Language(s)

[KiwiChick]

Hi everyone,

seeing as it is pretty impossible to learn all the local language (of which we of course would learn the basics) I am wondering if it would be useful to speak Russian? Our preferred route would be Russia, Mongolia, Kyrgistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan (- and then Iran and VAE.)

I hope this doesn't like a totally stupid question but would you get by with speaking Russian? Would people mind?

Thanks for your input and ideas!

[OWNER]

Hi
Definitely, people will not mind speaking Russian in the Russian Federation. )) In Kyrgyzstan, Russian is the official language and everyone (or almost everyone) speaks it. In Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, it is somewhat less, but also without problems. Tajikistan - I don't know, I have not been there. Mongolia - many older people speak Russian, young people know English. But in the center of Ulan Bator, I was unable to communicate with the police in either of these two languages.
The same situation was in Iran - these two languages ​​did not help me.
What is VAE? Maybe the UAE? O! Verstanden, du schreibst auf Deutsch ...)) I spent a lot of time in the UAE, there I have no problems with English, almost everyone understands.
To travel to all these countries (except Iran), you will have enough two languages ​​- Russian and English.

[OWNER]

And than. You forgot one more country - Kazakhstan. You cannot come from Mongolia to Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan without visiting Kazakhstan. You either forgot about it, or you need to study the map. In Kazakhstan, Russian will help you much more than English.

[Lovetheworld]

Yes Russian is useful. Also in Tajikistan.
But it will not be 100% guarantee as mentioned above.
And we barely spoke any Russian (just the basic words) and we also got by. Speaking the language better will get you more into contact with the locals.

In Iran only the young generation speaks some English. And that is mostly in the cities.
At least learn how to say hello, thank you, gasoil, and if somebody makes you an offer, refuse it first to see if they still maintain. Only at the third attempt, accept an offer, because then they really meant it.

[KiwiChick]

Thanks for your insights!

@owner - OMG I am so sorry, I was not 100% focused when I typed this this morning, being surrounded by two noisy boys

I do of course mean UAE! I'm Austrian, so I probably got the V and the U mixed up from the German VAE. And yes, shame on me, I forgot about poor old Kazakhstan Jeez...

I have been to the UAE three times and never had a leoblem with English and the odd Arabic phrase, but it is good to hear that we should get by ok with Russian and English in the Stans. Not that I speak Russian (yet) but I have always been intrigued to learn it and now I have a good reason to do so

[Julia]

I travelled in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan. In those countries in the cities Russian language always worked.
But in some small distant villages people often didn't understand Russian, especially young people (elder people still remember Russian). Then we used so called body language and it worked fine.