Forum: travel.stackexchange.com
Tags: <language-barrier><russian-language>
Title: Where in the world knowing Russian and English will not be enough?
Question: I speak Russian and English. Will those 2 languages be sufficient to travel anywhere in the world as a tourist? Or there are some regions where it wouldn't be enough?  By sufficient, I mean, I would be able to buy tickets, book a room in hotel, order taxi, use a restaurant etc.

Answers:
sents: text: I would say China other than Beijing and Shanghai.
text: But even in big cities there are parts where people don't even understand "yes" or "no" Also, recently I had some troubles in Spain as well.
text: So, I guess if you can also learn Chinese and Spanish then you could be anywhere in the world.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/4022/toy
score: 9
sents: text: For example South America.
text: In my experience, English knowledge was generally poor.
text: You would need to know at least basic Spanish.
text: It would be easier to say, where English and Russian would be enough.
text: I expect, that Russian would be useful only in former USSR and maybe some Eastern European countries.
text: In Western Europe should be relatively easy to find someone who speaks English.
text: Then there are all English-speaking countries and their former colonies.
text: My bet is that anywhere else, than I mentioned above, only those two languages might not be enough.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/2513/Tschareck
score: 8
sents: text: In the central and western Africa.
text: People beside of their own African languages know French and Arabic in most African countries but they do not know English or Russian.
text: Small cities or rural areas of most countries around the world that they do not speak English or Russian and only know their own mother tongue.
text: You can find them from India, Turkey, Iran and China to South America even in Europe in France, Italy, Germany or Spain!
text: I think more than Russian it is better to learn Spanish and French.
text: Nowadays knowing Mandarin can help a lot too!
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/4381/Persian Cat
score: 6
sents: text: The former satellite states of USSR.
text: While old people still speak Russian there due to enforced "friendship" with the USSR, many people are now much more hostile because of the tainted past of oppression.
text: While driving in the rural parts of Poland, I needed extensively my word list of polish phrases.
text: Forget English and Russian there, I was even more successful with native German.
text: Young people in the cities are eager to learn English (searching jobs in Western Europe), but in the more remote parts Polish is the only option.
text: I suspect it is the same in Czech Rep. and Hungary, it would be fine if someone can confirm this.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/7442/Thorsten S.
score: 5
sents: text: It'd be easier to just say where you can get by.
text: List of English speaking countries in order of % of English speakers .
text: A similar list for Russian .
text: Serbian and Polish and Ukrainian are very close to Russian so replace the Russian in the previous link with Polish and Serbian and Ukrainian.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/4735/David
score: 5

Summary of the answers:
Travellers to small cities or rural areas of most non-English speaking countries around the world, especially in China, central and western Africa and even European countries like Poland may need to speak the local language or a common language like French, Arabic or Spanish.
In many parts of the world people only speak their native language, China is a good example. In West and Central Africa, Arabic and French may be spoken but English and Russian are unlikely. The best languages to learn may be Mandarin, French and Spanish.