Language Lessons

So, Eli and I have been studying the Serbian language. Formerly referred to as Serbo-Croatian, and having served as the official language of the former Yugoslavia from 1945 until the early 1990s, the language is Slavic in origin. For the linguists amongst us, you may want to check out the following Wikipedia site, which contains excruciating and somewhat mind-numbing details about the history and complexities of the language:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbo-Croatian_language

In a nutshell, though, let me just say that this language is haaaarrrrddd!!!!!! I've studied multiple languages in my day -- French, a little German, Romanian, and now Serbian. I guess that you could say that there's nothing quite like a Slavic language (with two alphabets -- Latin and cyrillic) to really throw a once-competent language student for a loop. I don't suppose that it helps that I'm not the most conscientious student, and that I don't study as much as I should, but I'm here to tell you that any way you cut it, Serbian is just plain hard.

Eli is making better and faster progress with his Serbian studies than am I. He had the benefit of a week of intensive language preparation in D.C. before we left the states, but compared with the 9-months of language instruction that most State Department Foreign Service Officers receive before they come to post, a week clearly is insufficient. We both have weekly lessons at the Embassy now, with a wonderful instructor who likes to say that Eli is a "one-in-a-million" language student. This description, obviously, does not apply to me, but I am happy at least to gain some positive benefits through my association with Prince Eli!

As just one example of how and why the Serbian language is so hard, the darned thing has seven cases, meaning that for every noun, there are seven possible endings, depending on the context in which the noun is used. Eli is obsessed with cases right now; I am avoiding them like the plague (actually, my instructor hasn't even introduced them to me because I'm still at a fairly low level in my studies). I suppose, however, that I should give myself some credit -- I've mastered numbers (which helps tremendously in the markets and stores), can order in a restaurant, can order a taxi, and am able to have a pretty simple conversation with Serb speakers. Certainly better than nothing.

During the Yugoslav days, when Serbo-Croatian served as the official language, it was spoken by the majority of people in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro (as I understand it, Macedonia and Slovenia, for the most part, retained their own languages). Since the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, each country has tried to modify the language a bit so that they can have their own language. In so doing, they have made a relatively obscure language even more obscure! You see, despite the fact that the horrific war of the 1990s is over, these countries are still fighting with each other, and at times act like little children who simply cannot get along. Unfortunate, to say the least. If you speak Serbian, though, you can pretty much get along in Croatia or Bosnia, although you might not want to drive a car with Serbian tags through those countries, since the hatred still runs deep, and vandalism of Serbian vehicles in those countries occurs with some degree of frequency. But, that's another topic for another day.

On a less cynical note, I should say that I really do like the Serbian language -- it is fun to listen to and to at least try to speak. And, there's nothing quite like the passion and enthusiasm with which Eastern Europeans speak in general -- the way in which they use their language is just different from the way we speak English in the United States. So, it's all good, even though I'm still fearful of those darned cases!

Happy Friday.

Erin