The fastest way to learn Belarusian is to spend most of your study time on Belarusian you can mostly understand. That kind of Belarusian is called comprehensible input. What you read and listen to should change as you improve, so the plan below shows what to do at each level and how to split an hour of study.
What to Do at Each Level
Find the level that sounds like you. Its bar shows how to spend an hour of study.
- First Week
I can't read Cyrillic yet.
Learn Cyrillic 40 min. Listen 20 min.
The Belarusian alphabet has 32 letters, including Ў and І. Learn them first, and listen to easy Belarusian while you do, so the sounds start to feel familiar.
- Level 1
I can sound out words but not much else.
Read and listen 35 min. Review 15 min. Speak 10 min.
Read LingQ's Mini Stories, which repeat basic Belarusian patterns, and listen to each one twice. Review the words you saved, then say a few lines out loud.
- Level 2
I can handle simple exchanges.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 10 min. Speak 10 min.
Hide the translation and look up only the words that stop you. Watch cartoons dubbed into Belarusian, and start short talks with a tutor or a friend.
- Level 3
I follow conversations on familiar topics.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 5 min. Speak 15 min.
Watch short videos about Belarusian history and culture, and read web pages about things you like with Readlang, which shows a word's meaning when you tap it. Talk about what you watched and read for longer.
- Level 4
I understand most content but miss some nuance.
Read and watch 45 min. Review 5 min. Speak 10 min.
Watch Belarusian YouTube videos on Language Player, and tap the words you don't know in the subtitles. Listen to audiobooks of Belarusian books, one chapter at a time.
- Level 5
I read complex topics but rare words slow me down.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Read the news and books in Belarusian, and look up only the words that block the story. Skarnik's dictionary shows which syllable of each word is stressed.
- Level 6
I read at near-native level.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Read Belarusian novels from a free online library, and talk about them for their own sake.
Move up a level when your lessons start to feel easy, and move back down if you lose the thread by the third line.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Belarusian?
Belarusian is not on the U.S. Foreign Service Institute's list, and its closest relative there, Ukrainian, takes 1,012 class hours, or about 44 weeks of full-time study, to reach professional fluency. That puts Ukrainian in the third of the institute's four groups for English speakers, with Russian and Polish.
| Language | FSI group | Full-time weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish | Category I | 30 |
| German | Category II | 36 |
| Ukrainian (closest to Belarusian), Russian | Category III | 44 |
| Japanese | Category IV | 88 |
FSI students have about 23 hours of class and 17 hours of study on their own each week, so Ukrainian's 44 weeks come to 1,012 class hours, or 1,760 hours in all. Here is how long those take at different amounts of study a week:
| Study per week | FSI classes for Ukrainian (1,012 hours) | FSI classes and study on their own (1,760 hours) |
|---|---|---|
| 3½ hours | About 5½ years | About 9⅔ years |
| 7 hours | About 2¾ years | About 4¾ years |
| 14 hours | About 17 months | About 29 months |
| 28 hours | About 8 months | About 14½ months |
These are class and study hours from full-time courses, so treat them as a rough guide. Time you spend understanding Belarusian on your own counts too.
What Slows Learners Down
- Spelling That Follows the StressBelarusian writes an unstressed о as а, so a word's spelling can change when its stress moves: нага́ means “leg,” and но́гі means “legs.” Learn each word with its sound.
- Two SpellingsSchools teach снег for “snow,” and some news sites and books write сьнег, in a spelling from 1918. Learn the school spelling first, so the two don't get mixed up.
- Content Far Too HardA Belarusian film where you know one word in five teaches you very little.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Belarusian app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Belarusian, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Our Belarusian app comparison covers courses, tutors and speaking apps too.
Can I learn Belarusian in three months?
You can learn Cyrillic and enough Belarusian to greet people and introduce yourself. At 14 hours a week, three months is about 180 hours, which is less than a fifth of the 1,012 class hours FSI plans for Ukrainian, Belarusian's closest relative on its list.
How much should I study Belarusian each week?
Aim for three to five hours a week of Belarusian you understand, in sessions of at least 15 to 30 minutes. A longer session lets you get lost in a story, which teaches more than five minutes a day, and steady time each week matters more than a daily streak. Our post on deep sessions over daily streaks explains why.
Is Belarusian hard for English speakers?
Yes, if it takes as long as its closest relative: the Foreign Service Institute puts Ukrainian in its third group, at 44 weeks, about one and a half times the 30 weeks for Spanish. The alphabet is the quick part, and most of the time goes into the words and the six case endings, which you pick up fastest from Belarusian you understand.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
The Belarusian Cyrillic course on this site is also free and needs no account.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Belarusian alphabet (32 letters)
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Language Training (FSI language categories)
- Wikipedia, Belarusian language (most closely related to Ukrainian within East Slavic)
- Wikipedia, Belarusian phonology (unstressed /o/ merges into /a/, and the spelling shows it)
- Wiktionary, нага (нага́, plural но́гі)
- Wikipedia, Taraškievica (the 1918 spelling: сьнег for снег)
- Wikipedia, Belarusian grammar (six cases)
