Bulgarians use a certain phrase of greeting almost as common as the Bulgarian 'Hello' or 'Hi'. The phrase is a leading question and a sure sign the that the Bulgarian want to spend time talking. Certainly in Bulgarian villages where talking is the main pastime the 'greeting' is used more often than in towns and cities.
"What are you doing?"
This is the greeting and question put to me and many others and of course you have to answer the question, which is a natural tendency.
The most strange thing about this question is that when asked is used just as an introduction for extended talk. It is so obvious in most cases what you are doing at the time of asking that isn't the reason for asking. Even so you still feel inclined to explain what you are doing and the talking starts.
Many instances of this can be giving, such as I have just enter the village shop to buy bread and beer. A good neighbour is already there and knows full well I go there the same time on the same days buying the same things but asks, 'What are you doing?' I of course explain that I am here in the shop to buy bread and beer and the talking carries on from that.
Another example walking down the street with a wheelbarrow full of muck on the way to the local dumping area as I walk on past another villager the question will come forward and it does,'What are you doing? I explain that I am taking some muck to the local dump and another chunk of my time immersed in village life is squandered away with more talking about the obvious in the first instance but the talking doesn't end there.
Furthermore, unless the question is asked by someone when you are talking to someone else in the first place - this also is a high probability - you also stop what you were actually doing, usually farmyard chores!
As mentioned already, on from this initial question the small talk usually continues in the same vein, talking about what we already know. Talking about what they know already is a Bulgarian habit for example we will be eating some home made village banistsa (Skalitsa Banitsa) and ask how it is made even though they have been making the same banitsa in the same village to the same recipe it every other day for decades but still ask!
They will ask whether I have tomatoes being grown in the garden even though they had seen them and talked in depth about them only a few moments ago and even helped pick some for this evening's salad but still ask.
They will enquire when am I going back to Yambol when they know week in week out I leave Sunday afternoon at the same time and personally say goodbye to them at this time and have for over a year now but they still ask.
The list of asking and talking about the obvious is endless which is another reason why Bulgarians talk so much.
So, let's recap on the phrase 'What are you doing?'
- it is a Bulgarian form of greeting
- it is not used to find out what you are doing, (they already know)
- it is used to get to spend more even more time talking
- it is verbal device to stop you and them doing whatever you were doing
- it is a Bulgarian trigger for everything to grind to a halt - again
And finally a Bulgarian equation of this can be made up as:
'What are you doing?'= (Obvious answer + More Small Talk) - Work.
Showing posts with label bulgarian talk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bulgarian talk. Show all posts
Bulgarian Weather Talk
It may seem a strange to say but it seems the weather is talked about in Bulgaria more than I remember it being talked about in the UK! Bulgarian weather talk is the number one topic here.
You would think in the villages where farmers' crops depend of the weather the topic would be discussed more than in town and cities but this is not the case, it applies to the whole country. It is a Bulgarian obsession to comment of the weather wherever they are - even to the point of commenting of weather elsewhere in Bulgaria if there is nothing to comment on about the weather in their own area. On such a rare occasion where whole country has a weather where not much could be said about it they would talk about the weather they had previously or the weather that they are going to get or in many cases both!
The weather in Bulgaria is also very regional with the great diversity of land different climates are experienced from the Northern Balkan Mountain Range down to the Thracian Plains and then moving over to the East with influence of the Black Sea. So there can be more than three very different types weather in three different places in Bulgaria at the same time.
Regardless of the comments and discussions on weather this is where the similarity stops compared with the UK.
Whatever the weather in Bulgaria there is this really 'casual' way of dealing with it as things carry on as normal as with most things here.The weather doesn't, 'get to them' in Bulgaria as it is accepted very much as this is what weather we get so what's the problem!
I recall one day in my village working on the land where some serious dark storm clouds gathered overhead and there was I running around like a headless chicken putting things away and gathering up the hay that had been freshly cut earlier in the day so it could be covered with a plastic sheet before the rain came. Around me there were others working out on the fields, as I look up they had all stopped working, not due to the inbound weather but just to look at me running around like a Mad Dog!
The downpour came, like I said it doesn't mess around as the heavens opened. The hot Bulgarian sun returned after a short while drying everything out in the same amount of time it took me to put things back into place before the rains came. Bulgarian folk looking on were wondering what all the fuss was all about and why the waste of energy during that particular episode in fact it was a distraction from the current weather talk.
It seems like a strange contradiction to act so casual about their weather yet talk about it so much. The only way I can think to sum up the contradiction is where you may get two Bulgarians talking about the rainy weather - in the rain!
If you want to get involved in the community here in Bulgaria it would be very useful to learn some Bulgarian words and phrases about the weather. This would go down very well in casual conversation and would be an valuable tool to have which would be used on almost every ocassion you meet people here.
You would think in the villages where farmers' crops depend of the weather the topic would be discussed more than in town and cities but this is not the case, it applies to the whole country. It is a Bulgarian obsession to comment of the weather wherever they are - even to the point of commenting of weather elsewhere in Bulgaria if there is nothing to comment on about the weather in their own area. On such a rare occasion where whole country has a weather where not much could be said about it they would talk about the weather they had previously or the weather that they are going to get or in many cases both!
The weather in Bulgaria is also very regional with the great diversity of land different climates are experienced from the Northern Balkan Mountain Range down to the Thracian Plains and then moving over to the East with influence of the Black Sea. So there can be more than three very different types weather in three different places in Bulgaria at the same time.
Regardless of the comments and discussions on weather this is where the similarity stops compared with the UK.
Whatever the weather in Bulgaria there is this really 'casual' way of dealing with it as things carry on as normal as with most things here.The weather doesn't, 'get to them' in Bulgaria as it is accepted very much as this is what weather we get so what's the problem!
I recall one day in my village working on the land where some serious dark storm clouds gathered overhead and there was I running around like a headless chicken putting things away and gathering up the hay that had been freshly cut earlier in the day so it could be covered with a plastic sheet before the rain came. Around me there were others working out on the fields, as I look up they had all stopped working, not due to the inbound weather but just to look at me running around like a Mad Dog!
The downpour came, like I said it doesn't mess around as the heavens opened. The hot Bulgarian sun returned after a short while drying everything out in the same amount of time it took me to put things back into place before the rains came. Bulgarian folk looking on were wondering what all the fuss was all about and why the waste of energy during that particular episode in fact it was a distraction from the current weather talk.
It seems like a strange contradiction to act so casual about their weather yet talk about it so much. The only way I can think to sum up the contradiction is where you may get two Bulgarians talking about the rainy weather - in the rain!
If you want to get involved in the community here in Bulgaria it would be very useful to learn some Bulgarian words and phrases about the weather. This would go down very well in casual conversation and would be an valuable tool to have which would be used on almost every ocassion you meet people here.
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