Living in Lithuania
Language
Print‘Labas’ is what Lithuanians say when they greet someone. You could probably manage to get by in this country by knowing only this word as many Lithuanians can speak other languages. However, it would be even friendlier both to greet a person and ask ‘Kaip laikaisi?’ (‘How are you?’). Approximately three million people speak Lithuanian as their mother tongue, including communities living in Belarus, Poland, and those who have emigrated to the USA, the UK, Ireland, Spain, Australia, Germany, Latvia and other countries. Interestingly, old Lithuanian, Sanskrit and Hindi languages have many related and closely linked words. Lithuanian is regarded as one of the most conservative living Indo-European languages that have retained most of the features of the Proto-Indo-European language.
Lithuanian language courses for foreigners and speakers of other languages
It is always useful to take a course when you need help in learning a new language or if you are looking for opportunities to practice spoken Lithuanian. Various courses are organised annually by universities, the details of which are shown below. They are intended for foreigners who want to learn the Lithuanian language and for speakers of other languages who live in the country and want to improve their speaking skills.
Institution | Type of courses | Duration of courses | More information |
Vilnius University, department of Lithuanian philology studies |
|
From two weeks to one year (depends on the type of course) | |
Vilnius Educational University, faculty of Lithuanian philology |
|
Up to one month | www.lituanistai.vpu.lt |
Vytautas Magnus University, faculty of Humanities |
|
Up to one month | ukc.vdu.lt |
Klaipėda University, faculty of Humanities |
|
Up to one month | www.ku.lt/hmf |
Kaunas University of Technology, Department of Linguistics |
|
Up to one month | www.kalba.ktu.lt |
Lithuanian language courses are also organised by private centres of language learning throughout the country.
Short vocabulary
Good morning – labas rytas
Good afternoon – laba diena
Good evening – labas vakaras
Hello – sveiki (a formal greeting or a greeting to more than one person)
Goodbye – viso gero, sudie
Bye bye – iki pasimatymo
Thank you – ačiū