Albanian lessons have begun! This is not an easy language; it doesn't sound even close to any other language I can think of, and there are some tough pronunciations. But, I have an amazing teacher, Semra, who is from Macedonia and went to university in Kosovo. She is teaching us the Gheg dialect which is spoken in Kosovo, opposed to the dialect spoken in mainland Albania.
She is teaching us some cultural differences of the Albanian people as well, which is really useful. Albanians are very family oriented, so often when you run into someone on the street, you go further than asking how they are by also asking about everyone in their family, and strangely enough, how they slept the night before.. I am told it is also a very cafe oriented culture, so some coffee shop vocabulary is useful as well. Here are some of the basics we're studying now, that seem to be most important to know in this culture:
Mirëdita, qysh je, a je mirë? - good afternoon, how are you, are you well?
Qysh e ke familijen? - how is your family?
Qysh flejte? A je lodht? - how did you sleep? are you tired?
Hajde të pimë kafe - lets go get coffee!
The best part about this language is that it sounds so foreign to me that I'm not even embarrassed to try and speak it, because I have literally no idea how poorly I am pronouncing it. Whereas in French, I know I'm butchering the pronunciation so I'm a bit more sheepish to speak, especially around Francophones. Albanian is great!
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