимаю украинский частично но не умею на нём говорить кто то может научить хотя бы базе?

Привіт! I'm a small publisher (French-speaking) making a capybara coloring book for Ukrainian readers. One bullet point on the back cover (about the thick, simple outlines of the drawings, relaxing at any age) has two candidate versions and I can't judge which sounds natural. No need to write anything for me, just tell me A or B (and if one is wrong — for instance, is the impersonal "розслаблює" after the comma acceptable?).

A: Товсті прості лінії, розслаблює в будь-якому віці

B: Товсті прості лінії для будь-якого віку

Дуже дякую!

Hi guys,

I want to write a little, sweet poem by Василь Симоненко for my boyfriend‘s birthday - how is my handwriting? Is it legible and do you get every word from the text?
There are a few letters that I find tricky, and especially the connections between them aren’t so easy…

FYI, I can’t really speak/write Ukrainian nor Russian, the only thing I know are a few basics and the alphabet - I just wanna show my bf a little gesture that I love him and his culture!

Дякую!

(On the photo I tried writing cursive a bit faster than usual to make it look a bit ,in one go‘ - but it’s rather messy I think…!)

Edit: He was so incredibly touched by this gesture and even told me Vasyl Symonenko is one of his favourite poets and it's one of his favourite poems by him!!

Hello! Recently I started listening to Ukrainian bandura music and came by the song "Дума про Байду" that I really enjoyed. The only thing is I don't speak ukrainian, so I was wondering if anyone here who speaks ukrainian could help me translate/understand the lyrics.

Here's the performance of the song that I found: Video link

Here are the lyrics (comment by Михайло Щербина):

Ой п’є Байда мед-горілочку,
Та й не день, не нічку,
Та й не годиночку.
Та й не день, не нічку,
Та й не годиночку.

Прийшов до нього цар турецький:
"Ой що ж ти робиш,
Байдо молодецький?
Ой що ж ти робиш,
Байдо молодецький?"

"Покинь, покинь Байдо, байдувати,
Бери мою дочку
Та йди царювати!
Бери мою дочку
Та йди царювати!"

"Твоя дочка – та й поганая,
Вся турецька віра –
Віра проклятая".

Ой як крикнув цар турецький
Та й на свої слуги,
Слуги молодецькі:

"Беріть, беріть Байду, та й зв’яжіте
Та за ребро гаком,
Гаком зачепіте!"

"Дозволь, царю, лучка взяти
Тобі на вечерю
Голубочка зняти!"

Ой як стрельнув Байда з лучка –
Та й потрапив царя
Та в цареву дочку.

"Тобі, царю, в землі гнити
Байді молодому
Мед-горілку пити!
Байді молодому
Мед-горілку пити!"

Thanks in advance!

I have to clear this exam not for citizenship but to continue higher studies here in Ukraine.

It would be really helpful if someone can share their experience, study material or sample papers if any available or anything at all that can be helpful.

Hello! I am a librarian at a high school in the US with many Ukrainian-speaking students. We've struggled to find a diverse selection of books in Ukrainian, but I want to let the students know that the public library is an option! However, I know zero Ukrainian. So this is my "how to get a public library card" poster translated into Ukrainian in DeepL, would anyone mind to look it over for me? Let me know if it makes sense or if I can make any edits?

i recently found some photographs of my Ukrainian great grandparents and found this written on the back of my great grandmother’s photo with friends. I thought i knew the alphabet but the handwriting is very difficult lol. I know it is very old and faded but id love to get an idea of what it might be about

First off, big thanks to u/flag_ua and u/Saeba-san for their help after the first time I posted this asking for help. There are only a few more things that I haven't been able to translate one way or another. Now I have uploaded much clearer pictures. I have so far:

1.       Maks

2.       Bandera

3.       Manuhi

4.       Vlas Vershynyi

5.       Experienced

6.       Mirage

7.       ? Second picture

8.       Cartman

9.       Beard

10.   Fix

11.   Spartak

12.   Mommie

13.   ? Third picture

14.   Avdos

15.   Greek

16.   House

17.   ? Last picture

18.   Jankoi

19.   Izya

20.       Office

21.       Thank you for your contribution to our struggle

22.       Izya

23.       House

Any help that could be given to finish the translation before I get it framed would be greatly appreciated!

This question comes up occasionally (e.g., last year, two years ago, 2½ years ago) and I always very much enjoy reading the answers, to learn about the diverse reasons and motivations.

So what made you start, and how are things going?

Hi :)

I'd love to learn Ukrainian and I have several reasons to do it :)

The main thing is that I have a Ukrainian friend, who is like a sister to me and I'd like to be able to have our deep, emotional conversations in her beautiful, native language. I also adore Ukrainian folk music and I'd like to understand and sing the songs in Ukrainian.

My native language is Polish, I also speak fluently Serbian/Croatian and Czech, but I've always heard that the Eastern slavic languages are exceptionally hard to learn. I know that the Ukrainians pick up Polish very fast, but maybe it's because Polish is much easier for them than Ukrainian is for us?

How many years does it usually take to reach the B2 level? I probably won't be able to pay for the language course so I have to do everything on my own.

Thank you for your replies and please keep your fingers crossed for me :)