BULGARIAN CULTURE - How To Be Polite in Bulgaria & In Bulgarian

thank you hello guys my name is Jana and I'm Bulgarian and in this video I'd like to teach you how to be polite in Bulgarian that is how to be polite when speaking Bulgarian in Bulgaria to bulgarians or rather how not to be over polite in Bulgarian actually and in Bulgaria now first of all I'd like to tell you that this is a video meant for beginners but even if you are immersed in the culture even if you have been living here for a while you might find these tips useful especially if you want to blend well of course we all know that foreigners it's practically impossible for a foreigner to blend in a foreign culture okay we all know that but nevertheless at least we can try and also it would help you I hope these videos this video helps you actually to understand Bulgarian culture a little better we know that cultures are not very easy to handle okay especially if you come from an English-speaking culture from an Anglo-Saxon culture so to speak um you might live or you might be living through a culture shock because we bulgarians very often come across as rude now this video is meant to teach you how to understand our rudeness or our politeness now first of all I have to tell you that our politeness is not in what we say very often but it is in what we do now take my advice and here are the tips I'd like to give you I'm going to give you five tips number one is please don't say please too often don't overdo you on please and thank you because people might think well people I think you want a favor people might think uh there is something fishy so you don't need to say please all the time or thank you all the time we play a lot with the tone and we show our politeness with the tone which of course would be difficult for you but for one thing take my advice don't over use the words for please and thank you by the way the words for please is smaller and the words to thank you is you don't need this that often okay at least don't use them as often as you would in English Okay tip number two is uh say no to a coffee okay we're not very straightforward we're a culture that is on the verge on on the border between east and west and we don't like to be too straightforward being too straightforward is considered maybe even tactless sometimes so um be prepared that people say no to your offer sometimes if you offer coffee or a drink people might say no now this is typically traditional okay it is polite to say no but then later you might say uh well but then later people might agree this would be similar to the English expression okay make me a coffee if you're making one for myself okay I'll take a coffee if you're making one for yourself but in Bulgarian in traditional Bulgarian culture it is polite to say oh no no thank you would you like a coffee no it's because she Cafe oh no no thank you oh well take a coffee okay maybe I will okay but only if you're having one so in other tourists in traditional Bulgarian culture it was considered polite to say three times now two or three times now and then to accept a coffee or tea piece of pizza whatever it is okay right another thing is fighting over the bill okay the mock fight over the bill okay it is polite to actually fight over the bill and to insist on paying the Bell it is very applied it's not polite to agree that your friends will pay the bill it's it's immediate at least not immediately okay now this is very important another thing you want to remember when you are in Bulgaria is that we use a lot of verbs for I want and structures like commands Okay imperative structures like die me okay give me or bring me don't see me okay don't shun these structures uh we use them a lot and we of course we have more sophisticated grammatical structures like um I would like be his skull or could you be telemugly or for example mozilli can I okay this is very very widespread okay we have all kinds of ply structures but especially among our friends in our everyday Communication in informal Bulgarian especially at home we don't tend to use them that often because it would even mean it would even be counterproductive okay if you are living with Bulgarian if you have a Bulgarian partner or spouse a Bavarian girlfriend or boyfriend they may think you're not happy because you've taken too long to bring them a glass of water or or give them a glass of wine or something so if you say to somebody at home for example um it might mean that you are already a little angry okay as I said we play a lot with the tone but even without this um you know harsh tone they might find it a little strange so at home just use iscom I want and daimi give me and you can do is come you can use this come everywhere else in all kinds of you eateries or coffee shops or restaurants as well so don't chant these words and don't try to overdo on politeness looking for a complicated and convoluted grammatical structures and another thing is how we go about the two Bulgarian use we have two using Bulgarian T and Vie T and vat is the singular actually you which means that you use it for with you know uh your family members or to turn to your family members or friends okay in your circle in your uh in the circle okay and the strangers you use are we strangers you use V which actually is also used for polite form so T and VA German speakers will understand this only too well not only Germans because of course okay because they have do and z and many other languages have the same but English speakers is very difficult for English speakers okay so if you're an English speaker especially and take my advice try to use the polite form try to use the VA form try to use also the verb in VA form okay so the VA okay which means you polite okay would go with the te ending would be a question that is more polite when you're turning to strangers in a restaurant or in a shop then emotionally now especially if you are a gentleman wearing a nice suit and if you are a business person and you expect you to pay a lot of money okay try to use the the polite form people would also think that you are trying you have tried to learn their grammar our grammar so it would come across nice okay that's nice okay um so um as a conclusion as a conclusion I want to tell you this our uh politeness is very often not in what we say but in what we do actually and we very often play with the tone as I said which would be very difficult for you to achieve let's face it let's be realistic okay the explanation to that is that the explanation is that right Bulgaria was until mid 20th century until mid 40s okay at the 20th century uh Bulgaria was a peasant country and it had been The Peasant country a rural culture of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds even thousands of years and all of a sudden it was urbanized very very fast too fast uh okay and for the past 70 years we've been a an urban Society a modern culture well 70 years might seem to be a long time in a human lifetime but actually if a language is 70 years is well nearly nothing sometimes okay and grammar especially grammar takes tool and very long to change much longer than that this is why you could say that we are an urban culture okay an urban Society an Urban Nation a mother nation with uh but verbally um okay we expressed uh I'll express ourselves um verbally in a peasant way sometimes okay so verbally we are a peasant culture so to speak okay and I hope you're Bulgarian friends spouses and partners do not get insulted by that I hope my Bulgarian compatriots do not get insulted by the insulted by that sorry because it's not meant to be an insult it's meant to explain certain discrepancies and you know um idiosyncrasies and intricacies of Bulgarian culture right now one last thing I want to tell you is that um I want to remind you that we Bulgarian people like to think that we're very hospitable now if you go to Bulgaria house uh you'll find that the table is Laden with food and and and everything and and they'll put everything they have on the table um you know to impress you and to feed you and to drink you to death okay but this Hospitality might be a little overwhelming and sometimes there might be a ulterior motives even like in every culture there are all kinds of people in my culture okay um comparing this of course comparing the fact that people would um you know put everything on the table to feed you um sounds a little strange if you remember that you may have been here for three or four years and have never been invited to anybody's home okay so in other words us being hospitable yes we are hospitable but are we more hospitable than other cultures maybe yes maybe no but for one thing one thing is sure we will feed you okay okay we will uh feed you and drink it that as I said okay and um so one last thing again is that uh yes we do come across as roots sometimes yes if you're a newborn town if you have or New Girl in Town and if you come from an English-speaking culture from an Anglo-Saxon culture especially so to speak okay you may be living or you may have lived or you may live or you may have we may be living through you may be living through a culture shock because we sometimes come as rude come across as root but in fact our politeness is in what we do not in what we say and it's a very different kind of politeness and um so um well I I have English friends uh some friends who actually come from English-speaking cultures and countries and they say that uh having been having lived in Bulgaria for a while when they go back to their home countries to their homelands especially to England they live through through a reverse culture shock because people there are seem to be overplayed uh too polite actually and necessarily polite sometimes so I hope you found this useful and again um this this video is meant to help you understand and enjoy Bulgarian culture um and more and I hope you are happy with it and I hope you find this useful and wishing you a lovely lovely stay in Bulgaria um and stay well thank you for watching

Channel: Yana on Grammar

Views: 3,885

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Id: JQqema1T6_k

Length: 10min 49sec (649 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 17 2022