Central Asia
Video Chat with People from Uzbekistan
Along the old Silk Road, Uzbekistan's cities are half the conversation: Tashkent with its tree-lined avenues and ornate metro stations, Samarkand's Registan, the old town of Bukhara, Khiva's walled Itchan Kala and the green Fergana Valley. Uzbek is the main language, written mostly in Latin letters today, though Cyrillic is still common, and Russian is widely understood, especially in Tashkent. Tajik is heard around Samarkand and Bukhara, Karakalpak in the northwest, and more and more younger adults are picking up English.
Uzbekistan never changes its clocks from UTC+5, so evenings in Tashkent arrive in the late afternoon in Central Europe and the late morning on the US East Coast. Food is a favorite subject: plov (also called osh) is a matter of pride and cooked differently in each region, alongside samsa, lagman, round non bread and endless pots of green tea. Football is popular, as are wrestling and boxing, and music ranges from classical maqom and the doira frame drum to Uzbek pop. For greetings and practice tips, see our Uzbek practice page.
Uzbekistan at a glance
How to say hello
A few words of Russian make a great first impression, even if you switch to English right after.
| Language | Phrase | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uzbek | Salom! Yaxshimisiz? | sah-LOM, yakh-shee-mee-SIZ | Hi! Are you well? |
| Uzbek | Assalomu alaykum | ah-sah-LOH-moo ah-LAY-koom | Hello (polite) |
| Russian | Привет! Как дела? | pree-VYET, kahk dee-LAH | Hi! How are things? |
Tips for chatting with people from Uzbekistan
- Uzbek greetings often come as a string of polite questions about health, family and work; "Yaxshi, rahmat" (YAKH-shee, rakh-MAT), "fine, thanks," answers most of them.
- Use the polite "siz" with anyone you've just met and let them switch to the informal "sen" first.
- Ask whose plov is best; regional styles from Tashkent, Samarkand and the Fergana Valley spark friendly debates.
- If you type in Uzbek, ask whether they prefer Latin or Cyrillic letters; both are still in everyday use.
Only meet people from Uzbekistan
Omlet matches you Worldwide by default. To meet only people from Uzbekistan, use the country filter, the only filter Omlet has:
- Open Omlet and press Country on the control panel.
- Search for Uzbekistan and select it.
- Press Start. Press Next to meet someone else from Uzbekistan, or switch back to Worldwide any time.
Your first day is free: you add a card through Stripe to start it, and nothing is charged that day. When the 24 hours end, the country filter costs $3 one time, charged to that card, unless you cancel before then in Settings (if you cancel, you can still pick a country until the day ends). It's not a subscription, and it stays unlocked on that device and browser. It doesn't carry over to other devices or browsers, and clearing your browser data removes it. There's one free day per device, home network and card. Payment goes through Stripe, so Omlet never sees your card number.
The filter works both ways, and matching can be slower when fewer people from Uzbekistan are online. Chatting itself is free, and Worldwide matching never costs anything.
Your own country is detected automatically and shown to the people you meet as a flag.
Neighboring countries
Uzbekistan borders 5 countries. Curious about the people next door? Meet them too: