Meet Krystian from Poland
Introduce yourself
I am Krystian and I come from Poland. Some of my biggest interests include football and travelling, but I am also secretly passionate about linguistics.
Tell us about your study experience in Bulgaria.
I spent half a year in Bulgaria following an economics study at Economical university in Varna throughout this period. I stayed there as part of an Erasmus+ exchange.
What are your impressions of the life in Bulgaria?
It is a little different from what I expected! There is a lot of beautiful nature and so many opportunities to have a good day out. That said, daily life can sometimes be a little tough, especially without knowing the language.
Did you encounter any challenges during your study in Bulgaria?
As I have already mentioned, the language barrier was an issue at the beginning. Sometimes, when I was speaking in English to a person at some counter, for example, people were looking at me with surprise and misunderstanding. For the study itself, however, I have nothing to complain about! I met lovely people in Bulgaria, who are still my friends.
Did you manage to learn the Bulgarian language? If yes, share some tips with us.
I managed to grasp Bulgarian at a communicative level for sure! Linking to the previous question, the problems I encountered at the beginning were a great motivation for me to try and learn.
The main tip I have for anyone is to find a friend that speaks the language and ask them to teach you a few words every day – sneak them into your sentences when you talk with them, as silly as it may sound. This way, you will get the practice and slowly be able to weave in more and more words, eventually learning to speak with barely any English words in between.
Of course, it was also easier for me because I speak Polish, the languages have some similarities such as gender forms and more.
Did you have a funny incident with the local people because of the language barrier?
I didn’t have any incident per se, but I was often able to fool people into thinking I speak the language way better than I really do, by using Polish words wherever I don’t know the Bulgarian. This tends to lead them to overestimate my abilities and start to speak in a more complex way that I can’t understand at all.
Have you ever used the OLS platform for improving your Bulgarian language, and what is your opinion about the course?
I have used it, but I would not call it the reason I ended up using it to learn – the things I did were the ones I mentioned previously. Anyway, indeed I learnt some basic word from there.
The first learned word in Bulgarian was …
I am not exactly sure, but I think it may have been “priyatel”, which means friend.
