The Turkish Invasion!
Okay, it's a welcome invasion, to the citizens of Pavel Banya, who are happy to have the business, but if you want to pop by our town ploshtad (square) right now, you'd swear you were in Turkey, not Bulgaria. I have no idea why, but it seems like a lot of Turkish people come to PB for their summer vacations, and they're all sitting in the ploshtad right now. Lots of stout women with headscarves and skinny men with moustaches chatting in Turkish.
We have our own local Turkish-Bulgarians here in town, but these visitors are noticeably different. First of all, the women are wearing headscarves, which I never saw during, say, the winter, when we don't have so many visitors. Second, they're actually speaking Turkish. Now, I know my Turkish students speak Turkish because they have told me so, but I have literally never heard any of them speaking anything but Bulgarian (and English, of course!). I guess they must speak Turkish at home, but I've seen my kids speaking with their parents in public - in Bulgarian. I don't know why they do this. I know volunteers who live in all-Turkish villages and they say that everyone speaks Turkish in their daily life, but here in PB, where the Turkish are a significant (and well-integrated) minority, Bulgarian is the language of choice.
In other news, it's painfully hot, and my summer English classes were supposed to start today, but no one showed up. I was hurt and puzzled by this turn of events, seeing as 24 students told me they wanted to come, but when I talked to one of my adult students (who's the mom of two of my kid students), she told me that everyone seems to think that classes start NEXT week, and everyone is off in their villages this week. And probably everyone who isn't in the village was at the pool or the river. Can't say I blame them. We'll get classes started eventually.
HOT.
We have our own local Turkish-Bulgarians here in town, but these visitors are noticeably different. First of all, the women are wearing headscarves, which I never saw during, say, the winter, when we don't have so many visitors. Second, they're actually speaking Turkish. Now, I know my Turkish students speak Turkish because they have told me so, but I have literally never heard any of them speaking anything but Bulgarian (and English, of course!). I guess they must speak Turkish at home, but I've seen my kids speaking with their parents in public - in Bulgarian. I don't know why they do this. I know volunteers who live in all-Turkish villages and they say that everyone speaks Turkish in their daily life, but here in PB, where the Turkish are a significant (and well-integrated) minority, Bulgarian is the language of choice.
In other news, it's painfully hot, and my summer English classes were supposed to start today, but no one showed up. I was hurt and puzzled by this turn of events, seeing as 24 students told me they wanted to come, but when I talked to one of my adult students (who's the mom of two of my kid students), she told me that everyone seems to think that classes start NEXT week, and everyone is off in their villages this week. And probably everyone who isn't in the village was at the pool or the river. Can't say I blame them. We'll get classes started eventually.
HOT.
Labels: Bulgarian, HOT, language, minority matters, pavel banya, Turkish
posted by Blogaria at 10:21 AM
2 Comments:
Hi, Ky:
Hope you're cooling down. It's been hot here, too.(high 80's - 90's) You know that it always cools down @ night here, though. I read your Blog and realized my last pkg. contained a wool scarf! oops, Kathleen made it for you and I forgot to send it earlier. It's packed with your Birks.
We miss you! Hope students show up for summer school classes.
Love,
Mom
HAPPY 29 on the 29th, KYLA!! Fred and I will be cheering the SF GIANTS for you on your birthday! Here's hoping that Barry Bonds hits a HOMERUN--he has been in a bit of a slump recently! I hope that your Summer school is turning out alright! Much love and keep up the GREAT job!
Love,
your 'cuz', Kathleen
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