Random

The University of Iowa's Department of Spanish and Portuguese has an interesting and interactive dialect page here. Unfortunately, not all countries listed have examples. Transcriptions are available, so one can follow along - good practice for beginner's.

A Little Serbian Something

Зовем се Кели. Американка сам и наравно говорим енглески. Не говорим српски, али учим и разумем мало. Са српском, студирам пољски и бугарски.

Zovem se Keli. Amerikanka sam i naravno govorim engleski. Ne govorim srpski, ali učim i razumem malo. Sa srpskom, studiram poljski i bugarski.

My name is Kelly. I'm American and of course I speak English. I don't speak Serbian, but I'm learning and understand a little. Along with Serbian, I'm studying Polish and Bulgarian.

Way to state the obvious, huh? ;) I'd love to know how I did so far, but may try to get a few more entries in before I seek native-speaker help, although if any native speakers are reading, please critique away. :) Serbian is quickly becoming my favorite of the Slavic languages.

Nieuw Boek

By this time I've gotten the book my older sister found for me, which is the Dutch version of In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan. Should be interesting. :)

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.

An Update

I figured I should finally update this thing. Here's the scoop on my language learning:

No longer dabbling in Persian. I've decided I don't want to learn it afterall, but I do have a strong interest in learning Lithuanian. That said, I'm resisting the temptation, what with all the other languages I've got going.

I've decided to bring Norwegian back into the mix, but I really need to get the hang of pronunciation and intonation. The pronunciation isn't so bad, but that pitch accent has been a problem for me.

And finally, I sent an email to my older sister in D.C., asking her about any bookshops that sold literature in foreign languages (other than Spanish, which I can easily get in St. Louis). I figured since D.C. is more of an international city, she would have more luck. I'm excited to see what she finds for me. :)

Pondering Persian

I know the last thing I should do is add another language to my list, but I'm seriously considering trying my hand at Persian - at least to get a start in it. It's an Indo-European language spoken in Iran, as well as in Afghanistan where it's known as "Dari," and in Tajikistan where it's known as "Tajik" (of all things) ;). Persian Dari Tajik