USA citizens were trying to survive in Ekaterinburg without any knowledge of russian language

Borrowed and translated from local news site.

USA citizens teaching english in one of the language-emphasised school in Ekaterinburg and having poor knowledge of russian, walked around the Ekaterinburg as tourists and tried to find out how to reach a hotel, an airport, a railway station or a hospital, using only their native language.

The short list of results is listed below:

- Policemen friendly met foreigners, but communicated only in russian, showing the path on the map with their finger.
- Then tourists tried to buy a ticket in the ticket-office of a museum and a theatre. Clerks were unable to answer questions, but the responsible person was called and explained everything in english.
- A conductor of a tramway can't understand what strangers wanted and let them go for free.
- Unfortunately, the city map in english can't be found.
- In a pharmacy tourists were forced to communicate with gestures, the seller didn't understand english, but the language of gestures can be understood well.
- The trial of buying flowers for a girl-friend ended up with a failure, because the seller didn't understand what the guests of the city wanted.
- When they decided to take a break and to buy a hot-dog in a cafe, it took several minutes to explain what they want. The seller literally used gestures to explain how much they had to pay.

"Tourists" have noted that in general people behave friendly and try to help. Therefore the knowledge of english leave a lot to be desired.

Source (rus): http://www.e1.ru/news/spool/news_id-323940.html

Fell free to fix errors and leave your comments.

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Written by Roman 6 month(s) ago
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Roman 6 month(s) ago
Indeed, in general, russians never use english in routine life (although, some know "hotel english" with simple phrases, enough to be understood in turkish or egyptian hotels). It seems that the best strategy for foreigners without any knowledge of russian is to approach young people for help, because it's highly probable that a young passerby is studying english in school or high school, and can understand and help you at the very least.
avi 6 month(s) ago
@shreyans- you got that right. @roman - yea,approaching younger people for help makes sense.
Nataly 6 month(s) ago
This a Russian people, who think everyday <<why we must learn English?All people all of the world must learn Russian>>. If say to truth this summer I had been in Sweden and It`s very funny when Russian go to shop, cafe, and other places and begin to speak Russian. After that they understand that people around them don`t understand them and they begin to try and remember what they learned at school and with "yes" and "no" go to away further

Corrections

USA citizens were trying to survive in Ekaterinburg without any knowledge of russian language

Borrowed and translated from local news site.

USA citizens teaching english in one of the language-emphasised school in Ekaterinburg and having poor knowledge of russian, walked around the Ekaterinburg as tourists and tried to find out how to reach a hotel, an airport, a railway station or a hospital, using only their native language.

The short list of results is listed below:

- Policemen friendly met foreigners, but communicated only in russian, showing the path on the map with their finger.
- Then tourists tried to buy a ticket in the ticket-office of a museum and a theatre. Clerks were unable to answer questions, but a responsible person was called, and he/she explained everything in english.
- A conductor of a tramway couldn't understand what the strangers wanted and let them go for free.
- Unfortunately, the city map in english couldn't be found.
- In a pharmacy tourists were forced to communicate with gestures, the seller didn't understand english, but the use of gestures could be understood well.
- The attempt of buying flowers for a girlfriend ended up with a failure, because the seller didn't understand what the guests of the city wanted.
- When they decided to take a break and buy a hot-dog in a cafe, it took several minutes to explain what they wanted. The seller literally used gestures to explain how much they had to pay.

"Tourists" have noted that in general people behave friendly and try to help. Therefore the knowledge of english leaves a lot to be desired.

Source (rus): http://www.e1.ru/news/spool/news_id-323940.html

Fell free to fix errors and leave your comments.