| Language
While not exactly in the scope of Eastern Europe, you would probably be surprised at how useful Spanish can be as you head further east across the continent. In countries like Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, Spanish is often spoken (as well as English) among the younger crowd. In addition, with the large expat and […]
| Bulgaria
Is Bulgarian a language? Is Bulgarian Russian? Is it difficult to learn Bulgarian? Those are just a few of the awesome things people have Googledabout my native language. So let me get a few things straight: Yes, Bulgarian is a legitimate language with centuries over centuries of history. In fact, you know that funky alphabet […]
So you have that Prague trip booked and now you are feeling adventurous and smart at the same time — you want to learn Czech. Good for you! There are not a lot of casual Czech learners and in general, the language gets an undeserved reputation for being too hard and not too useful. True, […]
| Bulgaria
Be honest, other than Bulgarian split squats you probably don’t know much about Bulgaria—let alone the Bulgarian language. No judgment here. This small, southern Balticcountry is easily forgotten by most of the West. However, the Bulgarian language has some unique history and characteristics that make it stand apart from the other Slavic languages. More on […]
| Language
One of the greatest challenges travelers to Poland face is simply navigating basic signs around the cities. As someone who spent the a good chunk of time living in Poland, I’ll be the first to tell you that not being able to read is a huge pain. Then I decided to learn Polish—well, at least a little bit. […]
| Finland
It’s no secret that if you’re traveling to Finland you don’t need to speak Finnish. People in Finland, young and old, speak English very well. That begs the question, “Why would I learn Finnish then?” For starters both Finnish and Swedish are both the official languages of Finland. That means almost all the signs you see […]
Hungary, a country smack dab in the middle of Europe. Surrounded by countries like Ukraine, Serbia, Romania and Austria. The influence of these neighboring countries on the Hungarian culture is abundantly clear when you visit Budapest. Logically you might think this influence would extend to their language as well. That is far from the case—you’re […]
Romania has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. From snow covered mountains, lush rolling hills and evergreen forests. This place will be sure to take your breath away. This is no exception when it comes to the Romanian language as well. Romanian is one of five romance languages. This makes it quite useful […]
| Germany
German is one of the most daunting languages for beginners and advanced learners alike. With complex orthography, grammar and vocabulary, as well as tough to master pronunciation, it is easy to become overwhelmed and decide that it is impossible to learn German. I don’t mean to scare you here, but you should be prepared for […]
| Language
What is Eastern Europe? While you can argue the technical part of this argument forever, most people would probably just say it’s anything east of Germany. Russian is spoken in many of these questions, and travelers always want to know: is Russian hard to learn? The short answer: yes. The long(er) answer: yes, but it’s doable. Why would you want […]