[Originally posted on 08/11/15 on the Duolingo Ukrainian for English speakers forum by SergioRuido]
This Ukrainian course may seem difficult if you are not at all familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet. Therefore, prior to taking it we recommend you to utilize another resource.
The resource we are going to share with you here was originally developed for Peace Corps volunteers without any Slavic language background. It consists of audio files, a supplementary PDF script and flashcards. There are 5 units broken down into lessons. Units 1-4 let you practice the alphabet. Unit 5 has some basic useful phrases
The approach we use in the language script will help you to easily start reading Ukrainian words and phrases. First you see the familiar looking/sounding letters and words that can be made of these letters. And then you string new letters and words, practicing alphabet and building your vocabulary. To some extent we tried to use this approach in our Duolingo course, but because of randomization system, lack of single word audio and some other limitations it’s not engaged fully.
There are no grammar topics in these lessons. After Unit 4 there is short information about the grammar items you come across in this course. You get to know more grammar in Tips and Notes while doing the Ukrainian tree here.
You will need a device that can read PDF format, a player to listen to the audio and (optional) an installed mobile app to work with digital flashcards (links to AppleStore and GoogleStore provided). Or you can choose to print out the flashcards (also included).
We hope these materials will help you get a head start in learning the language.
Please note: to proceed to Duolingo Ukrainian you need to have the keyboard installed. This has been discussed here already; we will just put the how-to notes and links one more time (thank you again to all who contributed to this research!)
OPTIONS ON INSTALLING UKRAINIAN KEYBOARDS.
Ukrainian phonetic keyboard on Mac
Real (non-phonetic) Ukrainian keyboard on Mac:
- Open the keyboard settings in system settings
- Open the “input settings” tab
- Click on the plus in the lower right corner and add the Ukrainian keyboard
- Click on the Shortcuts tab to the left of input settings
- Change the “input sources” shortcut to option-space instead of command-space.
- Open the “Keyboard” tab. Select “Show keyboard & character viewer in menu bar
- Now you have a little flag in your menu bar. Click on it and choose “show keyboard viewer
- Hit option-tab to switch from English to Ukrainian. The keyboard viewer shows the new layout.
- This isn’t a phonetic layout but it’s probably better to learn the real layout anyway.
- The keyboard viewer floats on top of the browser window so you can always see it.
Ukrainian phonetic keyboard on Windows Vista/7
Please read also the Duolingo Ukrainian forum – Instructions by Darktroyd (and users’ comments) in this thread.
Thanks!
Selected comments on original post
We would appreciate if you directed new learners who ignore (or don’t know about) forum discussions to this and other relevant posts.
I think if we aren’t familiar with other than Roman alphabet, we should use a smartphone because it is a lot easier to change the keyboard layouts…Duolingo app
valikradobenko. це форум спільноти англомовних, які вивчають українську, тому тут переважно англійська. Якщо вивчаєте англійську – є форуми для українців, які вчать англійську.
Duolinguists 