Mila Rodino

My name is Michael

I work in a school and I spend a lot of my day trying not to run down corridors as I travel from classroom to classroom. Yesterday, a boy of about seven or eight saw me approaching at speed and stopped to hold a door open for me. This boy was one of the many Bulgarian speaking children that attend my school so I decided I would try and impress him by thanking him in his mother tongue.

"Благодаря,"
"Pardon?" came the confused response.
"Never mind...Thank you."

The encounter didn't go at all how I had planned. There was no surprised look of "how does he know that?" nor was there the response of "Няма защо" I was desperately hoping for.

But I wasn't to be defeated. Later that day, another of our Bulgarian students passed my classroom. I spotted her and beckoned her in.

"Can you come in here, please? " I asked, very politely. "I want to ask you a question."
"Okay," she nodded.
"Как си?"
She shrugged.
"Добре съм" I reassured her.

An explanation for my sudden interest in the native tongue of Europe's 16th biggest country is probably needed. My school has a big Bulgarian population and I work with many of the students who are still learning to speak english. In addition to this, I had spent a lot of the previous weekend of YouTube watching a video series called "Learn Bulgarian In Three Minutes" - featuring a lovely Bulgarian woman called Iva who talked me through the formalities of saying hello, asking how people were and asking how 'vena' a small coffee cost.

For a brief second, dedicating a lot of time to learning Bulgarian seemed like a good idea. Images of myself frolicking in the Black Sea, asking for directions and giving my phone number (having learnt the numbers едно through десет!) to my new Bulgarian friends raced through my mind. However,  those blank and bewildered looks from my Bulgarian students has taught me that no matter how much time you spend teaching yourself something in your bedroom, nothing can prepare you for actually doing it when it counts. It takes more than a weekend of YouTube videos to learn Bulgarian.  And the children's reactions taught me this. Perhaps, they were shy. Maybe my pronunciation was a little off.  Personally,  I think that my interest into their mother tongue felt like a bit of an intrusion, and I can hardly blame them.

But it's not all doom and gloom... I decided to test out my newly found language skills on a third Bulgarian pupil later that day. три times the charm, right?

"Добър ден"

He smiled.

"Sort of. It's okay. Keep going"