Problem
Where can I hear Bulgarian? A website - was it the tourist board's - told me that Bulgarian was the most melodious language after Italian.
Answer
I had two ideas of where to hear Bulgarian. The first was Google. I tried typing 'I love you' into Google Translate from English to Bulgarian.
Stories
English
I could hear the English. Why bother listening to English pronunciation? I was interested in finding out how accurate the English was. Would I get a British sounding voice or a scientific robot?
It sounded fine. Received Pronunciation. But I could not see any button to click on for Bulgarian.
Bulgarian
So I turned to YouTube and typed in 'learn Bulgarian'. the first lady who popped up looked to me as if she needed to comb her hair. I was not impressed. At the end of three minutes I had not yet learned anything.
I realised that you cannot learn an entire language in three minutes. You are supposed to be so thrilled by how much you learn in three minutes that you continue watching the three minute videos every day or every hour until you have at least the basis for simple conversation, get by in the language.
I tried another website. Aha. A young girl with a sweet voice, equally lovely speaking English, was teaching Bulgarian in three minutes. She was so nice to listen to that I watched a few minutes for the pleasure of it. Not that I learned much Bulgarian.
Russian
However I did learn something. The interesting thing to me was that the Bulgarian language sounded familiar and looked familiar. So many words resembled Russian. I haven't got for with my Russian on DuoLingo, but far enough to see that anything which looks like da in any allied language is yes and anything related to dobre is good.
I have now found a great website for learning Bulgarian, which is about 26th on my list of languages I would like to learn one day. I shall show you the other 25 first.
French and Italian
At school I learned French - my French is fluent. I also learned Latin. You don't get much Latin conversation. It's impressive to passers by when you stand reading aloud from a gravestone in a museum and talking to yourself. Translating. I regularly mutter to myself, 'veni vidi vici' (I came, I saw, I conquered) and 'amo amas amat' which means I love, you love, he, she or it loves.
But Romans nowadays speak Italian.
My list is:
1 German - easy vocabulary and easy pronunciation. Kindergarten. Child garden.
2 Spanish - easy vocabulary and pronunciation OK if you can learn to roll the letter r. Los Angeles. The angels.
3 Italian - I already know lots from restaurant menus, operas and visits to Italy and Latin. I like 'tricolore', thee colours of red tomato, white cheese and green.
4 Russian - to learn the alphabet. Sputnik.
5 Greek - to learn the Alphabet. I know so many words. Acropolis, hilltop city.
6 Hebrew - to learn the alphabet. Bethlehem, from Beth, building, and lehem bread, means house of bread.
7 Romanian (Only because I'm planning my first trip to the country and my new plan is to learn the language of every country I visit).
8 Swedish - I like the sound.
9 Welsh - I go to Wales every year. It's time I learned the road signs and place names on maps.
10 Portuguese - similar to Spanish. The Portuguese love the British. Queen Elizabeth fought their neighbour, Spain.
11 Vietnamese - I go to a Vietnamese Toastmasters club in Singapore - too difficult, I looked and left.
12 Norwegian - could be similar to Swedish.
13 Danish - could be similar to Swedish and Norwegian.
14 Irish - nearby.
15 Japanese - easier than Chinese. In my early twenties I went to Japan and learned to say Sayonara. I have since learned that you answer a phone with m u s h i m u s h i. I can say karaoke.
16 Chinese. I wish I had learned twenty years ago. It is hard. I can manage how are you which is, ni how - you good?, and the reply 'how' (good).
17 Dutch - must be similar to German, but only useful in Holland.
18 Malay - easy to pick up. Termimah Kasi - thank you. Similar to Indonesian. Easy language. Doubles a word to make a plural. Anak is child and anak anak is children.
19 Arabic - shares with Hebrew a relationship to Aramaic, same sounding words. Popular names. Dawood is David. Ibrahim is Abraham. Salaam, meaning peace, similar to Shalom and Jerusalem.
20 Yiddish. Mix of Hebrew and German. Mazel tov. Good luck (or rather luck good). Shtum. Quiet. Spiel. Game.
21 Hindi
22 Urdu
23 Tamil - useful in Singapore. You hear it on the train announcements.
24 Polish. I went to Warsaw and Krakow. The language is too difficult for me.
25 Czech - I went to Prague and hoped it would be like Russian. No such luck.
26 Bulgarian.
Yes, Bulgarian is my 26th language. I though I'd take a look and see how the language compares with Romanian.
Now I have added Bulgarian to my list of languages which sound good and look easy.
English - Bulgarian
Good night - leka nosh.
Bulgarian - English
leka nosh - good night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Hfd853J50
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. I have several other posts on languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.
Where can I hear Bulgarian? A website - was it the tourist board's - told me that Bulgarian was the most melodious language after Italian.
Answer
I had two ideas of where to hear Bulgarian. The first was Google. I tried typing 'I love you' into Google Translate from English to Bulgarian.
Stories
English
I could hear the English. Why bother listening to English pronunciation? I was interested in finding out how accurate the English was. Would I get a British sounding voice or a scientific robot?
It sounded fine. Received Pronunciation. But I could not see any button to click on for Bulgarian.
Bulgarian
So I turned to YouTube and typed in 'learn Bulgarian'. the first lady who popped up looked to me as if she needed to comb her hair. I was not impressed. At the end of three minutes I had not yet learned anything.
I realised that you cannot learn an entire language in three minutes. You are supposed to be so thrilled by how much you learn in three minutes that you continue watching the three minute videos every day or every hour until you have at least the basis for simple conversation, get by in the language.
I tried another website. Aha. A young girl with a sweet voice, equally lovely speaking English, was teaching Bulgarian in three minutes. She was so nice to listen to that I watched a few minutes for the pleasure of it. Not that I learned much Bulgarian.
Russian
However I did learn something. The interesting thing to me was that the Bulgarian language sounded familiar and looked familiar. So many words resembled Russian. I haven't got for with my Russian on DuoLingo, but far enough to see that anything which looks like da in any allied language is yes and anything related to dobre is good.
I have now found a great website for learning Bulgarian, which is about 26th on my list of languages I would like to learn one day. I shall show you the other 25 first.
French and Italian
At school I learned French - my French is fluent. I also learned Latin. You don't get much Latin conversation. It's impressive to passers by when you stand reading aloud from a gravestone in a museum and talking to yourself. Translating. I regularly mutter to myself, 'veni vidi vici' (I came, I saw, I conquered) and 'amo amas amat' which means I love, you love, he, she or it loves.
But Romans nowadays speak Italian.
My list is:
1 German - easy vocabulary and easy pronunciation. Kindergarten. Child garden.
2 Spanish - easy vocabulary and pronunciation OK if you can learn to roll the letter r. Los Angeles. The angels.
3 Italian - I already know lots from restaurant menus, operas and visits to Italy and Latin. I like 'tricolore', thee colours of red tomato, white cheese and green.
4 Russian - to learn the alphabet. Sputnik.
5 Greek - to learn the Alphabet. I know so many words. Acropolis, hilltop city.
6 Hebrew - to learn the alphabet. Bethlehem, from Beth, building, and lehem bread, means house of bread.
7 Romanian (Only because I'm planning my first trip to the country and my new plan is to learn the language of every country I visit).
8 Swedish - I like the sound.
9 Welsh - I go to Wales every year. It's time I learned the road signs and place names on maps.
10 Portuguese - similar to Spanish. The Portuguese love the British. Queen Elizabeth fought their neighbour, Spain.
11 Vietnamese - I go to a Vietnamese Toastmasters club in Singapore - too difficult, I looked and left.
12 Norwegian - could be similar to Swedish.
13 Danish - could be similar to Swedish and Norwegian.
14 Irish - nearby.
15 Japanese - easier than Chinese. In my early twenties I went to Japan and learned to say Sayonara. I have since learned that you answer a phone with m u s h i m u s h i. I can say karaoke.
16 Chinese. I wish I had learned twenty years ago. It is hard. I can manage how are you which is, ni how - you good?, and the reply 'how' (good).
17 Dutch - must be similar to German, but only useful in Holland.
18 Malay - easy to pick up. Termimah Kasi - thank you. Similar to Indonesian. Easy language. Doubles a word to make a plural. Anak is child and anak anak is children.
19 Arabic - shares with Hebrew a relationship to Aramaic, same sounding words. Popular names. Dawood is David. Ibrahim is Abraham. Salaam, meaning peace, similar to Shalom and Jerusalem.
20 Yiddish. Mix of Hebrew and German. Mazel tov. Good luck (or rather luck good). Shtum. Quiet. Spiel. Game.
21 Hindi
22 Urdu
23 Tamil - useful in Singapore. You hear it on the train announcements.
24 Polish. I went to Warsaw and Krakow. The language is too difficult for me.
25 Czech - I went to Prague and hoped it would be like Russian. No such luck.
26 Bulgarian.
Yes, Bulgarian is my 26th language. I though I'd take a look and see how the language compares with Romanian.
Now I have added Bulgarian to my list of languages which sound good and look easy.
English - Bulgarian
Good night - leka nosh.
Bulgarian - English
leka nosh - good night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Hfd853J50
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. I have several other posts on languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.
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