Seville, Spain
I’m trying to speak Serbian these days since it’s our perfect opportunity for Maksim to learn more. His 3-month stint learning Serbian last summer has been minimally successful.
He understands it a bit but fights it hard.
When I tell him something in Serbian that is longer than a few words, he yells back at me “Speak English, I don’t understand you”. Then when I finish saying what I intended to say, he usually responds with “You said (translates what I said)???”.
So, he understands more than he believes but the process is uncomfortable and frustrating for him (and me).
I’m not consistent enough but hope to get better with time.
Yesterday, I was talking about our individual talents (in Serbian) and among other things, I said to Maksim:
“Ti dobro pjevas. (You sing well)”
He looked at me all confused and responded in English, “Peeing???”
I said “No”, thinking “How did he think I said that?”.
Then he took a second guess and asked “Drinking???”
Again I said “No” but then realized that he is not that far off
Pjevaš = Singing
Piškiš = Peeing
Piješ = Drinking
All three words sound close enough to him and I’m now more encouraged to continue our mutually torturous sessions because he might be closer to learning better Serbian than we both think.
Refresh Journey 