[BeachTime]

Which city would be better to take an extended holiday, a month or so, to live in a city, meet girls, and learn and practice Russian...Lviv (Ukraine) or Chisinau (Moldova)?

The plan would be to start pipelining girls well in advance, finding ones who'd like to improve their English and wouldn't mind helping me learn Russian in exchange. I've done this before in other cities and it works quite well. Not sure if girls in Lviv and Chisinau are receptive to this style of meeting people.

Are they equally fluent in Russian in Lviv and Chisinau or is one city the better choice for this?

Is it true that Lviv being western Ukraine is quite nationalistic and young people aren't a fan of speaking Russian? And in Chisinau young people much prefer to speak Romanian with each other?

Obviously it'd be better to go to Russia directly or to eastern Ukraine like Kiev to find people who love speaking Russian, but to keep the cost of this trip really low since it's such a long one, I'm mainly looking at Lviv and Chisinau as it's a good compromise.

[Garzero]

Yes, in Lviv people are quite nationalistic and although they all are able to speak good russian, in this very historical moment they don't like to do it. Also, since everybody speaks ukrainian there, you won't be able to hear the daily talk in the streets, stores, bars ecc., which can help you to passively improve it.
If you wanna stay on the cheap, go to Kharkiv or Dnipropetrovsk. These are cities where russian is still the main spoken language, and have nothing to envy to Lviv in terms of quality of nightlife and girls.
In Chisinau, young girls speak romanian as their first language, and not all speak a very good russian. Also, Chisinau can be quite boring and nightlife is not great.

[Secret]

From the point of learning Russian (and not Ukrainian) Lviv is a stupid choice. Chisinau serves better for it among these two.

Although the national language of Moldova is Romanian, when riding on a trolleybus in Chisinau, you may hear approximately 40 % of the people surrounding you speaking Russian. No chance for that in Lviv. I suppose far over 90 % of the population in Moldova speak Russian as fluent as their mother tongue, for many it is their mother tongue. Very rarely experienced anybody speaking bad Russian ( a few girls under 20) and never experienced anyone speaking no Russian.

Moldovans in their vast majority are not anti-Russian at all, even those having more western oriented political views.
I speak no Romanian, only good Russian and always felt very welcome in Moldova.

For a pure russian-speaking environment you can do some day trips from Chisinau to Tiraspol in Transnistria, 2 hours by bus. Or even for one or two days to Odessa, 5 hours by train.

But in general: Why Lviv or Chisinau? For learning Russian the best idea is (after of course Russia or Belarus which require visas) in Ukraine Odessa or Dnipropetrovsk or Kharkiv or any other city in central or eastern Ukraine. Your point about the costs, is that a joke? You can go for under 20 $ by train from Lviv to the whole country Ukraine.

[Hornet]

Chisinau city has nice parks, but its dead by 9:00 PM....too quiet, even if you just want to go for a stroll in the evening. Also, they speak a lot of Romanian although most understand some Russian.

Lviv residents refused to speak Russian several years, I can only imagine the situation these days.

Kharkov, Odessa, or Dnipropetrovsk are your best best bets.

Odessa is quite inexpensive now since the tourism industry is in bad shape.

Did you know they appointed Former Georgian President Sakaashvili Governor of Odessa Oblast yesterday? I never would have predicted that!

[whoishe]

Nothing to add. There's no point in going to Lviv if you want to learn Russian. You can get away with speaking it if you are a tourist and you can even find someone to teach you too (money talks), but whole process will be still a poor experience.

[BeachTime]

I appreciate the help here, had no idea Lviv was such a poor choice for learning Russian and that Chisinau was seen to be a generally boring place.

(05-31-2015 07:34 AM)Garzero Wrote:  

since everybody speaks ukrainian there, you won't be able to hear the daily talk in the streets, stores, bars ecc., which can help you to passively improve it.

Great point, this is so important for language learning. In Ukraine, which cities that have some things to do meet this criteria? Based on this thread I can see 4 (Kiev, Odessa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk), any others?

Is Russian the first language spoken by everyone (or just the older people) in those cities, even more than Ukrainian? For example street signs and food labels are written in Russian, people at restaurants and bars converse with each other in Russian, etc?

(05-31-2015 09:39 AM)Secret Wrote:  

Your point about the costs, is that a joke? You can go for under 20 $ by train from Lviv to the whole country Ukraine.

It's more about the cost of living for a whole month. Maybe the difference is smaller than I was imagining though. How much more expensive would you estimate Kiev would be than Lviv for a month for example if you are living very comfortably (apartment in a great location, healthy food, taxis, fitness, dates)?

[PeruLover12]

...

[Secret]

Ok, so your term is a mainly Russian speaking environment, enough to do and low cost. Go to Odessa.

Was there a few weeks ago, haven't heard a word in Ukrainian there. Everyone speaks Russian in Odessa. Official written signs or food labels you will see of course mostly in Ukrainian as it s the only official language of the country, private advertisements are mainly in Russian.
As the city is suffering from the absence of tourists and the exchange rate you can make some real low cost deals in Odessa, definitely cheaper than Kiev.

Other citys: As said Dnepropetrovsk and Kharkiv, some more medium size cities for your purpose might also be Kryvyj Rig, Mykolaiv, Poltava or Vinnycja.

[Garzero]

(06-03-2015 05:36 AM)BeachTime Wrote:  

It's more about the cost of living for a whole month. Maybe the difference is smaller than I was imagining though. How much more expensive would you estimate Kiev would be than Lviv for a month for example if you are living very comfortably (apartment in a great location, healthy food, taxis, fitness, dates)?

In this case I can tell you with sureness that the cheapest place is Kharkiv. Dnipropetrovsk is slightly more expensive (I'd say a 10-20% more) both for lodging and restaurants. BUT in Dnipropetrovsk you save the money for taxis that you need in Kharkiv to go to clubs (in Kharkiv nightlife is spread all around the city, and since it's pretty good, you'll become addicted to it as I did. Hence: a lot of taxis)
Also, in Dnipropetrovsk you find better and more various food in supermarkets, while in Kharkiv you end up going to restaurant all the time due to the scarcity of what you find in the stores. So even in this istance it can be a saving. Between the two, I prefer Dnipro also for quality of life, landscape, architecture, vibe and friendliness of the people.
It's your decision. I haven't mentioned Odessa and Kiev because being both cities with tourism, prices are of course the highest, especially for lodging, if you wanna stay in a decent location.

[Hornet]

I'll also recommend Odessa. Normally the city is expensive, but the lack of tourists has made it super cheap now.

Your main expense will be the apartment and those are at excellent prices at the moment. Just remember to check the rental prices on russian language sites (use google translate) and bargain HARD. Because you are a foreigner they will try to jack up the price, but if you have compared the prices online you will be prepared.

[Google "kvartira v odesse" and visit orendar, olx, doba, and the other top 10 search results.]

Good luck.

[matthewshannon9]

I can't not honestly believe that Kiev and expensive are being used in one sentence here. Ukrainian beers are a dollar or less at a restaurant and mixed drinks at the club were $5 max a week ago. First of all, if you want to learn Russian, don't even consider Moldova or West Ukraine. If you are in any central to eastern Ukrainian city you can easily learn there and Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk are the best bets. What is your budget? You could do any of these places going out twice a week with $800 a month. You can also freelance teach English and likely make more than that. If you actually want to learn Russian go to Kharkov as your opportunities for everything will be better. This is my advice on spending time in all those places and living in Russia. Don't come to Russia to learn Russian, its much much more expensive for the same experience.