Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by actionfromafar 234 days ago
Depends on your standards, too. Even today, any pair of slavic speakers should have a head start in understanding each other. Put them next to each other for a month and they should be talking, at least about basic everyday things.
1 comments

Not quite. My anecdotal examples. I'm Polish.

I was in Crimea for about 2 weeks (in 2012) they split me Russian there. I couldn't understand a word they said. And I didn't learn to understand than for 2 weeks of travel there.

I could understand some words from Ukrainian (I traveled by train from Lviv).

Another example is Croatian, I've been there on vacation and renting a room. I couldn't understand a word they said and didn't learn any.

TlI can understand some Czech (because this is the closest language together with Slovakian to Polish) but that's it.

I wouldn't mix Slavs from different groups together. They evolved separately and are as close as English and German.