Bulgarian in a nutshell

The official language of Bulgaria is Bulgarian. It's alphabet is called Cyrillic. The script is said to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Climent, a disciple of the Salonica brothers Saints Cyril (hence, Cyrillic alphabet) and Methodius, Bulgarian missionaries commissioned by the Byzantine emperor to translate the New Testament into Old Bulgarian (Old Church Slavonic). The Cyrillic alphabet is based in large part on the Greek alphabet, however, a few letters were created to represent Slavic sounds that didn't have Greek equivalents.

Currently, the Cyrillic alphabet is in use in the following Slavic countries: Macedonia, Serbia, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus and, naturally, Bulgaria. It is also the official writing system in Mongolia.

Tips on how to learn Bulgarian

Setting out to study Bulgarian may evoke memories of past attempts at learning a foreign language, be it in high school or college, with all the ensuing tedious memorization of words, and phrases, and grammar rules. For many, it appears that the results are not worth all the effort, and they soon abandon their dream of becoming more proficient in the language of their choice.

It is very important to know how to go about learn ing a foreign language, especially one that is quite different form English, such as Bulgarian. Every student has a different way of learning just as different proffesors have different ways of teaching. Nevertheless, regardless of your reason to learn Bulgarian, there are a few rules of thumb one has to keep in mind:

Create a routine. Spend some time on the web at a set hour of the day (lunchtime, for instance), and try to do one of the language activities at Easy Bulgarian.

Set yourself a long-term goal, and also a short-term goal. If you have Bulgarian friends, for example in the town or village where you have bought property in Bulgaria (or properties), then a short-term goal would be to think of visiting them this week and exchange a few phrases in Bulgarian. The long-term goal might be to learn the whole study material included in the Easy Bulgarian courses and visit our country - there's so much to be explored here. Without strong, well-defined goal, you will hardly have much motivation to study day in, day out.

You shouldn't worry too much about making mistakes. The ones who never make mistakes, never try to do anything, and that in itself is quite a mistake. It's normal to make mistakes while you are practising your growing knowledge of the language. Always have in mind that Bulgarians will be very pleased with your attempts to speak their language, and you will get closer to them, more so than other foreigners who do not try to learn at least a few phrases.

It is of utmost importance to read about the Bulgarian people, culture and history. The more you get to know the culture, the more your interest will be aroused, and the more motivation you will have to proceed with the Easy Bulgarian course in order to learn Bulgarian.

It is better to study for brief periods of time and more frequently than long and not often. Persistence pays off.

Studying lists of words and phrases is usually not the most favourite language activity. However, there is no learn ing without memorization. You have to learn those phrases by heart. There is a wonderful method you can employ in order to facilitate the memorization process. For every new Bulgarian phrase that you want to learn think of a ridiculous image that would make you recall the phrases. For example: in Bulgarian "I am" is "Az sum" which sounds like "awesome". So, if your name is John, picture yourself introducing yourself to a Bulgarian saying "Awesome John!" The trick is to always think of funny images to help you learn Bulgarian. Emotions will help you more than pure logic when it comes to learn ing words and phrases.

Practice mentally. Think of the Bulgarian words for naming common objects you encounter in your daily life. When you're walking on the street, for instance, think "kola" when you see a car, "kafene" when you see a cafe, "hora" for people, "mazh" for a man, "momiche" for a woman, etc. etc. Just put the words and phrases you're studying to mental practice, even if you are not in a Bulgarian-speaking environment; this will enormously help you to learn faster.

Listen to the dialogs of the Easy Bulgarian course looking at their English translations, then without looking at the written words at all. Do this several times until you fully understand the dialog in Bulgarian without looking at the text. You might find it hard at first but it pays off when you come to speak it. Everybody is a child in the beginning.