Learning a foreign language is challenging, yet extremely rewarding. The reward is twice as sweet when you learn it in the name of love. A lot of people we’ve been working with encounter an issue where they want to start speaking Serbian for their partner, but they encounter numerous setbacks along the way. We are here to help!
The Challenges of Learning Serbian From Your Partner
Although your partner might have the best idea in mind, and wants to teach you the language themselves, this can be rather challenging. There are a few things that can go awry, and the ones we would like to highlight are patience and expertise (or lack thereof).
Patience
There is a big reason why teaching and tutoring is not for everyone, and that’s completely fine. You shouldn’t be too upset if your partner lacks patience to teach you Serbian language. They can help you cover the basics, but with more complex aspects of the language, they can lose the thread pretty easily, which leads us to the second biggest challenge – lack of expertise.
Expertise
Not only would they need expertise in tutoring, but they would also need to know the language itself. Not just speaking, reading, thinking and writing in it, but knowing how it works, and WHY it works as it does. For this, they require specific expertise and experience, whether that comes from a degree or hands-on experience in the classroom.
How and When You Can Speak Serbian Together
Let’s put our focus on what you can do, instead of what you can’t. If you still want your significant one to teach you Serbian, we would like to recommend some couple activities you can do to make it both a bonding time, and learning time for you. This way, they wouldn’t need much patience or expertise, and you would get something extra out of it all.
Hiking - Outdoorsy Couple
If you are the outdoorsy kind of couple, you can make a fun connection in your minds if you speak only Serbian while doing that activity. This way, you are going to match learning Serbian with positive emotions and good-luck hormones that are circulating in your body while being outside and exercising. Positive association is half the work in making knowledge stick! Your partner can teach you the vocabulary of the wildlife around you, the weather conditions, verbs of movement, and expressions like: U zdravom telu – zdrav duh (Healthy body, healthy mind.), or Crk’o/Crkla sam (I’m exhausted).
Other activities:
- Cycling
- Walking
- Running
- Travelling
- Sightseeing
Cooking - Indoorsy Couple
Another activity, for the indoorsy types, is cooking at home. You can replace cooking by any other fun activity, the rules stay the same. Your partner is there to explain what things are in Serbian, and you are making quicker and more efficient associations in your mind because you are simply doing something you both already enjoy doing together, but adding in something extra. Promešaj, posoli, zapeci, prodinstaj (Mix, add salt, bake, braise)… The opportunities are endless.
Other activities:
- Movie marathons
- Puzzles
- Card games
- Board games
- Arts and grafts
- Gardening
Why Speaking Serbian For Them Matters
There are a lot of reasons to do this, besides the love you feel for them, and here are some of our favorite ones. Use this list when you seem to be missing the motivation to continue!
- It shows respect and appreciation for the Serbian culture.
- It demonstrates strong will and determination to maintain closeness to your partner.
- It will make you understand them better, because some things are impossible to convey in any other language other than Serbian. Check more about that here and here.
- It can introduce you to a lot of different and interesting people to socialize and share your experiences with.
- It’s healthy for your brain.
Do You Want to Start Immediately?
If you want to learn outside the context of your relationship, we are the right address for you! You can contact us today, book your free lesson, and we will show you how learning Serbian can be not only useful and exciting, but also extremely fun and diverse. We are waiting for you!
