Thread: Introduce Yourself!

Pozdrav sve!

Why dont we all post here a little introduction of ourselves? Include maybe who you are, where you are from, why you study or are interested in Serbain/Croatian/Bosnian....... Ill start.

Im Adam, 21 years old from Edinburgh, Scotland. I study Serbian and Croatian at university in Nottingham, England and Im going into the 3rd year of my degree. Which means I'm off to live in Beograd this October for a year! Im looking forward to it immensly! Cant wait.

I have really no idea why Im studying Serbian/Croatian or where my interest stems from. I have no family or friends there, nor do I have any links to the ex-Yugoslavia. As a child/teenager I remember watching the news and the horrors of the break-up of Yugoslavia and the Kosovo crisis. I think maybe this is where my interest stems from, a country/countries in Europe, just over the water from Italy - and all this stuff was happening (which I previously had thought only went on 50 years ago). And because I enjoy languages I figured maybe I should study this.

Thats not to say Im only interested in the region because of the horrors that happened. Im love the culture, the food, the history...basically everything about the Balkans (and Eastern Europe in general) - its far more interesting for me than plain old Western Europe!

Adam

Hello Adam! Здраво Адаме!

I'm Marko [in this forum Vlacko], I'm a 18 year old Serb. From Serbia [someone thinks this is funny, but there are many Serbs that live outside motherland]. I'm from Kruševac, a town in central Serbia.
I'm going in a high school. I found this site relativly recently, for developing my Russian. There I found Serbian forum, and I'm really interested in his debates. I'm here to give help with Serbian anyone who needs it. If you want Adam, we can speak in Serbian, or bilingually.
Ok, that's from me...

pozdravite

I'm Stjepan, a 21 year old Croat from New Jersey in the United States. I found this forum to help me learn Russian, which I took for two years in university before I had to abandon it due to class schedule problems... I still study the language on my own though. I use this particular part of the forum to occassionally talk about the language(s), sometimes help people, but also to learn as my Croatian is sometimes a bit awkward or ungrammatical since I've been living in a place where there are very few speakers to be found.

I attend Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where I am pursuing a double major in History and Russian, Central, and East European Studies, as well as a minor in Political Science.

More about my background; my family comes from Dalmatia, specifically in Split and Milna, on the island of Brač, who I try to visit regularly. As a result, I sometimes use a lot of dialectal words with my family like žmul (čaša), đardin (park), rabota (rad), ura (sat), forca (snaga), nono i nona (djed i baka) etc..

I will be in Zagreb for most of July this summer working with other university students (from Croatia, Serbia and Montengro, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Albania, United States, and probably BiH) in a program on organizing Non-Governmental Organizations and building up civic activism.

Hello,

My name is Audrey and i'm a 24 years old girl from Brussels, Belgium. I came to this forum because i'm intersested in the culture of the Balkanic countries and because i'm going to visit the region this summer.

I'm going for a one month trip, first in central europa, then in the Balkans, ending with the music festival of Guca, in serbia.

Why i'm attracted to that culture i cannot say, but that's the way it is. I've been trying to learn serbian/croatian the last few weeks, but it is quite difficult as i don't have any basis in Slavic languages. I'd like to be able to say even just a few sentences when i'm there, tough.

Stjepan, can you tell me more about the program you'll be working on this summer? I'd be intersested in meeting people who work for civil activism in the region.

Zdravo, I'm a 21 years old italian from Trieste, a small town near slovenian border.Actually I'm studying at law faculty at university of Trieste.

I'm very interested about history and culture of former yugoslavija area,expecially about serbia, I had some grandparents who lived in belgrade.

I found this forum because i'm studying russian and here i found a very good website to help me to improve my russian,with some interesting links.

now i'm planning to visit Serbia in september..

http://mp3.retroportal.ru/5/karaklaich.mp3

http://mp3.retroportal.ru/5/maryanovich.mp3

It's so cute that someone is actually interesting for this miserable
area and language(s). I am 37, Croat from Serbia and I am starting
small business because I need money to LEAVE this area forever (I hope
I'll succeed). I live in town next to Hungarian border with
nationalistic graffiti on the walls like: "Death to Hungarians" and
"Go away!" against Croats. I have been also in Croatia few years ago
and I had disgusting episode when I was asking for bus ticket. I've
made mistake and asked on Serbian dialect "Molim vas kartu..." instead
Croatian "Molim ljepa kartu..." and girl on counter told me "Go on
another counter." with disgusting expression on her face. Generally,
minorities are targets here. Be aware of momentary missing of fuel
diesel if you want to go in Serbia by your own car because
Government don't want to increase prices.
This area (ex-Yugoslavia) is always swinging between extremes in
politics: communism and extreme nationalism. Be aware of that. People
think that democracy is equally anarchy. Now is time for faschism!
Glorifying of fascist leader Pavelic (from WWII) in Croatia and
traitor Mihailovic (also WWII) in Serbia, (who sincerely first started
rebellion against Germans but later accompanied occupants in fight
against partizans) is quite normal. People live in past and don't know
much about modern living. Life here is very difficult, and people are
very insecure for own future.
I don't know your reasons why you are interesting for this area. Maybe
you have curiosity for rare species, who knows... Good luck in your
learning!

Originally Posted by Anonymous

I've
made mistake and asked on Serbian dialect "Molim vas kartu..." instead
Croatian "Molim ljepa kartu..."

Mislim stvarno, koliko ja znam, na hrvatskom se isto kaže "molim vas kartu", tako da nemoj lagati! Otkud ti to da se na hrvatskom kaže "molim ljepa kartu"?? A "ljepa" čak nije ni gramatički ni pravopisno ispravno, tako da ja za tu riječ još nisam čula. Možda si mislio/la reći "lijepo" umjesto "ljepa" - može se i tako reći, ali ja osobno uvijek govorim "molim vas", kao i većina ljudi (davno nisam čula da netko kaže "molim lijepo", iako ima i toga). Tako da stvarno ne znam o kojem ti to "srpskom dijalektu" govoriš, osim ako nisi pobrkao taj svoj dijalekt s hrvatskim jezikom!

Stjepan, can you tell me more about the program you'll be working on this summer? I'd be intersested in meeting people who work for civil activism in the region.

It's a three week program at the University of Zagreb sponsored by the Center for Global Security and Democracy. The purpose is to learn the skills necessary to become an activist and then teach them to others. We'll also be working directly with other students from most of the southeastern European countries to develop to gain a wider perspective on peoples' concerns throughout the region. Most of the program takes place in classes at the University of Zagreb, but we will also go out to Vukovar and to the Plitvice area to meet with people and talk with them about their concerns.

Мислим да оно што си рекао није истина. Ти вероватно, односно сигурно долазиш из Суботице, тј. Војводине, а Војводина је позната по својој толерантности и мултиетничности, и поједине испаде појединаца не можеш карактерисати као међунационалну мржњу.

Hello!

My name is Milos (Misa). I am a 16 years old Serb from Belgrade (Serbia), but at the moment living in Vienna (Austria). I am go to a high school for maths and languages. My hobbies are talking about history, politics and other serious and unserious topics and playing and watching all kinds of sports. Besides, I am a big fan of Partizan Belgrade, this is also the reason for my nick. Why I am here? I am learning German, English, French and Italian at school, but I want also to understand and speak the wonderful Russian language! As a Serbian patriot I am in love with Russia, I have a lot of friends overthere and I dont want to talk English with them anymore.. So, this summer I am going to start to learn Russian and I hope I can get some help here..

Greetings!
Cheers!

Zdravo sve! Zovem se Andrej. Ja sam iz Rossiji. Imam 17 godin. I wanna find a serbian/bosnian/croatian friend to have a mail correspond and which can help me with my serbian. Партизан, Vlacko -- what is about you? Will you help me?
Партизан, могу да ућим те рускому језику ако хоћеш

No problem, I will help you!

FIRST LESSON:

Wrong: "Партизан, могу да ућим те рускому језику ако хоћеш.
Right: "Партизан, могу да те ућим руски ако хоћеш."

Cлaвник, ты говориш Серба хорошего, но я очень плох по-русски.
Поздрав мой российский брат!

Originally Posted by Партизан

No problem, I will help you!

FIRST LESSON:

Wrong: "Партизан, могу да ућим те рускому језику ако хоћеш.
Right: "Партизан, могу да те ућим руски ако хоћеш."

Cлaвник, ты говориш Серба хорошего, но я очень плох по-русски.
Поздрав мой российский брат!

Wrong: "Партизан, могу да те ућим руски ако хоћеш."
Right: ""Партизан, могу да те учим руски ако хоћеш."

Originally Posted by Slawnik

Zdravo sve! Zovem se Andrej. Ja sam iz Rossiji. Imam 17 godin. I wanna find a serbian/bosnian/croatian friend to have a mail correspond and which can help me with my serbian. Партизан, Vlacko -- what is about you? Will you help me?
Партизан, могу да ућим те рускому језику ако хоћеш

Yes Slawnik, I'll help you too. Everything you need just ask!

Originally Posted by Vlacko

Wrong: "Партизан, могу да те ућим руски ако хоћеш."
Right: ""Партизан, могу да те учим руски ако хоћеш."

Ups.. I didnt recognized that he wrote a ћ instead of a ч..

Originally Posted by Партизан

Originally Posted by Vlacko

Wrong: "Партизан, могу да те ућим руски ако хоћеш."
Right: ""Партизан, могу да те учим руски ако хоћеш."

Ups.. I didnt recognized that he wrote a ћ instead of a ч..

Дешава се, ништа страшно!

Is here a great difference between ћ and ч?

Originally Posted by Slawnik

Is here a great difference between ћ and ч?

No, and for some speakers the two sounds have merged. ћ/ć is just pronounced softer