Sweet video :) I just want to tell you a few things. In the Bulgarian there are secrets in the words. For example the word "Здравей" means "to be health" Здраве=health, In the past "Здравей" was used in the end of the conversation mostly in letters (very few bulgarians are knowing this today). "Благодаря" means "Gifting you good" Благо-benefit/good and Даря-I give/donate or "Довиждане" До-to and виждане-seeing similar to english "See ya". These words was formed from centuries, Bulgarian language is evolving even today. Today's Bulgarian is a way different from the one spoken before 1000 years, yes there are still similar words but building the sentence is way different. Trying to speak even broken is not embarrassing! This shows to the locals that you`re trying to learn and understand the language and this will uplift you in their eyes. Anyway I laughted alot on "I love me".
Glad you liked the video, yes I can imagine it's funny hearing our stories and translations haha thanks for taking the time out of your day to help us interpret more of the language it really does help us 😊
God bless you! You're both adorable so I can see why the neighbours like you so much. Have a joyful time in Bulgaria! Every person is welcome here and seeing you integrate is warming my heart!
That really does mean the world to us, thank you so much 😊 We absolutely love it here and even with the challenges, we feel absolutely at home and welcome here. It's so heartwarming to us to be accepted by Bulgarians ☺️
I admire your courage and willingnes to learn one not so easy language. The begining is the hardest, but gradually it gets easier and all starts to make sense. A little pro- tip, regarding guessing the "gender" of subjects, objects and adjectives. It works in 99% of the times, as there are very few exceptions. If the word ends in "a" or "я" it is of a female gender. If it ends in "e" or "o" it is of a neutral gender. If it ends in a consonant, it is of male gender. Good luck and keep pushing yourselves out of your comfort zone.
Ours can be a tough language to learn and it's really great to see you're keeping at it. Besides, communicating with locals (as intimidating as it can be) already places you one step ahead :) "Съжалявам" is a tricky word as there's no substitute for Ъ in English, the closest pronounciation would be as in "burn" or even "mercy". Also, Ж is pronounced the same way as the "sure" part of pleasure or measure and Я - ya as in "yarn". Depending on the situation, it can express either both regret and apology or just regret. But if we want to say sorry for things like, let's say, accidentally bumping into someone, we use "izvinyavay" (singular) or "izvinete" (plural/polite form). The "ch" in pechka is the same as in "change", not as in "Charlotte" and if it's pronounced as "sh" then you'd have a different word: peshka means pawn (the chess piece). About the boyfriend/girlfriend situation, one way to make yourself instantly clear is to say гадже - gádzhe (the "dzhe" part pronounced as in "jet") - a slang word that applies to both sexes. It's perhaps a bit outdated these days as we tend to use priyatel/priaytelka more, however people will immediately know what you mean. "Golyama rabota" and means "big deal" ☺, the proper phrase is "mnogo rabota" and yes, that's how everyday conversations between neighbors in Bulgarian villages usually go ☺ People usually say "Sélskata rábota kray nyama." or "There's no end rural work".
@@MarkandAnisha Happy to help 😊 By the way, don't know if you use it but the Listen function of Google translate can be useful for learning correct pronunciation, not always 100% correct, but yeah, does the trick. :)
Just simply Klim-a-tik (Климатик) is air conditioning, not "Klima-tik Machina" Съжалявам - Sazhaljavam (SA-ZHA-LJA-VAM) the letter Ъ is harder to describe but it is pronounced like 'uh' in drum (dr-'uh'-m) - typically you can replace this with an 'a' if you forget, it is better than nothing. Хубав ден (Hubav Den) - Nice Day [HU-BAV DEN] Приятен ден (Prijaten Den) - Good Day [PRI-JA-TEN DEN] Я = ja (pronounced like ya in yarn) Й = j (pronounced like y in yellow) ьо = jo (pronounced like yo)
I prepared before going on holiday. In my usual apologetic English approach I used the language and without fail I got a questioning puzzling look from the Bulgarian. The minute I planted my feet apart, set my intention, grunted from my belly exactly the same phrase in a lower tone they understood. We found Bulgarians to be lovely people. Got a house in Dryanovets near Byala which we hope to renovate one day. Gypsies stole the door and window metal furniture and the 4 hotplates from the stove as well as burning all the wood in the barn!!! Disappointing but hey ho there you go. Very helpful videos, thank you. xx
you're doing great, you will get the hang of it. i was actually in your situation, during the pandemic, working in Germany for 2 years. i've never learned deutsch, so like you, i was using my knowledge of english to associate words that are the same or similar in both languages. also i was in München, which is Bavaria aka the part of Germany that even germans struggle with understanding each other. 😂 the problem was that it was during the lockdown, so i didn't have many interactions, but after the first year i could umderstand maybe 70% of what someone was saying to me. but couldn't answer back in a way that they could understand me. by the time the second year went by and i was getting ready to go home i could hold a basic conversation, probably still sounding ridiculous but at least people understood what i was trying to say. so i understand all too well what it means learning a language just by interacting with people. keep it up, cheers! 🍻
Hello, lovely people! Well done, you’re doing an amazing job. Bulgarian is quite a hard language to learn. My advice would be to learn the alphabet first and how each letter sounds phonetically. I can see others have already given you great advice and examples for some more complicated sounds. As for Ж, I cannot think of a word in English with this sound but the J in the French dejavu springs to mind. Please don’t get discouraged, it is hard to learn a new language. I moved to the UK 9 years ago having studied English my whole life, having attended an English language school (even studied anatomy and chemistry in English and English literature) and I felt like an alien at first like I’d never heard English before. I was certainly lacking a lot in colloquial expressions despite having a good vocabulary overall. It takes time to get used to different accents and dialects. Sending lots of love from rainy Cornwall ❤️
Guys I admire your efforts in learning Bulgarian! My advice is to hire Stefan s son to give you some lessons, also keep listening to radio, your brain is absorbing the pronunciation and you will see results in 2 years. That's what happened to me when I have to learn English. Both languages are completely different as a structure of the sentence. Keep listening and try to say words with the right stress, there's only one stress per word.
I know some Russian and I'm finding it interesting how easy it is for me to understand Bulgarian. You are doing the right thing by learning the language. It's the best way to blend in and get accepted by people in any country.
Such friendly comments here. From a New Zealander just starting to learn my Bulgarian partner's language I can say Glossika (app) is a great tool, and I'm also paying for iTalki lessons which are good too. From experience learning German in Germany from 0 I can say you're doing well. Its daunting to hear something so strange to your ear. Listen to music, read simple children's comics, find the way that your brain learns new things. I.e. Writing it down? walking around with it? Voice notes? analyzing it? Playing games with simple phrases? Role playing? Socialising? its like reprogramming. My partner is from Gabrovo, sounds like you're nearby. Thanks.
Stefan sounds likes an amazing ,patient and determined teacher . I think you are lucky to have him. I think you will learn a lot more by situational occasions. I thought it was funny when you both say nay nay, but still shook your heads the english way .....lol
You guys are so sweet trying to pronounce Bulgarian words ❤, You know what motivate me to learn English as well as I am able to speak? It was the fact that no matter how broken my English was, the people will always compliment me, and tell me : Wow your English is great... I think we are the same, so never give up, always try and you will get better every day. Greetings from a Bulgarian man living in London ❤🎉
Zdraste is pronounced with the z. Stravet (not how you spell it lol) is to greet someone ....a person that you don't know, not your friend but you are being polite enough to to say hello......straveti (again not correct spelling) is when you say hello to more than 1 person at the same time......for example you walk past 3 people who are together......instead of saying hello to each one you say straveti......hello to you all. I don't know much Bulgarian I must admit I rely on my daughter who attends the local school. Google translate isn't very good. Good luck and learn more from Stefano, he sounds like a good friend.
Your comment is really helpful thank you! Yes we did noticed the stravai being used for multiple people too, although we didn't mention that in the video. We enjoy reading the comments and pronouncing various sounds haha thanks for your advice and help 🙂
To greet someone in singular/informal is actually "Zdravei" (zdravej) not Stravet. ZDRA-VEEJ Plural/formal is Zdraveite (Zdravejte) not Straveti. ZDRA-VEJ-TEE
The good thing about Bulgarian is that it is quite a pretty phonetic language. My advice is to first learn the alphabet well and you will realise that there are lots of words of Latin, French, Italian, German. You will then need to start making logics. Here are some examples: Сезон - sezon - season Комуникация - komuni-ka-ciya - communication период - pronounced per-yod - period автобус - avtobus - bus нотариат - notariat - notary Words of French origin: гара - gara - station камион - kam-yon - lorry партер - pronounced parter (par-terre) - literally meaning by the ground i.e. ground floor Words of German origin: вафла - vafla - waffle табела - tabela - plate, signboard цифра - tsifra - digit or number As for the ъ sound in съжалявам - syzhalyavam i.e. I am sorry, you will have to memorise it well, as it is an important letter. It rhymes with u in burn or the u in turn so it will be su-zhal-yavam. The word for dream is сън - syn and again you will use the same rule for the u sound. Not like the English word for son but s(u)n. One of the most complicated parts of Bulgarian sadly are the verbs but you will get their logic as them as time goes by. Also bear in mind that Bulgarian Turks usually have a different dialect as it is more influenced from the Turkish language and most of them probably use an Eastern dialect, which is very soft compared to the Western one for instance in Sofia. Finally, remember that Bulgarian allows you to unlock other Slavic languages as well such as partially written Russian, understand modern day Macedonian, to some extend Serbo-Croatian but much less Polish or Czech.
Thanks for the details and taking the time to show us similarities! It's really interesting to read 😊 We did begin to memorize the alphabet pretty earlier on, and as you said, this helps us when we're out the village to read and understand things at a distance. I understand what you mean with the Turkish dialect, makes complete sense
Не е чак толкова фонетичен, за колкото изглежда, че е! Българският е по-сложен за писане от посърбения му диалект, тъй наречения ''македонски.'' Много българи не знаят на 100% как да пишат правилно нему, така че... Замисли се! По-лесен e от руския, полския и словенския, но както казахме - не е чак толкова фонетичен колкото македонския и сърбохърватските езици.
Hi - great to see and hear your channel. Not permanently out in BG yet but hopefully soon...looking to 'retire' early too. I;ve been learning some Bulgarian on a site called Memrise that I'd recommend. I only go for the free courses. There are several on learning Bulgarian - you have to try them out - some aren't great but some are very good - especially the ones that have the listening sections - you hear the word pronounced- and some you type the words in Bulgarian - both in english ad cyrilic alphabet - some you construct the sentence from banks of words etc... By the way - I would love to know the link to the cartoons /fairytales - that sounds a fab/interesting/fun way to learn more..... But in reality, you are both spot on, that conversation/trying words out with local Bulgarians is the absolute best way and most useful. See you in Bulgaria one day!!
That sounds really helpful actually thanks for the advice and comment! 😊 Best of luck on your journey, would love to hear how it goes ☺️ Here's the link to the cartoons, brace yourself, the animation is out of this world haha 😅 youtube.com/@BulgarianFairyTales
You are so adorable! Good on you on putting effort in learning Bulgarian. One of the most underrated ways to learn a language is through movies with subs, Bulgarian cinema is not anything glamorous but you can very easily find movies in Bulgarian with English subs on TH-cam, and maybe play it in the evening when going to bed and you don't even need to put much effort in trying to understand it... your brain will make connections on its own and after a while you will be surprised you can make coherent sentences all of a sudden. At least for me that is how I learned English. Once you are comfortable with the alphabet and written words in general reading books and filling the gaps is the best way to polish and expand your dictionary, however be warned that is very time consuming!
Thank you for taking the time to comment, we've tried subs on movies a few times but it didn't really gell, if that makes sense. TV shows online helps more than we think, understanding pronunciation and things 🙂 yeah haha it is very time consuming, but totally worth it in the end 😅
@@MarkandAnisha Oh yea, it will take a while to "click", I have no actual evidence for this but at least for me, consuming media first made me start thinking in English when I was learning, and then books helped expand my dictionary. The idea is when watching something with subtitles you connect certain phrases with their English counterparts. A brute force way is just to sit down on with a children's book and a dictionary but that is again very time consuming, and once the basics are down to move on to more grown up literature. Languages are hard, and Bulgarian is one of the hardest out there, it will take years regardless.
Language takes time, effort and money. My parents paid 2 private schools for me to learn English. Then I had to watch countless movies and TV series to perfect it in time. Bulgarian and English are from different language families. Look it also from the bright side that once you know it (may take a few years :) ) you will be able to understand a little bit of Serbian, Macedonian and Russian :). We Bulgarians love you and we do appreciate your efforts :).
Hi guys we live near silistra. We are struggling to learn the language too but try even if we get odd looks. We did the word library whilst in the uk too. We moved out here permanently September 22. Great vlogs 😊. We too have a YT channel showing our journey so far.
It's all about perspective, really, there are difficult areas of the language but we personally find it a lot easier than we initially thought it would be. Awesome! Let us know if we can help in anyway ☺️ best of luck
I am learning Bulgarian because my partner is Bulgarian. Don't be daunted, Bulgarians love it when you try to speak their language from my experience. You will find your learning increases exponentially once you get better at the fundamentals. Bulgarian being phonetic unlike English, it's actually much easier to read and pronounce words in Bulgarian (from a non native's perspective) if you learn the sounds of each letter unlike English where the same letters can have all kinds of different sounds.... though, thought, tough, through, thorough for example. Brits aren't the best at learning languages but that's because we are not exposed to other languages as much (partly because it's not as important, but also we are a little ignorant of the importance of knowing another language imo). Remember you are fluent in a language, so you can learn another language, you just have to immerse yourself in it more and you'll get there step by step (стъпка по стъпка).
We've learnt the phonetics pretty quickly after getting here and even find ourselves sounding out signs on shop fronts etc. You're totally right with the Bulgarians, they really appreciate you giving it a go and are usually really helpful if we don't get it quite right. We know of a few Brits that live over here and don't even attempt the language.. but we try our best to integrate and continue learning any where we can. We actually find it pretty fun 😊
It is not drasti or drastis but zdrasti or zdravei. It is something like hallo. So you are near to the pronunciation. I have learned English at school but English is a difficult language especially in writing. So we had to write every new word 10 times and pronounce it letter by letter and say the meaning. So 40-50 words every day. But you have much work, as I see with the house and the garden. You must water the tomatoes every day early in the morning and put some 150-200 cm long and strong enough sticks and tie the plants to the sticks. You can go to some of the neighbours and have a look how do they care their garden. It will be a good experience for the next year. Just go among the people and talk as much as you can and by a TV set.
Hi guys u r very cool and nice couple. I would advice u to ask bulgarian people to write down for you bg words in latin alphabet. And after that u can write this word 20-30 times till u memorise it
Thank you! That's a really good idea actually, especially for the words that confuse us. We can read things pretty good in Bulgarian to be honest, as most of it is phonetic, but every little helps 🙂
Your Turkish Bulgarian neighbours are most likely speaking to you in their Turkish language and not in the Bulgarian language that you expect. It's a political issue for them and you most likely know by now the unfortunate history between the two countries. Enjoying your videos :)
Hopkng to visit bulgaria soon with a view to finding a property to buy and eventually live permanently. Interesting to discover that a lot of the language apps dont have bulgarian as an option to learn. I would be very interested to know which fairy tale youtube channel/s you watch as i am very much a visual learner rather than a reading one, if that mskes sense.
😊 Its really hard in the begining. You just need practicing. My English is getting a bit rusty, but I'll be happy to have a chat you seem a really nice couple. All the best guys
I know what you mean about Bulgarians and language misunderstandings. I live in Maine in the USA and every summer hundreds of Bulgarians come here for the summer to work in our restaurants and amusement parks. My friend Vinny was working in a kitchen with a big ass Bulgarian guy and my friend is like maybe 140 lbs he said something to the Bulgarian guy and the dude thought he swore at him, he picked Vinny up by his neck and got deported
@@MarkandAnisha well and to be honest my friend Vinny can be annoying haha I don't blame the Bulgarian guy. When I moved to this area I didn't expect to meet Bulgarians so I was surprised my first summer. We get people from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Russia and now even Jamaica. You can earn around $1,200 per week after taxes. They work like dogs and save all the money then go home after 3 or 4 months. Oddly they all buy computers and electronics before they leave because they say it's cheaper and better here
Well, to be honest, you completely butcher the language, but at least you try, which is more than we can say for most Brits around here. Respect! Get used to the rolled 'r Learn vocabulary with the stress at the right place inside the word Correct prononciation Long way to go but well worth it! Maybe we'll meet in Pavlikeni someday!
I can imagine if it's a first language to learn that the very first steps are difficult but don't lose hope. Overall, it is not very difficult for English or French speakers to reach a functional level of knowledge. Bulgarian grammar is pretty close to these languages, having abandoned grammatical cases almost completely but having a very complex tense and verb structure. I find a particular pleasure in finding how similar European languages are while I was learning French and English The more structured way you find to learn a language the faster you'll learn it. There's a lot of logic in languages, so if you can find an official system with books and videos, you'll be good very fast. You can also try to find a teacher. At least for the very beginning, where you can't rely on the bases to learn more. Good luck and don't hesitate to ask Bulgarians for help, they will be very happy to assist you.
If you have the English translation that is good. But without the translation listening to Bulgarian fairytales to help you pick up Bulgarian words maybe is not the best idea. It is because if the fairytale is in its original version it would probably contain lots of older words which even some younger Bulgarians wouldn't know
Thanks for giving that insight, you're probably right there, it's just getting used to picking up on the random conversation words which helps when listening to the fairy tales haha 😅
Pechka "ch" pronounce like chicken "ch" icken. Molia - please - you do not pronounce "I" just say "ya" molYa" my husband is from SA and we have the same problems :) the confusing part is we conjugate the verbs. Don't try to remember all forms, just for you - az otivam , az gotvya, az pravya...
I've started with 100 little pieces of paper where I wrote on one of the site in English and another site in Bulgarian language and in five months they become 500 pieces and it's the best way to learn another language
Enjoyied your video again! It seams you both also need to learn some prepositions and conjunctions to build simple sentences. As " in" =в/w" Exmp."Slagam w pechkata"/I put in the "woodburner". On=на/na-Example. Slagam na masata.I put on the table. Kade otiwash?/Къде отиваш?Where are you going? "Otivam do magazina"/I am going to the shop.to=do/до; Zad/зад=behind; Pred/пред=in front of...In front of you=pred teb/пред теб; It is very hard to learn language on your own, perhaps with a teacher just for 6 months active learning people could catch up how to make simple conversations.I have no idea if there are language teachers to propose life-video lessons in Bulgaria? It would be handy! The situation with "Dobro uitro" at evenings 😁 bulgarians also say that to others as a joke, if they had hangover and overslept until the afternoon hours,lol.That wasn't your situation but they didn't know in the shop.🙂 Take care!
That was extremely helpful actually! Thank you so much for the insight haha 😊 we'll definitely be saying "Otivam do magazina" to each other next time haha, brilliant, it seems like you understand what we mean of figuring out extra filler worlds. That makes Mark feel a little better about his experience haha 😅 yes we have people/ teachers and TH-camrs on our radar for when we have time to really focus and nail it. Really appreciate your comment! Thank you ☺️
Sweet video :) I just want to tell you a few things. In the Bulgarian there are secrets in the words. For example the word "Здравей" means "to be health" Здраве=health, In the past "Здравей" was used in the end of the conversation mostly in letters (very few bulgarians are knowing this today). "Благодаря" means "Gifting you good" Благо-benefit/good and Даря-I give/donate or "Довиждане" До-to and виждане-seeing similar to english "See ya". These words was formed from centuries, Bulgarian language is evolving even today. Today's Bulgarian is a way different from the one spoken before 1000 years, yes there are still similar words but building the sentence is way different. Trying to speak even broken is not embarrassing! This shows to the locals that you`re trying to learn and understand the language and this will uplift you in their eyes. Anyway I laughted alot on "I love me".
Glad you liked the video, yes I can imagine it's funny hearing our stories and translations haha thanks for taking the time out of your day to help us interpret more of the language it really does help us 😊
God bless you! You're both adorable so I can see why the neighbours like you so much. Have a joyful time in Bulgaria! Every person is welcome here and seeing you integrate is warming my heart!
That really does mean the world to us, thank you so much 😊
We absolutely love it here and even with the challenges, we feel absolutely at home and welcome here. It's so heartwarming to us to be accepted by Bulgarians ☺️
I admire your courage and willingnes to learn one not so easy language. The begining is the hardest, but gradually it gets easier and all starts to make sense. A little pro- tip, regarding guessing the "gender" of subjects, objects and adjectives. It works in 99% of the times, as there are very few exceptions. If the word ends in "a" or "я" it is of a female gender. If it ends in "e" or "o" it is of a neutral gender. If it ends in a consonant, it is of male gender. Good luck and keep pushing yourselves out of your comfort zone.
Thank you for your kind words, that does help actually! We will, hope you enjoy following our journey 🙂
Ours can be a tough language to learn and it's really great to see you're keeping at it. Besides, communicating with locals (as intimidating as it can be) already places you one step ahead :) "Съжалявам" is a tricky word as there's no substitute for Ъ in English, the closest pronounciation would be as in "burn" or even "mercy". Also, Ж is pronounced the same way as the "sure" part of pleasure or measure and Я - ya as in "yarn". Depending on the situation, it can express either both
regret and apology or just regret. But if we want to say sorry for things like, let's say, accidentally bumping into someone, we use "izvinyavay" (singular) or "izvinete" (plural/polite form).
The "ch" in pechka is the same as in "change", not as in "Charlotte" and if it's pronounced as "sh" then you'd have a different word: peshka means pawn (the chess piece). About the boyfriend/girlfriend situation, one way to make yourself instantly clear is to say гадже - gádzhe (the "dzhe" part pronounced as in "jet") - a slang word that applies to both sexes. It's perhaps a bit outdated these days as we tend to use priyatel/priaytelka more, however people will immediately know what you mean. "Golyama rabota" and means "big deal" ☺, the proper phrase is "mnogo rabota" and yes, that's how everyday conversations between neighbors in Bulgarian villages usually go ☺ People usually say "Sélskata rábota kray nyama." or "There's no end rural work".
Really enjoyed reading your comment and understanding a little more, so thank you for that!
We really appreciate all the support and advice 😊
@@MarkandAnisha Happy to help 😊 By the way, don't know if you use it but the Listen function of Google translate can be useful for learning correct pronunciation, not always 100% correct, but yeah, does the trick. :)
We use it on the odd occasion yes, and when we need to get our message across it is definitely useful most the time 😊
Just simply Klim-a-tik (Климатик) is air conditioning, not "Klima-tik Machina"
Съжалявам - Sazhaljavam (SA-ZHA-LJA-VAM) the letter Ъ is harder to describe but it is pronounced like 'uh' in drum (dr-'uh'-m) - typically you can replace this with an 'a' if you forget, it is better than nothing.
Хубав ден (Hubav Den) - Nice Day [HU-BAV DEN]
Приятен ден (Prijaten Den) - Good Day [PRI-JA-TEN DEN]
Я = ja (pronounced like ya in yarn)
Й = j (pronounced like y in yellow)
ьо = jo (pronounced like yo)
dont confuse them with that J. its used in serbian and makedonian, not bulgarian.
Thanks for your advice! Only just seen this, but we still appreciate it 😊
I prepared before going on holiday. In my usual apologetic English approach I used the language and without fail I got a questioning puzzling look from the Bulgarian. The minute I planted my feet apart, set my intention, grunted from my belly exactly the same phrase in a lower tone they understood. We found Bulgarians to be lovely people. Got a house in Dryanovets near Byala which we hope to renovate one day. Gypsies stole the door and window metal furniture and the 4 hotplates from the stove as well as burning all the wood in the barn!!! Disappointing but hey ho there you go. Very helpful videos, thank you. xx
you're doing great, you will get the hang of it. i was actually in your situation, during the pandemic, working in Germany for 2 years. i've never learned deutsch, so like you, i was using my knowledge of english to associate words that are the same or similar in both languages. also i was in München, which is Bavaria aka the part of Germany that even germans struggle with understanding each other. 😂 the problem was that it was during the lockdown, so i didn't have many interactions, but after the first year i could umderstand maybe 70% of what someone was saying to me. but couldn't answer back in a way that they could understand me. by the time the second year went by and i was getting ready to go home i could hold a basic conversation, probably still sounding ridiculous but at least people understood what i was trying to say. so i understand all too well what it means learning a language just by interacting with people. keep it up, cheers! 🍻
Give or take about two years to have the basics. Agree
Hello, lovely people! Well done, you’re doing an amazing job. Bulgarian is quite a hard language to learn. My advice would be to learn the alphabet first and how each letter sounds phonetically. I can see others have already given you great advice and examples for some more complicated sounds. As for Ж, I cannot think of a word in English with this sound but the J in the French dejavu springs to mind.
Please don’t get discouraged, it is hard to learn a new language. I moved to the UK 9 years ago having studied English my whole life, having attended an English language school (even studied anatomy and chemistry in English and English literature) and I felt like an alien at first like I’d never heard English before. I was certainly lacking a lot in colloquial expressions despite having a good vocabulary overall. It takes time to get used to different accents and dialects. Sending lots of love from rainy Cornwall ❤️
Guys I admire your efforts in learning Bulgarian! My advice is to hire Stefan s son to give you some lessons, also keep listening to radio, your brain is absorbing the pronunciation and you will see results in 2 years. That's what happened to me when I have to learn English. Both languages are completely different as a structure of the sentence. Keep listening and try to say words with the right stress, there's only one stress per word.
Keep going guys. Well done and have patience, because Bulgarian is very difficult language.
I know some Russian and I'm finding it interesting how easy it is for me to understand Bulgarian.
You are doing the right thing by learning the language. It's the best way to blend in and get accepted by people in any country.
Thank you 🙏 we're always trying our best 😊
Such friendly comments here. From a New Zealander just starting to learn my Bulgarian partner's language I can say Glossika (app) is a great tool, and I'm also paying for iTalki lessons which are good too.
From experience learning German in Germany from 0 I can say you're doing well. Its daunting to hear something so strange to your ear. Listen to music, read simple children's comics, find the way that your brain learns new things. I.e. Writing it down? walking around with it? Voice notes? analyzing it? Playing games with simple phrases? Role playing? Socialising? its like reprogramming.
My partner is from Gabrovo, sounds like you're nearby.
Thanks.
Oh yea and converse with children! Cos they say things like. "The cat is big" "the house is yellow" etc. 😂
Stefan sounds likes an amazing ,patient and determined teacher . I think you are lucky to have him. I think you will learn a lot more by situational occasions. I thought it was funny when you both say nay nay, but still shook your heads the english way .....lol
He totally is! Haha 😂 we still can't get used to it
You guys are so sweet trying to pronounce Bulgarian words ❤,
You know what motivate me to learn English as well as I am able to speak?
It was the fact that no matter how broken my English was, the people will always compliment me, and tell me : Wow your English is great...
I think we are the same, so never give up, always try and you will get better every day.
Greetings from a Bulgarian man living in London ❤🎉
Aw thank you, we are trying haha and like you said, that's what it's all about, and every positive feedback helps! 🤗
Zdraste is pronounced with the z.
Stravet (not how you spell it lol) is to greet someone ....a person that you don't know, not your friend but you are being polite enough to to say hello......straveti (again not correct spelling) is when you say hello to more than 1 person at the same time......for example you walk past 3 people who are together......instead of saying hello to each one you say straveti......hello to you all.
I don't know much Bulgarian I must admit I rely on my daughter who attends the local school. Google translate isn't very good. Good luck and learn more from Stefano, he sounds like a good friend.
Your comment is really helpful thank you!
Yes we did noticed the stravai being used for multiple people too, although we didn't mention that in the video.
We enjoy reading the comments and pronouncing various sounds haha thanks for your advice and help 🙂
Thank ypu both, taught me a few Bulgarian words today.
To greet someone in singular/informal is actually "Zdravei" (zdravej) not Stravet.
ZDRA-VEEJ
Plural/formal is Zdraveite (Zdravejte) not Straveti.
ZDRA-VEJ-TEE
As I said.....not correct spelling 😆 🤣 😂
The good thing about Bulgarian is that it is quite a pretty phonetic language. My advice is to first learn the alphabet well and you will realise that there are lots of words of Latin, French, Italian, German. You will then need to start making logics. Here are some examples:
Сезон - sezon - season
Комуникация - komuni-ka-ciya - communication
период - pronounced per-yod - period
автобус - avtobus - bus
нотариат - notariat - notary
Words of French origin:
гара - gara - station
камион - kam-yon - lorry
партер - pronounced parter (par-terre) - literally meaning by the ground i.e. ground floor
Words of German origin:
вафла - vafla - waffle
табела - tabela - plate, signboard
цифра - tsifra - digit or number
As for the ъ sound in съжалявам - syzhalyavam i.e. I am sorry, you will have to memorise it well, as it is an important letter. It rhymes with u in burn or the u in turn so it will be su-zhal-yavam.
The word for dream is сън - syn and again you will use the same rule for the u sound. Not like the English word for son but s(u)n.
One of the most complicated parts of Bulgarian sadly are the verbs but you will get their logic as them as time goes by.
Also bear in mind that Bulgarian Turks usually have a different dialect as it is more influenced from the Turkish language and most of them probably use an Eastern dialect, which is very soft compared to the Western one for instance in Sofia.
Finally, remember that Bulgarian allows you to unlock other Slavic languages as well such as partially written Russian, understand modern day Macedonian, to some extend Serbo-Croatian but much less Polish or Czech.
Thanks for the details and taking the time to show us similarities! It's really interesting to read 😊
We did begin to memorize the alphabet pretty earlier on, and as you said, this helps us when we're out the village to read and understand things at a distance.
I understand what you mean with the Turkish dialect, makes complete sense
Не е чак толкова фонетичен, за колкото изглежда, че е! Българският е по-сложен за писане от посърбения му диалект, тъй наречения ''македонски.'' Много българи не знаят на 100% как да пишат правилно нему, така че... Замисли се! По-лесен e от руския, полския и словенския, но както казахме - не е чак толкова фонетичен колкото македонския и сърбохърватските езици.
I recommend the book we used to train diplomats in the UK-Teach yourself Bulgarian by Mira Kovacheva and Michael Holman,excellent book.
Thanks, we'll look out for it 🙂
Super cute video
We're trying to become more confident, and slip Bulgarian words into our videos more and more 🙂 thanks you so much 😊
Hi - great to see and hear your channel. Not permanently out in BG yet but hopefully soon...looking to 'retire' early too. I;ve been learning some Bulgarian on a site called Memrise that I'd recommend. I only go for the free courses. There are several on learning Bulgarian - you have to try them out - some aren't great but some are very good - especially the ones that have the listening sections - you hear the word pronounced- and some you type the words in Bulgarian - both in english ad cyrilic alphabet - some you construct the sentence from banks of words etc... By the way - I would love to know the link to the cartoons /fairytales - that sounds a fab/interesting/fun way to learn more..... But in reality, you are both spot on, that conversation/trying words out with local Bulgarians is the absolute best way and most useful. See you in Bulgaria one day!!
That sounds really helpful actually thanks for the advice and comment! 😊
Best of luck on your journey, would love to hear how it goes ☺️
Here's the link to the cartoons, brace yourself, the animation is out of this world haha 😅
youtube.com/@BulgarianFairyTales
You are so adorable! Good on you on putting effort in learning Bulgarian. One of the most underrated ways to learn a language is through movies with subs, Bulgarian cinema is not anything glamorous but you can very easily find movies in Bulgarian with English subs on TH-cam, and maybe play it in the evening when going to bed and you don't even need to put much effort in trying to understand it... your brain will make connections on its own and after a while you will be surprised you can make coherent sentences all of a sudden. At least for me that is how I learned English. Once you are comfortable with the alphabet and written words in general reading books and filling the gaps is the best way to polish and expand your dictionary, however be warned that is very time consuming!
Thank you for taking the time to comment, we've tried subs on movies a few times but it didn't really gell, if that makes sense. TV shows online helps more than we think, understanding pronunciation and things 🙂 yeah haha it is very time consuming, but totally worth it in the end 😅
@@MarkandAnisha Oh yea, it will take a while to "click", I have no actual evidence for this but at least for me, consuming media first made me start thinking in English when I was learning, and then books helped expand my dictionary. The idea is when watching something with subtitles you connect certain phrases with their English counterparts. A brute force way is just to sit down on with a children's book and a dictionary but that is again very time consuming, and once the basics are down to move on to more grown up literature. Languages are hard, and Bulgarian is one of the hardest out there, it will take years regardless.
Language takes time, effort and money. My parents paid 2 private schools for me to learn English. Then I had to watch countless movies and TV series to perfect it in time. Bulgarian and English are from different language families. Look it also from the bright side that once you know it (may take a few years :) ) you will be able to understand a little bit of Serbian, Macedonian and Russian :). We Bulgarians love you and we do appreciate your efforts :).
Find a study group course to learn Bulgarian. It is an opportunity to meet new people as well.
Apparently ... you might be able to understand a little bit of Slovenian and Polish as well ... :) So keep going.
Thanks for your support and kindness ☺️
Hi guys we live near silistra. We are struggling to learn the language too but try even if we get odd looks. We did the word library whilst in the uk too. We moved out here permanently September 22. Great vlogs 😊. We too have a YT channel showing our journey so far.
That's the thing! Showing effort and trying is all the Bulgarians ask 🙂
Looking forward to seeing your progress 😊
Keep up the hard work, you will get there.
Oh, you can experience quite a strong dialect in the VT area
One step at a time
Very cool! Looks like a hard language to learn with all the bonus characters! 🙂 I am thinking about moving to Bulgaria.
It's all about perspective, really, there are difficult areas of the language but we personally find it a lot easier than we initially thought it would be.
Awesome! Let us know if we can help in anyway ☺️ best of luck
Slavic languages are usually harder for English speakers.
I am learning Bulgarian because my partner is Bulgarian. Don't be daunted, Bulgarians love it when you try to speak their language from my experience. You will find your learning increases exponentially once you get better at the fundamentals. Bulgarian being phonetic unlike English, it's actually much easier to read and pronounce words in Bulgarian (from a non native's perspective) if you learn the sounds of each letter unlike English where the same letters can have all kinds of different sounds.... though, thought, tough, through, thorough for example. Brits aren't the best at learning languages but that's because we are not exposed to other languages as much (partly because it's not as important, but also we are a little ignorant of the importance of knowing another language imo). Remember you are fluent in a language, so you can learn another language, you just have to immerse yourself in it more and you'll get there step by step (стъпка по стъпка).
We've learnt the phonetics pretty quickly after getting here and even find ourselves sounding out signs on shop fronts etc. You're totally right with the Bulgarians, they really appreciate you giving it a go and are usually really helpful if we don't get it quite right. We know of a few Brits that live over here and don't even attempt the language.. but we try our best to integrate and continue learning any where we can. We actually find it pretty fun 😊
great video guys, thanks for sharing
Our pleasure! 🙂
It is not drasti or drastis but zdrasti or zdravei. It is something like hallo.
So you are near to the pronunciation. I have learned English at school but English is a difficult language especially in writing.
So we had to write every new word 10 times and pronounce it letter by letter and say the meaning. So 40-50 words every day.
But you have much work, as I see with the house and the garden. You must water the tomatoes every day early in the morning
and put some 150-200 cm long and strong enough sticks and tie the plants to the sticks. You can go to some of the neighbours
and have a look how do they care their garden. It will be a good experience for the next year.
Just go among the people and talk as much as you can and by a TV set.
We give you top credit for learning English, it is hard! Thanks for your advice on everything 🙂
The best way is Cartoon and movies with subtitles.
You are so intelligent and clever! Wish you good luck and happiness!
Aw thank you so much 🥰 that's so kind of you to say that, we wish you good health and prosperity too ☺️
Hi guys u r very cool and nice couple. I would advice u to ask bulgarian people to write down for you bg words in latin alphabet. And after that u can write this word 20-30 times till u memorise it
Thank you! That's a really good idea actually, especially for the words that confuse us. We can read things pretty good in Bulgarian to be honest, as most of it is phonetic, but every little helps 🙂
Your Turkish Bulgarian neighbours are most likely speaking to you in their Turkish language and not in the Bulgarian language that you expect. It's a political issue for them and you most likely know by now the unfortunate history between the two countries. Enjoying your videos :)
Hopkng to visit bulgaria soon with a view to finding a property to buy and eventually live permanently. Interesting to discover that a lot of the language apps dont have bulgarian as an option to learn. I would be very interested to know which fairy tale youtube channel/s you watch as i am very much a visual learner rather than a reading one, if that mskes sense.
You are lucky that you are not learning Polish language. All the best from Poland.
Thanks 😌
😊 Its really hard in the begining. You just need practicing. My English is getting a bit rusty, but I'll be happy to have a chat you seem a really nice couple. All the best guys
Thanks Boris! Your English seems very good from what we can see! 🙂
@@MarkandAnisha Thank you, spend over 10 years in London
Hey guys,
I suggest to pair on that! I can help you with bulgarian vs your English lessons
Thank you! If we have an opportunity in the future, we will get in touch 🙏😊
English is my fourth language and I know how difficult it is.
Wow that's amazing 🤩
My son now is 24 and from Cartoon started to says a words in English instead of Bulgarian😂
I know what you mean about Bulgarians and language misunderstandings. I live in Maine in the USA and every summer hundreds of Bulgarians come here for the summer to work in our restaurants and amusement parks. My friend Vinny was working in a kitchen with a big ass Bulgarian guy and my friend is like maybe 140 lbs he said something to the Bulgarian guy and the dude thought he swore at him, he picked Vinny up by his neck and got deported
Bloody ell wasn't expecting that, the challenge can definitely lead you into hot water that's for sure.. 👀
@@MarkandAnisha well and to be honest my friend Vinny can be annoying haha I don't blame the Bulgarian guy. When I moved to this area I didn't expect to meet Bulgarians so I was surprised my first summer. We get people from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Russia and now even Jamaica. You can earn around $1,200 per week after taxes. They work like dogs and save all the money then go home after 3 or 4 months. Oddly they all buy computers and electronics before they leave because they say it's cheaper and better here
@@Sk8erRevoltYeah, I can see that happen. Seen it too many times actually. 😅
Well, to be honest, you completely butcher the language, but at least you try, which is more than we can say for most Brits around here. Respect!
Get used to the rolled 'r
Learn vocabulary with the stress at the right place inside the word
Correct prononciation
Long way to go but well worth it!
Maybe we'll meet in Pavlikeni someday!
That's the thing, we're giving it a go, and constantly learning more 😅 yeah maybe!
It is a very hard language to learn
Bit by bit we'll get the hang of it haha 😅
I can imagine if it's a first language to learn that the very first steps are difficult but don't lose hope. Overall, it is not very difficult for English or French speakers to reach a functional level of knowledge. Bulgarian grammar is pretty close to these languages, having abandoned grammatical cases almost completely but having a very complex tense and verb structure. I find a particular pleasure in finding how similar European languages are while I was learning French and English
The more structured way you find to learn a language the faster you'll learn it. There's a lot of logic in languages, so if you can find an official system with books and videos, you'll be good very fast.
You can also try to find a teacher. At least for the very beginning, where you can't rely on the bases to learn more.
Good luck and don't hesitate to ask Bulgarians for help, they will be very happy to assist you.
If you have the English translation that is good. But without the translation listening to Bulgarian fairytales to help you pick up Bulgarian words maybe is not the best idea. It is because if the fairytale is in its original version it would probably contain lots of older words which even some younger Bulgarians wouldn't know
Thanks for giving that insight, you're probably right there, it's just getting used to picking up on the random conversation words which helps when listening to the fairy tales haha 😅
Pechka "ch" pronounce like chicken "ch" icken. Molia - please - you do not pronounce "I" just say "ya" molYa" my husband is from SA and we have the same problems :) the confusing part is we conjugate the verbs. Don't try to remember all forms, just for you - az otivam , az gotvya, az pravya...
Ah thank you for this ☺️ it helps a lot
I've started with 100 little pieces of paper where I wrote on one of the site in English and another site in Bulgarian language and in five months they become 500 pieces and it's the best way to learn another language
What a useful idea! 🙌
Enjoyied your video again! It seams you both also need to learn some prepositions and conjunctions to build simple sentences. As " in" =в/w" Exmp."Slagam w pechkata"/I put in the "woodburner". On=на/na-Example. Slagam na masata.I put on the table.
Kade otiwash?/Къде отиваш?Where are you going?
"Otivam do magazina"/I am going to the shop.to=do/до;
Zad/зад=behind; Pred/пред=in front of...In front of you=pred teb/пред теб;
It is very hard to learn language on your own, perhaps with a teacher just for 6 months active learning people could catch up how to make simple conversations.I have no idea if there are language teachers to propose life-video lessons in Bulgaria? It would be handy! The situation with "Dobro uitro" at evenings 😁 bulgarians also say that to others as a joke, if they had hangover and overslept until the afternoon hours,lol.That wasn't your situation but they didn't know in the shop.🙂 Take care!
That was extremely helpful actually! Thank you so much for the insight haha 😊 we'll definitely be saying "Otivam do magazina" to each other next time haha, brilliant, it seems like you understand what we mean of figuring out extra filler worlds.
That makes Mark feel a little better about his experience haha 😅 yes we have people/ teachers and TH-camrs on our radar for when we have time to really focus and nail it.
Really appreciate your comment! Thank you ☺️
''Пред'' в архаичния си смисъл може да означава, както на ''македонски'' - преди (before).