Learn Serbian & Može kafa podcast: Episode 18 - Season Recap

I'm Nikola and I'm here...

Here's Maki, hello.

How are you, Maki?

Super, thank you.

And you, Nikola?

Good, not bad.

Today we're doing a recap of everything we did so far.

And we can give also advices what will be the best steps and options,

steps to take when learning a language or serbian specifically um by

yourself i guess

how can you improve um yeah serbian it's it went so

fast for me to do 10 10 episodes for each

podcast video so almost 20 this is 19 i guess and to be honest

this was really useful for me And I'm sure, and I see sometimes people

send me comments, like they find it really useful.

But as the tradition goes, every 10 episodes, we make a break and we

come up with new ideas and then we continue.

That's how it goes.

So let's do some recap with you, Nicola.

Okay. So we can start with major topics we covered.

Yeah.

First, we started, one of the first things, self-introduction.

in serbian um yes and we talked about like major like the most frequent

ways and phrases you can

use to introduce yourself and the good thing was in my opinion that i

had not hadn't tried before

like to have the same thing in three levels beginner intermediate and advanced and

we started

with this and i think that's very useful i haven't seen such a resource

somewhere else and i think

it's nice for the listeners to go back and when they feel more confident

to pay more attention to

the intermediate one than advanced one so it's going to be useful for some

time i think definitely uh because you can expand your sentence with more structure

grammar structure and more complex syntax

yourself you can try writing beginner intermediate and advanced

text depending on your level

exactly we talked about habits and hobbies

so that's one of the things

you can do at beginner level at least

talk about the things you like

to do

that's a very good

conversation started like

what are you into what have you been doing

these days so that's why it's Very essential to know how to talk about

your habits and hobbies in Serbian.

So that episode is also one of my favorites.

Yes. Or to talk about your works.

You're often here like, what do you do?

Cime se baviš, ta radiš.

So that also helps.

Exactly.

We had practical dialogues in different situations.

Yeah. Like restaurants, cafes.

Yes. ordering, buying, asking for stuff which is very useful and believe me

I keep revising them again and again

because it's so easy to forget

the little details about the question

so it's always good to have it there all the time there is always

some phrases to learn

like practical phrases that only make sense in specific contexts such situations.

Yeah.

You need to make peace with it.

You need to keep learning that and experiencing it.

Yes.

We talked about Serbian dialects and we had a quiz.

That was one of my favorites, actually, because I really wanted to test one

Serbian to see if the dialects are real or I knew they were real,

but if they were really that different

and you proved that it's easy to see, to understand where people are

from. So it was really fun.

And I think that episode is also, you know, very useful to people

to understand some sounds like chichu and how they prolong the, like some vowels

in general. So it was really eye-opening for me.

yes so there's a lot of differences um and some like most of probably

foreigners that learn serbian

could not can be confused if they talk with someone that only speaks in

that dialect but it's still again the grammar structure is mostly the same yeah

exactly okay we did impromptu speaking so how

to answer spontaneously to questions and to just talk with someone and

that's the goal of when learning a language it's important to be able to

spontaneously make your

own sentences not just to repeat phrases that you learn so it's okay to

know some practical phrases and like in practical situations,

but the point of learning a language

is to spontaneously make sentence.

But even in spontaneous answers, you might have at least some kind of template

in your mind.

That's what we also try to add.

Like, tell your opinion, tell the other opinion that you might disagree with, or

share examples after you tell opinion from your own life or from somebody else's

life. So it was a good structure to go over, I think.

And the same structure can be applied to many topics.

Yes. And it's important to know like grammar structures that you can use.

And like methods, you don't have to memorize stuff by heart that much.

You just learn a method of using like words and you just change them

in your sentence.

That's the goal.

Exactly. It was very useful too.

of course a mozikafa without coffee culture would make no sense that we added

one more episode

about coffee culture in serbia with you even though i touched upon that topic

a lot it was

fun it's always nice it was for example interesting for me to see that

you you're not that familiar

one of some of with some of the phases and for example ivana was

familiar like it was nice to see the cultural differences in serbia for me

yeah that's good so do you want to do a quiz now yes let's

have a little quiz for everyone but i will be answering the questions on

behalf of our listeners but we will give some time for them to say their answer

so i have some questions here regarding Serbia and Serbian culture and language.

So let's start with the first one.

So I will read the question.

You have options.

you can answer in the meantime our listeners can also think of their own

answer and i'll say what's

the correct i guess so which serbian word describes the joy of

life's simple pleasures

we have inat merak and aide

yeah three words i think that you cannot translate easily to english

so obviously it's merak in my opinion um

right is it merak it is yeah yeah i mean inad is also

joyful for some people yes and i know inad is a turkish origin merak

is also

yeah but we don't use merak to describe simple pleasures it's curiosity in turkish

but merak

here so you will see a lot of merak restaurants all around the balkans

everyone for example

skovski merak maurovski merak i don't know in serbia meraklia right yeah

meraklia is the name for someone who enjoys simple pleasures, I guess,

like moments

in life, I guess.

So many restaurant owners used Merek

as their name because

it invites people to have

pleasure in their restaurants.

Yeah, it's kind of a part of kafana culture.

Yeah, yeah. That's an important word.

All right.

Good. And also, Inat is a Turkish word, Turkish origin.

I don't know if you use it now in standard Turkish.

Yes, we use it still the same way.

So that one is the same.

Yeah. So it means spite, I guess, in Serbian.

Out of spite.

And Serbs are famous for, I guess, famous for doing things out of spite.

Yeah. Okay, number two.

What is the most common way to say cheers in Serbian?

Živeli, hvala, idemo.

Yeah, of course.

is the answer

yeah I like

it means

I guess to life

or something like yes or

yeah to life

also in other countries is also used

in Serbia

it means bless you when someone sneezes.

Yeah.

Okay. Three. Which Serbian phrase

means come on and is used

in many situations?

Snalazljivost, ajde, baš.

I think everyone knows this.

Come on. Ajde.

It's not Serbian only, it's

Balkan word everywhere.

Ajde works. Ajde or ajde.

and

isn't it also Turkish origin?

It is I don't know but we have ID, we say E at the

ID yes

end

so there is

come on

hurry up

okay that's fine

it has many many different meanings

but mostly come on

good which of these is the traditional serbian dish we have sushi yescavica and

pizza yeah the options eliminate each other i know but piliescavica burger

right yeah like a serbian burger let's say uh we have it all around

um and it's a minced meat it can be pork it can be even

lamb sometimes or beef yeah yeah with onions in it sometimes

cheese in it right sometimes cheese um and it's served with kaimak iver

yes yes kaimak and iver

always on the flight with it and piletskavica is also the same you think

in bosnia in Croatia I think it's the same maybe like

for cevapi they call it different in Croatia

somewhere the shape

of cevapia and pilaskavica

is quite different though in Serbia

cevapi are

small finger yeah huge

ring yeah yeah right okay number five what is the official script

of the serbian language or meaning like the alphabet uh latin cyrillic both

latin and cyrillic

hard question because depends on the situation you might have in my opinion of

course

I think it's both, but you can never find a children's book in Latin

alphabet. Yes.

Also in formal letters, I think, mostly Cyrillic is used.

Yes. So in the Constitution, it says that the formal official script is Cyrillic.

and it also says the use of other scripts or alphabets

is regulated by law.

And then that also means that Latin script

is part of the standard use.

So we give advantage to Cyrillic

in stuff regarding government, like papers and stuff like that.

and kids primarily learn Cyrillic.

And then in like, I don't remember which grade,

but immediately after Cyrillic, we'll learn Latin.

But our textbooks in school are printed in Cyrillic.

However, books you find in stores, in bookstores, are, I think, mostly printed in

Latin script.

That's true. Like everything online is mostly printed, like shown in Latin.

So we use them equally.

Yeah. It's funny sometimes on YouTube or on social media,

some singers even, like they use Cyrillic in their descriptions.

I'm like, wow, it feels rare to me, but it's actually, as you said,

it's equal. Some people just prefer to use Cyrillic for everything.

Yes. And even some hip hop singers might use Cyrillic in their social media.

Exactly.

Yeah.

It's easier to use Latin online because of the English keyboards and so

switching between English and Serbian.

And that's why most people use Latin script online.

But there are people that want to use Cyrillic.

Yes, that's true.

Okay, number six.

Which of these sports is Serbia famous for?

Ice hockey, basketball, cricket?

I think everybody is already aware of the answer,

like 100% sure.

Basketball, of course.

yes basketball is um football uh for example soccer uh is very is

maybe even more popular

because it's very popular everywhere but we're not as good as football as we

are in basketball

basketball is very um frequent in larger cities belgrade

and a lot of people play basketball Exactly.

And everybody knows my favorite guy, Nikola Jokic.

Nikola Jokic, yes.

And the last one.

Djordje Balashevic, Tomas Drakovic, Ceca.

They will try to, I think our listeners will try to pick one.

but as far as i listened they are all mixing folk and modern sounds

yeah yeah essentially

even balashevich i would say george balashevich has uh is one of i think

one of the best

Draković in Cetca, but he also uses folk.

Vojvodina

which is under the influence

of Hungary of course

violins and band those bands you

frequent in Vojvodina Tomas Dracovic

is majorly

pop singer I would say but also

has folk elements and sets

can also

that's like a turbo folk even

area I would say

but yeah Also for Toma, when you say pop, many people might think it's

very active, uplifting songs, but Toma has very dramatic pop songs as

Very slow. Not in today's terms. well.

Yes.

It's like pop in the 80s, 70s.

But their songs are really helpful when it comes to learning Serbian.

because easy to follow, there's rhythm.

I enjoy listening to them.

I'm not that familiar to be honest,

but Georgia Balashevic is my favorite in these options.

Okay, that's it.

Yeah, let's talk about a little bit, what's next for Serbian learners?

The one thing that I really feel so happy about is right now,

I mean, I started learning Serbian a few years ago, but right now, the

source,

thanks to social media, the source of listening, hearing, and reading Serbian is

becoming more and

more. What I mean, for example, a podcast, like a Serbian local podcast for

Serbian people, right?

It was very difficult to listen for me.

But now, thanks to YouTube and social media like Instagram, they are having these

short clips where you can get at least the main idea.

And I'm so happy that they also write the text in Latin.

So it's very nice.

I can watch those short clips again and again and write down what they

are saying, how they are pronouncing the words.

So there are too many resources all of a sudden now online, I would

say. Exactly.

That's very good.

I have a couple of tips when learning any language, including Serbian online, that

I've also found out when I was learning like French or English.

The most important thing when learning a language by yourself

is exposing yourself to the language as much as possible.

So listening, podcasts, watching shows, or reading.

Reading might be the best option because it's slower.

You read at your own pace.

It might be hard at first, especially if you're a beginner.

So find material that's easier to digest, like children's books, children's TV shows, and

stuff like that, which might be hard.

Again, there's not that much materials.

But children's books are accessible in Serbia at least.

And then if it's too hard as a beginner, and later on, if you

need help with some grammar structures, find a tutor or ideally start learning by

yourself grammar,

but Serbian grammar can be very, very messy.

It's hard. So many irregularities.

Yes. Find a tutor.

You can't go without grammar.

You can if you live in Serbia.

You probably can.

Depends on every student has a different profile.

Some absorb language like a sponge.

Some do not.

So it all depends from student to student.

But you probably need help with grammar.

And grammar is not just to learn what's subject, what's nominative, what's accusative.

it's learned to recognize patterns in sentence structure and grammar so it makes it

easier for

you when you to make your own sentences or to understand why did someone

say this in that way

and similar and using those methods it's easier for you to speak so those

are first two tips exactly and songs i mean in addition to books songs

day and you can memorize the lyrics and then you know without knowing which

part is you know what

to say and how to say that's really helpful it's it's very important to

actively learn like it it

don't know serbian or watch TV shows, it will be mentally harder.

You have to focus more.

It will drain you more.

You'll get tired more than watching other shows.

So it's very important to do it every day, to focus and have a

notebook,

write down things that are new, and it will be harder to do.

It won't be as relaxing at the beginning at first.

Second, the thing that helped me the most are podcasts.

That's why.

started a podcast i listened to a podcast and read transcript in french for

example it helped me

enormously um i was studying french in school for like eight years i think

i learned nothing and then

i did this for like a couple of months i i did more than

in school i learned more so that's very useful um so also

um read stuff online like um even though news i mean the websites

of newspapers

are good but they are a little bit hard in the beginning because you

don't know like they use

very um professional rare professional terms and stuff but it is useful in

the long term especially the easy the lucky uh vest there i think are

easy to like social life kind of things or about fashion

and stuff easier ones are definitely useful um either articles or

like a reddit um is very useful

because it's a forum it's an open forum where people talk in a colloquial

way you'll hear people talk on the street.

And you can also inform yourself about the culture, current events.

And that's also important.

Tip number four or five is to get interested into the culture of the

country, which language you're learning, actually.

because learning a language is learning to think in that language.

And it also is learning about the culture.

Culture, history, news, current events.

If you're interested in that, you'll be more motivated to learn that language.

If you're not motivated at all, you won't learn.

So you have to have a motivation.

Yeah.

I've got that.

I feel lucky that I will never get tired.

Even though I get really angry with the difficult parts of Serbia from time

to time, I still love it.

And I enjoy learning new things about the culture.

And also, like as we did in the previous episode new tv series like

ones of course old movies are useful but the new ones are also very modern

good i know a lot of friends

of mine learned english thanks to friends how i met your mother you know

those short episode ones

because it's easy to repeat and you know you're not going to be bored

they are fun and also serbian

soap operas I think also good for developing your language skills yes so

that would be my

major tips I don't know if you have some other stuff to add no

I think you covered it all but

staying motivated is the most challenging thing but if you do it it will

pay you back

quite a lot

okay this was a very nice season for me

it was one of the best to be honest