Most useful Slavic language
Before you all start saying "Russian" hold on. I'm planning on going backpacking through Eastern Europe at some point and, naturally, I speak English and a fair amount of German. I know English is widely spoken (and German to an extent) in Eastern Europe, but if I were to use this experience as an excuse to learn a Slavic language, which should it be? What languages are most mutually intelligible (I've heard Slovak)? Which is learned and understood by others outside of its national boundaries? I'm leaning towards either Ukrainian or Croatian...
I understand there are millions of speakers of Romanian and Hungarian and, as much as I'd love to learn those languages, I'm anticipating spending much more time in Slavic-speaking countries than Romania or Hungary (or Greece, for that matter).
Thanks ya'll. As always your comments are (for the most part) appreciated :-)
I still have to say that Russian is the most useful. Most of the countries in Eastern Europe are former satellite nations of the Soviet Union, meaning that many of the residents there were required to learn Russian at some point or another. If not that, Bulgarian and Ukrainian are other great choices. If you don't want to go through all that work, English is always the most useful next option.
In Ukraine everybody speaks/understands Russian.
In Hungary everybody speaks/understands German.
Croatia is not an Eastern European country but rather Southern E. Those political east/west divisions are obsolete.
Learn Polish. Russian is not an official language of the European Union, it's less important.
better learn to polish your shoes lol
You'll have an easiest time learning Russian because materials abound. On the other hand, you're unlikely to find good shit for learning Ukranian.
A lot of Polish people speak Russian pretty well because Poland use to be part of Russia. Even without studying Russian, most Poles can understand it. Learn Russian, it's more useful.
You'll find some middle-aged people who speak German in Hungary (although I don't know why) and you'll find people who are familiar with Russian in the countries who used to be a part of Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, etc.), but I don't know how keen they will be to use Russian.
I suggest getting a small phrasebook from Lonely Planet for Eastern or Central Europe. I don't remember which is larger, but there is a difference of a dollar between them. You'll find most of the languages that you'll need in them. The phrasebook is small enough to put in your backpack or back pocket and as it seems you like to sample many languages it will give you something to do on the train between countries.
I've found that these phrasebooks are pretty up-to-date and they have the pronunciation next to the phrases (none of that flipping back to check a pronunciation guide).
Skippy, in which countries are you going to spend most time?
In the case of Polish, Czech, and Slovak, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibilty.
Russian will be useful in Ukraine and Belarus. In Riga, the Latvian capital, Russian is also widely spoken.
My Bulgarian friend told me that there is also a good degree of mutual intelligibility between Bulgarian and Russian.
If you're going to spend more time in the former Yugoslavia, then Serbo-Croatian would be a good option.
I was going to start in Ukraine but I'll probably spend most of my time in Croatia and Slovenia. I'll probably learn SBC I suppose...
Then go for it.
I find Serbo-Croatian to be quite easy phonetically compared to East and West Slavic languages.
What about as far as general difficulty (vocabulary, grammar) relative to the other Slavic branches?
Whatever the Slavic language, don't expect to be able to speak it even conversationally for a long time...
Unfortunately I don't know much about Serbo-Croatian.
I only know a bit Polish, which is quite complicated. I think Serbo-Croatian has easier phonetics, and is easier to understand.