What Two Slavic Languages Will Allow Me to Understand All?

I've read that learning two Slavic languages will allow one to understand the others. I think I read "any two" Slavic languages. I wonder if this is true. I know some Russian and am learning S-C-B to communicate with an immigrant from Bosnia. Will learning these languages help me understand Czech and Polish without studying them? What about other Slavic languages?

Thanks,

K. T.

Czech better than Polish.

Well, I'd take that. What two Slavic language could I learn that would allow me to understand and be understood in all the Slavic countries?
Thanks for your opinion again.

My knowledge of the Slavic languages is limited (though for the past six months I've intended to start learning Polish) but it seems like if you were to learn a language from each branch you'd be set... In other words, I'd probably choose Polish, Russian, and S-C-B.

If I had to pick two (not the two I'd want to learn for myself, but for the sake of having the most overall benefit) I'd probably choose Czech and Ukrainian... Or Czech and S-C-B.

Slovak language is the most ''common'' Slavic language...
Most Slavic people can understand it, more or less ;)

I'd probably choose Czech and Ukrainian..._Skippy

I think I'd love to learn those languages as well. What kind of overall benefit do you mean-if you don't mind sharing?
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Slovak language is the most ''common'' Slavic language...
Most Slavic people can understand it, more or less ;)-Kess

I see a wink...

Russian and Polish are very important in Eastern Europe. Poland is an official language of the European Union and 6th more spoken (after English, German, French, Spanish and Italian).

Russian is also very important. Official in Russia, Belarus, Kyrgystan and Kazajstan and parts of Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. Also is the working language of the Community of Independent States and official language of the United Nations.

So, Polish and Russian.

Do people from Moldova feel more comfortable with Romanian or Russian?

Thanks, Babel.

I know some of them. They speak both. They are bilingual and I think they are comfortable with Russian.

I wondered about that. I wonder if there is a perfect match of Slavic languages, the "Norwegian" of Slavic languages for communication.

I wondered about that. I wonder if there is a perfect match of Slavic languages, the "Norwegian" of Slavic languages for communication.

Would that be "Slovak"? Regrettably, I don't know anyone who speaks that language.

The easiest (and the most beautiful) Slavic language is Macedonian.
It has 5 vowels (like Spanish), it has article, and very limited case system :)

Do you speak it? I don't look for ease when choosing a language...LOL-except for the lexical similarity dream calculator I described in another thread. I do (kind of )look for practicality or beauty. I'll look at the language anyway for fun.

I've heard some great opinions. Are there two Slavic languages which cover nearly all the bases?

K.T. I suppose you need Russian and Slovak or Czech.

Russian shares many words with Southern branch (Bulgarian, macedonian, Serbo-Croatian and of course Ukrainian, Belorussian), and it uses cyrillic like southern languages as well (apart from Croatian and Slovenian), while western language will help to understand all other western languages and will add new lexicon for better understanding southern branch. IMHO.

I have heard that sentence very, very often, however, in slightly different formation: Any two Slavic languages *which do not belong to the same group* allow understanding of the rest.

By that theory, knowing one Slavic language from the Northern Branch (e.g. Russian) and one Slavic language from the Southern Branch (e.g. Bulgarian) should be enough to understand them all... but it is often not, especially if you have got Northern+Southern combination - like myself, Russian, Croatian and/or Serbian, and passive Slovenian due to exposure and it being my father's native language - somebody would have thought that by knowing these, I understand them all, but I do not; I can get the gist of them all, read newspapers and such things, as well as understand spoken language to varying degrees (depending on the language), but in the essence, I am not that comfortable with them, nor do have perfect understanding. I read a lot of literature in Czech, and every time it proves to be more difficult than I expect; whilst when, out of curiosity, I skim through the Polish dictionary, I always remain surprised at the lexical differences I find. From what I know - and I am certainly no expert in the field - Northern and Southern Slavics tend to be more mutually connected than with the Western ones, therefore I assume one of the two languages should certainly be a Western one to understand better the entire group.

Only my unprofessional views of it, though.