I just want to say this: I don't give up. I'll practice Ukrainian. I don't give up, 'cause I have some Ukrainian friends and I'm not going to stop it and maybe if I have the chance to hire ukrainian professionals. but thanks to inspire me to focus to understand only in this beautiful language. I don't give up. Greetings from Guatemala City, Guatemala, Latin america. 👍✍💪 🇺🇦 🇺🇦 🇬🇹 🇬🇹

Another obstacle that seems pretty unique to learning Ukrainian compared to other languages I have learned- the fact that Ukrainian media, tv shows/radio etc. are very often mixed Ukrainian/Russian in the same program. Like for example, it is very common to see on TV or radio an interview where the host will speak Ukrainian, but the person they are interviewing will reply to all the questions in Russian. Another common thing is for the speakers to switch between the two languages during the same conversation. This can make finding "authentic" materials for learning Ukrainian challenging, because when you start watching a Ukrainian UKposts video for example, you never know if the clip will actually be 100% Ukrainian, or if it will be a combination of the two languages. For most other languages I have learned this situation does not exist, for example, when watching a French or Spanish language TV show, it is impossible that they will speak 2 different languages during the same conversation, the entire show will be in the same language- even if it is not everyone's first language, like for example, if a guest is on a French language radio show, they will speak in French only to reply to the questions even if French isn't their first language, they won't simply reply in their native language because its easier for them, even if they know that the other person would understand them, because it is expected that the entire show will take place in French if it is a French language program. I guess the main difference is that in Ukraine it is probably safe to assume that everyone listening will understand both languages, so it doesn't matter if the participants speak 2 different languages, but it makes it very difficult for people who are not native speakers to follow.

I was born in Lviv but never learned Ukrainian growing up because I came to America when I was a baby. I'm finally ready to learn my language and I just found your channel, I can't wait to watch your videos! Дякую! :)

Як приємно бачити що іноземці не здаються і докладають зусиль вивчаючи нашу солов'їну!🥰 Усім Good Luck 🍀 з Тернополя!

I'm half Ukrainian, and didn't grow up in Ukraine. Sadly I wasn't able to learn Ukrainian during my life. I know basic Russian and Ukrainian. (Russian more tbh bc we know how most cartoon and songs are in russian). Anyway, I would love to learn and be fluent in my language. However, it seems to be pretty challenging because I never know where to start from..

1 - motivation - current happenings 2 - how to start? - i watched your video "how to read the ukrainian alphabet" and then learnt the alphabet!! 3 - high expectations - yeah. i know i was always bad with languages and i don't have high expectations 4 - time - i make time 5 - i forget everything - i talk to my dog all day in ukrainian. i am slightly mad. я люблю тебе! ти любиш мене??? dog just looks confused.

Love your channel. Canadian Ukrainian. Born here trying to learn. Your channel helps.

Your English sounds very good to me, very clear and well spoken and good grammar and structure. Anyways, thankyou for this! I have just embarked on my journey to learning Ukrainian and this video is very useful.

It's hard but l'll do my best. Some words are hard to pronounce, It's a struggle but I hope I became a fluent speaker.

I was borned in Belgium. And I speak French, English and Ukrainian 🙂 I have ukrainian roots.

I just signed up for lessons with you and am so excited. My brother married a beautiful Ukraine lady and I want to be able to speak with her family while in Ukraine. I also joined a missions group, Last Bell, to help Ukrainian youth. I’ve been learning on my own pretty well but now it is time to get serious!

I want to learn for my lady and myself. I am in Ukraine at least 3 times a year and for me it is very important to learn. I started local Ukrainian classes, but the teacher told me more people speak Russian in Ukraine and I switched... Wrong move completely. I know a little of both Russian and Ukrainian, but I want to learn Ukrainian ) I will be emailing you after typing this comment.

I think the obstacles for learning any second language recreationally are more or less the same. You have other things to do, often times don't have anyone close to you to converse with in said language, and it requires a lot of consistency or you start to lose whatever progress you've gained. I found personally some things that help are listening to music in the language you're learning and watching movies with subtitles.

Because of the current crisis (re: Russia invading) I decided to study Ukrainian. I don't have Ukrainian ancestry (the closest is Czech), but I do enjoy learning languages. Up to date, I have studied French and Swedish, and have dabbled in Italian, Irish, Mandarin, and Czech. Irish and Czech are very hard, partly because they use the Latin alphabet but few words are cognates to English. Although the Cyrillic alphabet is radically different, I think it will be beneficial to me because I won't be expecting to make any predictions about words or syntax because I won't have anything to compare it with. Duolingo is my first resource for studying Ukrainian, and they have a whole section of their program devoted to the alphabet (outside of their learning modules). In completing those exercises, it would be helpful if they told me what HOHHA or TOTa meant (for example) or if they're just random phonemes put together for the sake of practice. 🙄 I have also downloaded the Pimsleur method as an audiobook to help learn to speak the language.

I've been on DuoLingo for about 3 years now. That seems to be my greatest motivation as I don't know anyone that is Ukranian. I am terrified to try speaking Ukranian to somebody that is actually fluent in Ukranian.

I have always wanted to learn Ukrainian because I have always wanted to visit the country one day and to speak with the local and try to have conversations with the people.

I love your passion for language teaching. I am an American and I visited Ukraine in 2016 and I stayed with an Inna and her family😊 I just found a Ukrainian church here in Fairview, Oregon and I have decided to start attending when I can. I would like to visit Ukraine again and learn your language for God and for the people. I love Ukraine! Thanks for all your videos!

Прівіт! I am a native English speaker in canada who is starting to learn ukrainian. This was an excellent video laying out my obstacles. I don't know anyone who is ukrainian, but the war has put your country into my brain, and my heart aches for your people. I want to help some refugees that make it to Canada with no where to stay, especially with small children. (I have small children and space to fit a small family. So I have enough stuff to share/give away ). I think it would be a nice gesture to learn as much about the language as I can. I tried and failed many times years ago to learn Polish, so I already have a soft spot on my heart for Slavic languages. Hopefully this dreadful war, and the limited capacity I have to help, will be the motivation I need to learn a second language. It will also make tourism easier. When the war is over I want to vacation there and volunteer somehow and help physically and economically , knowing how to speak ukrainian will help with that effort. I'm so glad I found your channel. I'll be buying the book and looking into lessons with a native speaker. Seeing as how I know no one, can someone comment if it's a nice gesture to cook some борщ as a welcome meal? Or any other advice? Thank you 😊❤️

I’ve been learning Ukrainian on duolingo for the past three months. 👍

Дякую за відео!💗 Особисто мені, як українці, воно було корисним для вивчення англійської ✨☺️

I started learning Ukrainian, on Duolingo, for a few reasons. Firstly I'm 52 and have seen the effects of people around my age (and younger) slowing down and stopping learning so was looking for something challenging to learn. Secondly following the Russian invasion of Ukraine it felt like a way to show solidarity with Ukraine. Finally, the city I live in, Birmingham in the UK, is a designated city of sanctuary for refugees so there's a good chance I'm going to bump into someone fleeing the war and it would be nice to be able to speak at some level with them, even if just to say Привіт. I only started two weeks ago, I think I'm just starting to get my head into it, your video on the alphabet was very helpful. When Duolingo changed their user interface last week they lost about half of my progress which was really off putting, on the other hand it's giving me a chance to review material, although it's a bit frustrating to be hit with a sentence like "Чиє це батки?" or "Але, де моя дружина?" and be left thinking, "When am I going to be using phrases like that?" I found your videos whilst looking for other sources to learn from. In the past I've tried to learn German and Spanish at a local language school but always run into the same issue, over the year the class size reduces due to people losing interest until by the time we come back after Easter break (they follow the regular school year, three terms starting in September and finishing in July with breaks at Christmas and Easter) there's not enough students for the class to be viable. I can never progress onto year two because I can't get to the end of year 1 due to the class closing. German has come in useful a few times including at work where a project hired a Hungarian contractor without first checking that he spoke English, he didn't, not a word, but he did speak German very well so between my limited knowledge of German, and me bringing in my German-English dictionaries and grammar books, we were able to communicate enough that we could work together. I also once had to use it to help out the clerk at a hotel in London who was from somewhere in Eastern Europe, was here to study English, and had gotten so flustered by the American (US) couple shouting at her that her command of English disappeared. You mentioned songs as being part of why you learned English. A number of my friends who grew up in countries where English is not a native language say they got their start in learning English pronunciations because a lot of US TV shows would appear on their national channels, some dubbed and some subtitled with the original soundtrack. Made me wonder if you get that in Ukraine?

Thank you so much Inna for this video! you keep us (students) motivated by discussing these obstacles!

Your English is great. If you can understand people speaking English, and people who speak English can understand you, then you are definitely great!

It is a beautiful thing to observe and listen to you speak. I am striving to learn some Ukrainian as I am growing very close to someone who was forced to join relatives in Kazakhstan because😢of the war. When I see her I wish to express my deep feelings for her in her own language. I am mute from Cancer at the moment but hope to get over that obstacle. I am not understanding how to obtain your book on cases but will keep researching. Thank you Inna, you are beautiful just as my friend from your country.

Totally fine!

Thank you !

This is the exact video I needed to hear. Thank you.

Hi Inna, I am 86 years of age , I have been studying Russian for about 5 years , 2 years on Duolingo , and am ( for various reasons ) thinking of switching to Ukrainian . What would you suggest I start working on , and could you help me with the transition? I read Cyrillic reasonably well .

I have difficulty adjusting to the alphabet because there are several letters that look very much like the english and european alphabet but sound much different. There are also numerous letters that sound like the European alphabet but look entirely different. Also many words have many letters in them making it challenging to read fluently.

Thanks for your tips, very helpfull.

Thanks for the advice i want to learn

Excellent comparison between cases and notes

Thank you ❤️

You punctuate so beautifully and quite unique. Very attractive. Lots of charisma! Well done.

A very good video. Realistic and optimistic at the same time!

Very well spoken

I took your advice and just purchased your textbook Master Ukrainian Cases. I also subscribed to your channel here, because it is very important that I learn the Ukrainian language as quickly as possible, and I can tell by your videos, by your website, and even on Amazon that you are a master, and I want to learn from the best. I appreciate all of your advice, and will likely contract you about becoming one of your students soon. Thank you for your help and sharing of this very important knowledge! I am very grateful.

Thanks!

Lol you are so cute! I play guitar and yes your fingers will hurt. I love the way you put things into perspective! Great job!!!

Thanks for sharing this. I love all of your Ukrainian lesson videos but it is also nice to get some insight into the whole learning process 🙏

Another excellent video! I have been super inspired by your channel to make videos about my experience learning Ukrainian. I actually feature you in one of my videos!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge of this beautiful language 😍.

Well, I've got some powerful motivation; I love the culture, music, and especially the food. However, now that I know I'm expected to give up eventually, well, now I'll die before I give up on Ukrainian

You're are fully understandable in English, good job it's got some weird rules coming from an English native, but since you gave us tips I'll give you one that will help your English alot if you're trying to think say um ,the u makes the same sound as the word up ,it'll make you sound more native and give you time to think of what you want to say and how you want to say it ,I can't speak for other languages but in English how you say something is usually just as important if not more important than what you're saying ,so we say um alot while thinking of how to word or say something ,also would it be more useful to learn Russian ik alot of Ukrainians already speak Russian too ,and which would you say would be easier to learn for an English speaker

U r good teacher 4 me thank u helped us to learning UK

Your English is so cute and amusing to me Inna It is universally true with exotic languages everyone speaks in a funny style and that is just beautiful. Keep up the good work. I use the example of using both feet to walk to progress grammar and vocabulary step by step simultaneously. I picket out the top 10 commonest spoken languages and I learned them all. Russian was there but not Ukrainian but now to help the refugees I need to quickly pick up some Ukrainian

Nice video miss, I've discovered your channel just now and I wanna tell you that I'm learning English because I think it's a very easy language, but I asked myself if I was able to learn another language and I loved the Ukrainian language, I think it sounds very sexy, but I don't know how to start because the structures of the sentences are so different, I know I can learn the cyrilic alphabet but idk how to articulate correct sentences and sound fluent like a native speaker. By the way excellent content and I send u my regards from Mexico!

Inna you are very helpful, ever since I started learning Ukrainian 5 days ago, I took notes of phonetics, words, and English meanings. I also wrote a reminder of my goal for learning Ukrainian. And even if I hadn’t written it down I still would’ve remembered that I’m learning because I want to talk to my crush’s friend that I keep running into. She said hi to me today, and she speaks good English she just has a heavy accent, but she speaks Ukrainian around her friends, and I want her to understand what I’m saying. So once I master Ukrainian, I’ll probably be thanking you about 1 million times or Оден мільйон

you are so wonderful teacher

I’ve been living in Ukrainian for about 4 years now but my Ukrainian knowledge is still very basic because I don’t get to interact much with locals. I really want to master the Ukrainian language

lovely Channel. Thank You! CheerZZ from Hungary ❤❤❤

Thank you

Thanks for spreading of mova. :)

You have too much patience!!! Thank you!!

God bless you!

I am engaged to a wonderful Ukrainian woman who also speaks English. I would like to be able to talk to her in her native language like she talks to me in mine. I guess the reason I want to learn Ukrainian would be simply to put love

Thanks so much for the video, it's really great! 😃 My biggest obstacle though is that I understand 80% of Ukrainian but at the same time I am an absolute beginner so when I look at something in Ukrainian it's like "cool, I know it all" and when I try to speak it's just like "привiт... wait, I can't remember a single word" xD I just can't get my brain to switch from native Russian to a different pronounciation and vocabulary 🙈 Do you have any tips how to switch your brain from Russian to Ukrainian and not mix them up? 😃

My grandma is Ukrainian and she was fluent in the language up until recently she didn't talk to her sister as much so she lost most of the language. My cousin tried learning it too but gave up when my grandma didn't understand what he was saying because she forgot most of it. My great grandfather tried teaching my father and his siblings the language when they were younger but he didn't know English so it was harder. I wanna learn Ukrainian but I find that motivation is hard because my grandma doesn't remember much of it and I don't really have contact with her. I see her three times a year though, and I always wish that my family had shared the language and traditions.

Your English is great. I discovered a few days ago. I listen to you and like very much your passion. I will buy Bykvar and cases books. Dyakuyu 😊

I've started with the alphabet, I want to figure that out then progress from there. Thank you so much for helping me 😊. Btw your English is not bad at all I've never had a difficult time understanding everything you say. I want to try to learn Ukrainian because maybe some day I can take a trip to Ukraine. If I could I would be there now helping and learning😊

Very interesting video 👍

I would like to learn, and was thinking about using Babble. I can already read Cyrillic but don't speak the language.😁

Hi from Brasil. Thanks a lot

In reality, this horrible war has brought the Ukrainian language to me. In my journey through learning other Slavic languages (as foreign languages), some of my language exchange partners feel uncomfortable speaking in Russian with me. While I experienced something similar during my studies of Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian, I am glad that this opportunity has presented itself. Otherwise, I would have taken for granted that Ukrainians will simply accommodate me in Russian. I’m reminded of the time when I arrived in Prague, hoping to be understood in Russian. It turned out, most locals weren’t impressed with Slavic brotherly Russian. As a man of Pakistani extraction, I welcome the chance to explore through the Slavic languages.

i started on duo lingo about a week ago and switched over to primsleur after i got sick of duo lingo. i just felt like i wasn't learning much besides vocab and phonetics on duo lingo. primsleur is great for starting to speak it makes you listen to conversations of real people and just repeat what they are saying. slowly you start to understand how to properly pronounce words and phrases and it seems like you learn super fast i can already have a conversation about my language skills and ask basic questions like what would you like to eat do you speak English where is volodomry street things of that nature and teaches you to start reading after you already have some speaking down but doing duo lingo 100% taught me the alphabet and gave me a huge head start with speaking and pronunciation. i really want to learn cause i want to go and be a medical volunteer and help out i am planning on going after Christmas so i hope i am able to learn a decent amount of Ukrainian i spend about 6-8 hours everyday on primsleur and you can do it while your doing thing around the house which is nice practicing definitely takes more effort though i can not believe how fast you guys speak and the word order messes with my brain lol especially since its different depending on if the sentence is plural or singular at least that's what I've noticed. i love your videos they are super helpful when i get bored of studying

I want to learn Ukrainian so I can visit family in Ukraine. I taught myself Cyrillic. But its hard to learn what words mean. If I read a word slowly, I can sound it out.

Your talk hit the mark, with humour, thank you :-). I agree with everything you said. My maternal great grandparents were from Ukraine and I am now teaching myself, but I find it very difficult, and not at all like the other languages I speak. But that is the challenge. Hopefully in a year or two I'll be able to greet my Ukrainian neighbours, and have small very simple conversations :-).

I agree with everything here , the only issue I have is the course from Absolute beginner to confident speaker, I've taken this course with you twice now and I'm stuck on cases lesson 7 , I believe there should be a true course on Absolute Beginner. As you said Alphabet and phonetics and basic words at the start is very important I feel I was rushed through this and could have easily spent a full course on this putting it all together is way to daunting and frankly confusing , I was just getting proficient at the the first part and starting to understand stuff and then we moved into and onto cases . Any way would like to see and work with you on a true course for absolute beginners.

I’m American and I’m planning to learn Ukrainian and Polish cuz I’d love to go to Poland this summer after I graduate and volunteer to help in anyway possible for the refugees. I hope I can pick up some basic conversations in a couple of months.

I love this Ukraine and teaching

Everything that I have learned has been self-taught and through Duolingo. I also do not know what my motivation is. But I started on Duolingo and I loved the language. My issue is lack of resources and time (because I play hockey and am in highschool). Any suggestions on resources?

Have you done a video comparing Ukrainian cases? I have both Ukrainian and Russian speaking students. I've learnwd some Russian but trying to learn the two together is a bit tricky. Any advice is much appreciated!

My grandmother was taken out of her village by the Nazi's in 1946. She met my Dutch grandfather in the German camps and after the war she moved with him to the Netherlands. Sadly she past away and I was aware that I still had family in Ukraine. My uncle helped me with an adress of her younger sister and I wrote a letter in cyrillic from google translate. I got a message from a cousin last year in march and now on both sides we are verry happy to be in contact with each other! When covid is under control I want to visit them and be able to communicate with them, besides the fact that I feell the need to come closer to my roots by learning this beautifull language!

Its one of my goal to learn ukrainian ❤️ ! Even though its not quite easy thoo :”)

I can read the Cyrillic alphabet and I'm good at the phonetics and can read many of the words, but I struggle with learning cases, but I want to persevere in my learning journey.

Slava Ukraini!

Inna- great video, great advice- I’ve been living in Kyiv for years but never learned the language since my Ukrainian wife a) speaks Russian as first language, and b) wanted to speak and improve her English with me...so, now I find I may be working soon with a Ukrainian company and regret my lack of the language. I have hit all 5 of your obstacles! My addition problem is I have picked up a little bit of Russian (чуть-чуть) so it would be easier to continue learning it. If I start Ukrainian seriously it will be extra confusing. What would you recommend?

🥰🥰 Another half Ukrainian who grew up in another country checking in!! Слава Україні

Learning perfect language is not typically necessary. Communication is the most important part about learning a new language. Your English is understood perfectly and the accent, which many people try to eliminate from their speaking, is actually very pleasant to the ear! Don’t lose your accent! My personal opinion.😊

No.. Pretty good English. I have no real reason to learn Ukrainian but find it kinda interesting. Speaking of music as a motivation, that Ukrainian song I keep seeing videos of soldiers singing while kicking their feet out with backs against each other. It sounds really fun and interesting. I am super curious as to the lyrics for that song--what exactly are they and what do they mean? Where did this song come from? I am guessing it's some kind of traditional Ukrainian folk song.

Inna, nice video. One of the problems I have with Ukrainian language is that Ukrainian women speak way too fast...it's very difficult when someone doesn't speak slowly and enunciate...

My motivation is to be able to welcome and assist the refugees who will inevitably come to Ireland soon.

I am trying to learning Ukrainian, cause I think it will be a ood academic challenge, and my main challenge is time, but I hope after covid 19 ends, I will beable to practice this language with some on the native speakers at my high school

My dear inna chords are like words ifvyouvleaen a?song the chords inn a song. Are conplete sentences the indicidual notes are cyrrylic letters

As a person who learned Latin. I am excited to try learning Ukrainian. I want to try the cases. Latin only has five. The writing system should be easy. Once you learn Japanese any writing system seems easy. 😂

Is there a digital version of "mastering Ukrainian cases"? I couldn't find it in the apple book store.

Thank you ,, for your video it was very good,,,,,,,,, iam tryin to learn the language,, i wish i had a keyboard with the Ukrainian alphabet so i can practice

the first obstacle for myself as an English speaker is not having lessons to teach a solid foundation in phonology. Found your phonetic videos to short unfortunately. I have yet to find any Ukrainian lessons that do this in a slow, methodical and yes, boring way. ( think old time FSI teaching method as an example) if anyone knows of such lessons could they please direct me to them. thank you. Perhaps my best way is to come to Ukraine and enrol in private language course. I do enjoy this channel and am very motivated because of your love to teach the world about Ukrainian and hope to start using it once I have the foundation of a good phonology. :)

I am from Ukrainian decent from western Ukraine, born in the USA. My grandparents were Ukrainian and my father never spoke English until he was around 5 or 6. I visited Ukraine in 2021 and went there 2 more times and left 1 month before the war started. I am now married to a Ukrainian woman living in the US. Unfortunately, she is from Kharkiv and has been Russified. We have a new son now and it upsets me that she speaks to him in Russian. Growing up I did learn some words but not enough to have a conversation. I will be watching your videos to try and become more fluent in Ukrainian.

I’m Dutch and have been learning Russian for 3 years now, but only from friends and google translate in my free time. I’ve been making many friends among the Ukrainian refugees here in Holland and Love these people and so I have just decided that I want to learn Ukrainian aswel, my main obstacle is that some of them speak Russian with eachother (of which I can speak and understand about 60%), but these same people speak Ukrainian with others who prefer to speak Ukrainian only, so if I sit at their table and try to understand the conversation, I recently discovered I’m hearing a mishmash of both languages! 😅

I can pronounce most words but its the gramma - as in German - I am scandinavian - its very hard for us but I like Ukraine and want to stay there longer tiem next time and be able to speka the most basic phrases -I like the languange

I writen 7 books but now im PREPERING for move on after evacuation allepo 2016 i don't know what i still stay in my town maybe becouse covid 19

I would like to learn Ukrainian. My wife is Ukrainian-American. Her father was born in Budaniv a village about 100 miles from Ternopyl. I think Ukrainian is more difficult because of the alphabet. I studied eight years of German in High School and in College. I speak pretty well, but I don't consider myself fluent since I don't get to use that much. I have an Ukrainian University near me,but the course is in English trying to teach you some conversational Ukrainian. I want to learn the alphabet, how to pronounce the words with a decent Ukrainian accent. My wife learned Ukrainian first as that's all they spoke in their home. Her Mother was born in Poland. My wife can help me, but she doesn't think that she speaks it that well. I disagree with her. I think she does fine with speaking it. Also, Inna, you speak English very well. God bless you too with all that is happening there.I wife has family in Ternopyl area.Some female cousins have emigrated to Poland, of course the male cousins are fighting for Ukraine. God bless you all, Slava Ukraine!!!!🙏🙏🇺🇦🇺🇦💛💙

I was thinking to get another language. When war in Ukraine started I was sure that it will be Ukranian. I start with duolingo lessons and I enjoy it. Alphabet is pretty hard as same letters are different in cyrylics (P- R, H - N) and there are other letters instead of those. But i am improving. There is now abou half milion ukranians in czech republic and I want them to feel welcome. I hope I will find someone eventualy for life conversation when I get better in ukranian. Ah and I have to mention that there is a lot of words in sentence I feel missing - too few words to say a lot:)

Вітаю! Вітаю, Вас/вас! Мої вітання!

I speak both English and Spanish. I am working on the Alphabet and some sounds see closer to Spanish than English.

Молодчинка

My problem with Ukrainian is that I can understand the basics but my pronunciation is really bad. I feel like I'd benefit from having a friend to speak with but I don't know anyone who speaks Ukrainian :(

any pdf for beginner ukranian phrases?

You forgot the biggest obstacle. The teacher. Often, teachers try to teach what is important to the teacher. This is bad, because they should be teaching what is important to the students. Students will work harder if they are learning what is important to them. Teachers think grammar is important, because teachers want students to learn perfection and be fluent. This is wrong. Students want to communicate. It doesn't matter if the grammar is horrible. You can still communicate. Vocabulary is the most important thing. Grammar is the last thing that should be taught.

I just started learning Ukrainian about a month ago. My goal is to be at an intermediate level in 3-4 years. ♡