Yes, Russian is somewhat of a lingua franca in Latvia and Estonia. Government departments and companies usually publish everything in Russian and Latvian or Estonian. In Estonia, English is becoming more common - probably half of the material you will see in English as well as the other two languages.
Menus in restaurants are usually trilingual.
A lot of the quality of life aspects aren't noticeable for the first couple of months. It's mainly long-term that they start to take their toll. For example, St. Petersburg:
- municipal cold water is not potable; hot water is usually coloured and has a chemical smell.
- everything imported sits at Customs for 2-3 weeks, so it's difficult to find fresh produce
- local dairy and produce is very low quality.
- the snow turns grey/brown/black within a few hours and it covers everything from the knees down. In Winter you'll constantly be scraping snow-dirt off your shoes.
- public transport in St. Petersburg and Kiev isn't great. The metro is deep (long time on escalators) and the stations are too far apart. Moscow's metro is much better.
- traffic is very heavy so it takes a long time to get around, and once you get there, parking is becoming a huge issue (in Moscow it's practically impossible to park anywhere).
- the central area is very polluted, so living there long-term may give respiratory and eye problems.
If you have a 10k Euro monthly spend, you could live in a new building (with water filters) on Krestovsky island (where the air is fresh), but you would still face 1-hour commutes to get anywhere. There is also no way around the low-quality produce. The top restaurants and delis in St. Petersburg can't match what you can buy at any supermarket in the EU.
In contrast, living in the centre of Tallinn gives you a 10 minute commute by foot, the food and water is clean and fresh and there is no pollution. So in general, Russian cities are a lot less comfortable to live in and will wear you down over time. Somewhat like living in London and dealing with the daily grind, but on a more extreme scale.
Kiev is somewhere between Tallinn and St. Petersburg - the pollution isn't as bad, produce is somewhat better (both local and imported), and there is less traffic.
I think L'viv would be quite comfortable to live in, but there aren't many business opportunities and it isn't a great place to study Russian.
After saying all of that, I tried moving to Riga twice and both times returned after 4-5 months. I'm not sure if Tallinn will be different or not, but for about a year I've been thinking about trying it.
In Tallinn - I don't think there would be any problems, but after a few months you should be able to pick the Estonians from the Russians and speak English or Russian accordingly. I never had any problems there or in Riga.
Menus in restaurants are usually trilingual.
Quote: (05-07-2014 05:21 PM)Teedub Wrote:
Is Ukrainian and Russian quality of life that bad, compared to EU countries then? Even in St.P?
A lot of the quality of life aspects aren't noticeable for the first couple of months. It's mainly long-term that they start to take their toll. For example, St. Petersburg:
- municipal cold water is not potable; hot water is usually coloured and has a chemical smell.
- everything imported sits at Customs for 2-3 weeks, so it's difficult to find fresh produce
- local dairy and produce is very low quality.
- the snow turns grey/brown/black within a few hours and it covers everything from the knees down. In Winter you'll constantly be scraping snow-dirt off your shoes.
- public transport in St. Petersburg and Kiev isn't great. The metro is deep (long time on escalators) and the stations are too far apart. Moscow's metro is much better.
- traffic is very heavy so it takes a long time to get around, and once you get there, parking is becoming a huge issue (in Moscow it's practically impossible to park anywhere).
- the central area is very polluted, so living there long-term may give respiratory and eye problems.
If you have a 10k Euro monthly spend, you could live in a new building (with water filters) on Krestovsky island (where the air is fresh), but you would still face 1-hour commutes to get anywhere. There is also no way around the low-quality produce. The top restaurants and delis in St. Petersburg can't match what you can buy at any supermarket in the EU.
In contrast, living in the centre of Tallinn gives you a 10 minute commute by foot, the food and water is clean and fresh and there is no pollution. So in general, Russian cities are a lot less comfortable to live in and will wear you down over time. Somewhat like living in London and dealing with the daily grind, but on a more extreme scale.
Kiev is somewhere between Tallinn and St. Petersburg - the pollution isn't as bad, produce is somewhat better (both local and imported), and there is less traffic.
I think L'viv would be quite comfortable to live in, but there aren't many business opportunities and it isn't a great place to study Russian.
After saying all of that, I tried moving to Riga twice and both times returned after 4-5 months. I'm not sure if Tallinn will be different or not, but for about a year I've been thinking about trying it.
Quote: (05-07-2014 05:21 PM)Teedub Wrote:In L'viv - just speak English first and then switch to Russian if they don't understand. They'll understand that you're a foreigner and won't expect you to know Ukrainian.
Could you clarify the getting beaten up situation too please? As thinking about Lviv for a month visit quite soon. In Estonia, would it be seen as bad to be speaking Russian as a Brit as opposed to Estonian? Like you chose the 'cultural imperialist' language as opposed to the local one?
In Tallinn - I don't think there would be any problems, but after a few months you should be able to pick the Estonians from the Russians and speak English or Russian accordingly. I never had any problems there or in Riga.