I’m getting ready to misplace myself again! I’ve got one and a half weeks left to teach my summer course, and then it’s back to beautiful Budapest and then off for a new adventure in the Balkans (Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro …and, the newest country in the world, Kosovo!) with the lovely Ms. C. , the most famous English-language blogger in Bulgaria.
While attempting to grade some quizzes on Othello this afternoon, I got engaged in a conversation with a fellow Balkan-lover, my friend Ari. Having lived for a year in Croatia, he actually speaks some Croatian (which is, after all, quote similar to all the other languages…save Albanian…but don’t tell that to anyone who lives there.) Although my own sorry attempts at Eastern-Euro language learning have been amply chronicled during my maygarul lessons last year, I was willing to accept a bit of advice:
Ari: you need to master this phrase naravno, ja cu probati
me: What does that mean?
Ari: of course, I will try that!
me: hmmm…that sounds like a phrase that could get me in a lot of trouble.
Ari: exactly
Yeah, exactly. Also sounds like the type of thing which might land me in a Balkan jail…or drunk in a Balkan ditch… or with a Balkan baby, or something. Methinks I’ll stick to the Lonely Planet guidebook’s suggested phrases instead.
