Seemed appropriate (posted on a Friday) and it is one that I feel confident enough to pronounce, yah for Friday!
A Friday fishing expedition
While I can now recognise most of the days of the week when I see them written down – (this is no mean feat, see below) Friday and Saturday are the two that I am the most confident with. Petak, (pronounced pay-tak) and Subota two great week days!
Have a look at the rest of the week here and you will see what I mean about Petak and Subota being the easiest to deal with; Ponedjeljak, Utorak, Srijeda, cetvrtak, Petak, Subota & Nedjela (aka Monday – Sunday).
There are so many new words and new ways to pronounce the letters that I have grown up speaking and mumbling for all these years. I feel like I have been making some progress but think my major stumbling block is lack of confidence in my pronunciation skills. I know this is a big mistake on my part and that people here will not mind my fumbling with their language so I must persevere/try harder!!
Now that our business is closed for the season I can no longer use the ‘I’m too busy’ excuse. It has been true, Doka and I have worked really hard since arriving back in Korcula in March. Now we are enjoying some lazy starts to the days and visit our shop to use the internet and Doka is still creating beautiful filigree jewellery.
My new language comes with it’s own new alphabet and a new way of pronouncing most things, and I have no idea what to do with the grammar – the grammar aspect can wait for a later date/month/year.
I am finding it quite touching how some of our friends here are impressed with my minimal language skills – really I only have a few greetings, some random words (kisha = rain, zima = cold etc), and some numbers, that I am confident with.
For the most part I feel pretty embarrassed about my lack of language skills. I have been living in Korcula for 7 months now and feel like I have made such a small amount of progress, it is just as well that everyone’s favourite word here is Polako – slowly! See My Struggle with the Croatian Language, part 1, for more on that.
Growing up in New Zealand I didn’t envisage spending so many years living in Europe or marrying someone from Croatia! We had the choice of learning either French or German when I was in high school and I ignored both of these choices. I hope that after a quiet winter here in Korcula I will be able to report in with some more positive updates on my language skills for you in the new year!
If you want to keep track of my progress sign up for updates on the top right of this page.
Now that our business is closed for the season I can no longer use the ‘I’m too busy’ excuse. It has been true, Doka and I have worked really hard since arriving back in Korcula in March. Now we are enjoying some lazy starts to the days and visit our shop to use the internet and Doka is still creating beautiful filigree jewellery.