My Cringeworthy Bulgarian

Reading Bulgarian 

From yesterday: me reading the dialogue from lesson one in my Beginner's Bulgarian (Hippocrene) book.  Two couples are flying from New York to Sofia and are basically just getting to know each other: What do you do? Do you have any kids? blah blah blah, yada yada yada.  

I definitely got stuck here and there, and have no doubt my stress is wrong, pronunciation isn't great and who knows what else.  But hey, I tried.  In fact, I had to start over several times and finally just settled on this rendition.  I like the Bulgarian language though and want to get better at it, so any help is appreciated. :)

Bulgarian Focus

I'm going to put my focus on Bulgarian over the next few days.  I downloaded several apps to my phone, so will start there.  I've been studying Bulgarian for several years and know a few things, but it's been a while.  Of course I have my Bulgarian language books too.  Those two TY books are pretty much identical, but I guess I felt the need to buy both.  I'll share what I learn and maybe you can learn a little български yourself. ;)

Like No Place on Earth

This video was filmed in the wonderful state of Wyoming (or perhaps they used images of WY and made it look like it was.) :)

My family and I lived in Gillette for 10 years from 1994-2004.  Both of my sisters went to the University of Wyoming in Laramie; my younger sister lived in Rock Springs (located just up the highway from Green River) for a while; and my older sister lived in Cheyenne - she now resides in Casper.

Wyoming isn't the smallest state, but it is the least populated.  I miss it a lot, wind and all.

To put more of a language emphasis on this post, look here and here for info on where the name "Wyoming" came from + the American Indian tribes of the state.

Bulgarian Videos for Learning

Even though I haven't been posting to my blog, I have been studying up on my Bulgarian...some.  Definitely not as much as I planned for being halfway through February.

One resource I've been using are these videos.  They're a good introduction to the language.  I figured I'd brush up on the basics.  I just finished watching this one about introductions.  

One More

I forgot another book I'm using for Bulgarian - well, a section of this book anyway.  Other languages featured: Polish; Czech; Slovak (really just a very brief extention of the Czech segment); Hungarian and Romanian.

This and That

Long time, no write.  I'm not very good at this "updating my blog" thing, but I'm still learning languages - that's something I'll never stop doing.  I've bought a ton of used (and a couple new) language books from Amazon, as well as a few from Etsy.  I love old language books, even if it's a language I'm not learning.  I recently ordered an old Teach Yourself Russian, as well as a Bulgarian-English dictionary from Etsy.  Can't wait to get them.  They're probably overpriced, as many things on Etsy are, but I just think they look cool and am glad I snatched them up before someone else did.  ;)  

As for what I've been up to in the world of language learning...over the last couple days, I've been focusing on my Bulgarian.  A long time ago, I made individual blogs for each of my languages, but haven't posted anything to them.  I'd like to change that and start using them, so I'm going to try to add something short and sweet to my Bulgarian blog (keli-na-balgarski.blogspot.com), because as they say, Опитът прави майсторa.

In the meantime, here are the books mentioned above that I ordered.  Love the color of the Russian one, and can't wait to make use of the Bulgarian dictionary.  Who knows, maybe I'll give Russian a try afterall, though I definitely don't need to add a 10th language, and seeing as Bulgarian is supposed to be easier for English speakers, I'll most likely stick with that as my Cyrillic language of choice (along with Serbian.)

I'll put up some more pictures of the books I've purchased over the months in upcoming posts. The oldest is a Dutch-German dictionary from the late 1800's, but most are from the 1940's on.

Seeing Cyrillic

Stole this pic from my older sister's blog.  I thought it was cool how it looks like Bulgarian in the reflection: NORTH > НТЯОИ.  Not saying it means anything, just looks like Cyrillic.

Language Refresh

I went to World Market a couple of weeks ago and bought two diaries in which to attempt to write the old-fashioned way: one for Portuguese and one for Bulgarian so far (I would definitely like to get better at handwritten Cyrillic).

A Bit-O-Bulgarski

Here's another basic sentence:

Има много хубави къщи на страната.

There are a lot of beautiful houses in the country(side).

I'm not 100% sure it's correct though. I do, however, know how to say, вали дъжд, and it's coming down super hard!

So Far

Казвам се Кели.  Родена съм в Индианаполис.  Не говоря български.
My name is Kelly.  I was born in Indianapolis.  I don't speak Bulgarian.

Three fascinating statements. :)

I get so anxious to dive into the language that I often forget the importance of the beginning stages. Yes, it can be boring and slow-going learning such basic (and seemingly useless) phrases, but it's all part of the process of building on and increasing knowledge.

Bulgarian Week

I've been focusing on Bulgarian this week. In the past, I've glanced around at various grammar features, so I'm familiar with some basic stuff, such as being able to identify the definite article equivalents, but I'm definitely still a beginner. I like to start reading immediately, even if just a short paragraph, so I printed off an article about Valentine's Day, which I'll try to translate over the next couple of days. Of course having a dictionary helps, and although I prefer a print dictionary I can pull off the shelf, I do have a nice online version bookmarked: Bulgarian Dictionary. It includes idioms, shows the plural form, and indicates where the stress falls, which is irregular in Bulgarian. A Cyrillic keyboard is also available, so that's a plus.