Essential and useful language phrases

Hi all,

I'm about to finally depart for my month long trip to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and was wondering if people who know these countries well have any advice about language.

I'm aware that I can easily find out essential phrases such as 'thank you' from guidebooks (a word which seems pretty much identical in all three languages?), but I was wondering if there are any recommended phrases to learn in each language - or terms/phrases that people appreciated hearing.

As I don't speak Russian I feel as though I might as well make as much effort with the three languages as possible, rather than learning Russian essential phrases!

I think you're best off with Russian. Russian is still widely spoken in these three countries, and in somewhere like Kazakhstan, a significantly larger percentage of the population speaks Russian than speaks Kazakh. Learning basic greetings and "thank you" in Turkic is nice enough ("rakhmat"), but Russian may well be more handy. I guess it depends on which you find easier to learn.

Otherwise, I can't think of any particular phrases you might want. Pretty much the same as elsewhere, the sort of things that come in handy. You might want to learn the Russian hand gesture for "let's drink" though. It's quite dangerous...

Why don't you use a phrasebook ?
You have a specific one for Russian and another one for Central Asian languages.
They are edited by LP and you can buy them on the shop section.
Russian is the most effcient/practical language there.

Michel

But most of the tourists there are visiting without speaking Russian or local languages...
Don't stress and enjoy.

Michel

You are overthinking it. Easiest option is just learn russian, rather than trying to learn a different language for each country. Most people seeing you are a tourist will automatically speak Russian anyway.

Another vote for Russian. Kazakhstan especially will be very 'Russified'. While Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have lower levels of Russian (at least this is what both Russians and Uzbeks/Kyrgyz tell me), they'll know more than enough regarding tourists.

Besides, I visited Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan without knowing pretty much a single word of Russian and managed just fine. Although English is still limited...

This topic has been automatically locked due to inactivity. Email community@lonelyplanet.com if you would like to add to this topic and we'll unlock it for you.