Desperate Serbwife

Stories from the road (part II): Why would anyone want to learn Serbian?

So for those of you new to Desperate Serbwife, I'm going to let you in on a secret - I hate, HATE, to get up early (for those of you that have been reading, you are probably beginning to hate, HATE, hearing about my hatred - but this is my blog and so, as my Grandma says/giggles to me when her Kansas City Chiefs beat the Denver Broncos, "too bad.")

Anyway, when I go on vacation with my parents, my love for sleeping late always clashes a bit with my parents' love to get up early (we're talking 6am most days). But in Venice, this wasn't a problem at all. My parents could get up, have their breakfast and do whatever they wanted since Venice is purely a walking city (no cars allowed on the whole island). One particular morning they were up early and struck up a conversation with another couple over breakfast. The other couple (and their three children) were British but had lived in Rome for the past 20 years. The wife spoke almost fluent Italian and I assume the father did too, although I never heard. Anyway, when my mom explained to them about us living in Serbia and trying to learn Serbian, the wife exclaimed, "Why would ANYONE want to learn Serbian?"

Now I have to say, if you had asked me even a year ago if I wanted to learn Serbian, I would probably have said the same thing. But what this woman has forgotten is that when you live somewhere, any communication, even a small amount is like gold. If I lived in Kenya, I would want to learn Swahili, and if I lived in Brazil (oh, don't I wish I lived in Brazil?) I would want to learn Portuguese. It's not the language I necessarily want to learn, it's the ability to communicate and the ability to understand what people are saying to me. Words can not express the frustration one feels when you can't understand what is going on, or ask for what you need. I know why small children throw such temper-tantrums before they are able to speak - they are only acting out the frustration that they, and I, feel when they can not communicate effectively. I can only imagine myself in the supermarket check-out line having a two-year-old temper tantrum - jumping up and down and flapping my arms and screaming, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE ASKING ME!!! ARE YOU ASKING IF I WANT PAPER OR PLASTIC OR TELLING ME THAT YOU DON'T HAVE CHANGE FOR MY BIG BILL? WAAAAAAAAA, I DON'T UNDERSTAND, WAAAAAAA, STOP GIVING ME A DIRTY LOOK, I'M NOT STUPID, I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU WANT FROM ME." Wow, wouldn't that be fun to be able to have that temper tantrum? Instead, I patiently read the body langauge of the check out lady and eventually figure it out, but I am constantly reminded of how much more gratifying it would be if I could just understand what she was saying and respond correctly. And that is why I'm learning Serbian.

However, there is one added bonus to learning Serbian. By learning Serbian, I will also be able to say that I speak Bosnian, Croatian and Slovenian. Should Montenegro eventually split off from Serbia, I'll be able to speak Montenegrin too. Won't that look good on my resume? You see, all of these countries speak practically the same language because, for much of their history, they were all part of the same country and/or kingdom. Sure some differences have evolved but they are basically the same.

And for those of you that a bit hazy on your Balkan geography (as I was only a few months ago), I have pasted a map below to show you how all these countries were recently part of one large Yugoslavia.


Maps courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps used with permission.






P.S. - For the Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Slovenes, et al, who read this and feel the need to highlight every 'difference' between your respective languages: I get your point but please understand that I've read enough subtitles on various tv channels to know that the 'differences' aren't all that significant and I am just trying to simplify things for my friends back home.

posted by Brooke @ 9:43 AM