Crimean linguistics
The present day story of Crimean linguistics is principally a story of the Russian language. The Tarter language is also spoken, but exclusively amongst the Tartar minority, and it is not widely heard. Ukrainian is only ever heard here from tourists from the Ukrainian speaking part of the country; in the north and west of Ukraine.
Currently, the language issue is a big topic in Crimea and Ukraine as a whole. Should everyone speak primarily Ukrainian? Will the Russian language be given the status of second national language, or will there be an increase in the efforts to restrict its use? The inhabitants of Ukraine are linguistically divided, and rarely can they come to a consensus.
As is commonly misrepresented, the fact that people speak Russian in Crimea and other parts of Ukraine does not necessarily mean that they consider themselves to be Russian in ethnicity, and certainly doesn't mean that they are inherently against the Ukrainian language. On the contrary, most Crimeans actually like the Ukrainian language, considering it to be 'melodic' and ''rhythmic', and almost everyone here can communicate effectively in the Ukrainian, even though on a day-to-day basis they only use Russian.
Language is, however, an inalienable and essential part of a person's culture and identity, and the notion that in Crimea Russian language should gradually take second stage to Ukrainian does not wash down well with Crimeans at all. The government of Ukraine has a policy of 'Ukrainization', in which students are increasingly being educated in Ukrainian, whilst the Russian language is sometimes been treated in schools as a foreign language on the same level as English. Such policies enjoy no support whatsoever in Crimea and many other Russian speaking parts of Ukraine.
The Russian language is a perplexing maze of traps and pitfalls. It can take months to string together a couple of decent sentences without making a mistake. The beauty of Russian however, lies in this complexity, and the Lego-set flexibility of use that this bestows the language. Personally, I feel that is difficult not to compliment a language whose grammar is so ridiculous that it has a plural form for the number 1. With a great history of literature, poetry and song, Russian is a powerful, eloquent and dramatically rich language.
As a visitor to Ukraine and Crimea, it is of great advantage if you can at least read the Russian alphabet. Thanks to our Indo-European ancestors, this is in fact one of the easiest aspects of the language, and much easier than it first seems. Many of the letters are the same or similar, and with half an hour a day of concentrated study for 4 or 5 days, you will get to Crimea in much better shape. Crimeans, as a rule, are poor at English. Sometimes they will have little or no knowledge of the language, even in upmarket hotels. Younger people in their 20's are OK-ish at English, and quite a bit better than their older counterparts. Out of 10 young Crimeans, about 1 will speak good English, 4 pigin English, and the other 5 practically no English at all.
Still, if you get socialising with a Crimean in a bar or a club, with each drink it becomes geometrically more irrelevant who knows what language, and before you know it you have an astonishing ability to understand each other!
So, the morale of the story is, before you come to Crimea, arm yourself with knowledge of the Russian alphabet and a few token words, order a big bottle of your favourite drink...and get talking!
If all else fails, you can rely on the number one tourist agency in Crimea 'AccessCrimea' to cater for all your linguistic needs whilst in this part of the world. To find out more please go to http://www.accesscrimea.com