Language and Travel Guide to Ukraine

Maybe I was a little less patient with this book, I believe it is a fine product, my problem is I can see the words but if I never here the way they actually sound when pronounced by a native, I will never know if I'm saying anything right. Now if there is a audio sound tract I can purchase it will give the book a five stare raying.

Not really a huge choice of travel books on the Ukraine so this one serves my purpose. It's easy to read and contains the information I require.

From the great reviews and the book description, I thought this book would come with good subway maps, at LEAST. If you need a guidebook to help you around, don't bother with this book. I am quite disappointed.

Travel guide what we want to see in Ukrainian,helps with our language study.

Language and Travel Guide to Ukraine/ /Fifth Edition.By Linda Hodges with George Chumak.Review by John Guy LaPlante For sure this is THE book I wish I had had with me when I shipped out to Ukraine in 2007. I went as a Peace Corps Volunteer...a university teacher there. I wasn't a 22-year-old. I was going on 80 and had traveled a lot, even around the world, and alone. I was quite savvy in getting around. Oh, I armed myself with a guide book (not this one!). Plus a short "culture" book. I wasn't going as a two-week tourist. I was going to live and work and observe in that puzzling country for a full hitch of 27 months. Those two books were okay. They helped me as I traveled around that vast country on my bits of time off.Then one day at Headquarters in Kyiv I was looking through the "leave one / take one" bookcase in the Volunteers' lounge. And I stumbled on Linda Hodges' book! In five minutes I realized it was far better than the two books I had. And snatched it. From that moment it was always in my bag when I took off.I still have it. That was the second edition. This is the fifth edition, and just out. Her first one was excellent, I'm sure. Her second was terrific. Well, this one beats it. I can tell that she has polished and polished it, so to speak, making it as comprehensive as possible, as topical as possible, as helpful as possible, and most of all, as objective as possible.Ukraine split off from the U.S.S.R. in that unbelievable year of 1991. So her first edition must have been one of the first significant ones on the market.Being objective is always a huge challenge, even for a journalist, whose professional mandate is objectivity! One's own culture, own upbringing, own beliefs and predilections can jump in and distort. I hate to use that word, distort. But you know what I mean: may warp, or fall short, or mis-explain.She is a second-generation Ukrainian living in Iowa, the child of immigrants. She is a food and travel writer. She became interested in Ukraine because it was her ancestral homeland. She found the place so interesting that that is how she got the bug to write about it. And what a bug that has been!I understand totally because I have the identical background, but French. This is why I appreciate her challenge all the more.She loves Ukraine. That comes through clearly. That's why she went there the first time, then returned. So, joyfully she tells us all about the impressive culture and inbred talents and attainments of Ukrainians, and they are a great many. Their bravery and tenacity and even heroism in getting through the horror of Sovietism, and then setting off on the perilous transition to real democracy and dog-eat-dog free enterprise.In such capitalism you have to compete! And that isn't easy when you've lived for decades in a dictatorial and often indifferent totalitarian society that tells you every move you can make, and every move you must not make!Despite this understandable fascination that she has for the country, she is careful about pointing out the many problems of modern Ukraine. She laments the often ineffective leadership. The pervasive scheming and corruption. The nasty inflation. The thorny problems of effecting changes that are proper and right and correct. The struggle to get with it. She is indeed objective.But as she notes, and as I have observed for myself, Ukraine is making impressive progress on many fronts. It is true: by and large the Ukrainians are good and endearing people. Talented and hard-working. Creative and principled.The land is beautiful and fertile. The economy has robust elements based on skilled manufacturing and world-famous agriculture. When I went there, I thought it might have half a dozen institutions of higher learning. It has hundreds! Its literacy is as high as ours. It has fine libraries and symphony orchestras and splendid museums.Its villages are charming. Its countryside offers countless Kodak moments. Its great cities can rival many great cities in the world. In some corners of Kyiv, the magnificent capital, I often thought I was in a charming quartier of Paris...and I have been to Paris numerous times.In a nutshell, this is the all-in-one book that any serious traveler should have. She tells us about Ukraine's society, its history, its language and culture, its glories, its problems. The things you should make a point to see and enjoy, and the few things that you should be careful about, as in any country, of course, even our U.S.A. Plus loads of vital advice.She has a full section on the Ukrainian language, including a very useful abundance of handy expressions. A beautiful portfolio of gorgeous and interesting color photos is included. Numerous maps. She sprinkles the book with small sidebars of important info. And she provides a fine index--a real index--that makes it easy to locate something in this hefty 368-page volume.It's appropriate to mention here that her co-author George Chumak provided the bulk of the Ukrainian language vocabulary and drew most of the maps. He is a Lviv-born Ukrainian who is a university professor of chemistry in South Carolina. Lviv is the beautiful city in the West that is the country's cultural and emotional capital.And she writes crisply and clearly, but with thousands of details. Collecting and making those details understandable is a challenge in itself. They are another big plus.I got to know Linda while I was in Ukraine. I am a writer of books myself. I e-mailed her about something one day, and she was quick in replying. It started a friendship.She asked me for bits of information about Chernihiv, the city I was posted in. And solicited some observations. I was glad to provide these tidbits. I see some of them in this book now. So in all this I got to see her painstaking and prideful attention to accuracy and detail. Impressive.She mentions that 20 million tourists now go to Ukraine in a year. Wow! What a huge gain! This shows you what strides the country is making. All these tourists should take along this book.It's only fair that I give this book what it deserves, which is a full five stars.

This is a great book for anyone going over to Ukraine for any duration of time. My wife is from a mountain village near Uzhhorod and I know that Linda's book is concise and accurate. For 16 bucks you can greatly enhance your trip to Ukraine, it is worth every penny.~Bear Nielsen

This book was published in 2011, not 2010 as Amazon states. I've called their attention to this, but it has not yet been corrected.

I will be using this aid on my trip to Ukraine.