Learn how to talk about the purpose of your visit or stay
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hello and welcome back to BulgarianPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, season 1, lesson 12 - What Are You Doing in Bulgaria? This is Becky. |
| Iva: Zdravei And I’m Iva! |
| Becky: In this lesson you'll learn how to how talk about plans. It’s a continuation from our previous lesson. |
| Iva: The conversation takes place at a beauty salon. |
| Becky: It’s between Maria and Petia. |
| Iva: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal speech. |
| Becky: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Since we mentioned business meetings in Bulgaria, let’s give the listeners some tips for meetings. First of all, of course you should plan the meeting in advance - at least two weeks is recommended. |
| Iva: ...and it’s better not to plan them during the peak summer vacation period, or during big Orthodox Christian holidays, like Easter or Christmas. |
| Becky: That’s a good tip. |
| Iva: Then, note that the usual working hours are from 9: 00 am to 6.00 pm, Monday to Friday. |
| Becky: Is this fixed? |
| Iva: Well, although there are some companies and businesses that routinely do work outside these hours - usually IT-related businesses - state government employees will finish by the time I mentioned. |
| Becky: Another note is that generally, punctuality in business meetings is important. |
| Iva: Yes. And remember that Bulgarians give firm handshakes, and usually exchange business cards. |
| Becky: Be careful, because even people who are aware of this Bulgarian custom still make the classic mistake of shaking their head for no (when in Bulgaria shaking your head from left to right means yes!) |
| Iva: And to nod your head up and down means no! |
| Becky: Right! I always get those confused! |
| Iva: So remember it’s the opposite to the conventional way. A clue that will help you though is the facial expression of the person. |
| Becky: Ok, great! Now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Iva: First up is “Звуча”, a Bulgarian verb meaning “to sound”. |
| Becky: OK. When do we use it? |
| Iva: It can be used in expressions like in this lesson’s dialogue – “Sounds great!”, “Sounds awesome!” Which are “Звучи страхотно!” |
| Becky: It can also be used in expressions like “sounds like”. |
| Iva: Yeah. In Bulgarian this will be “звучи като”, for example “звучи като сирена” – “sounds like a siren”. |
| Becky: OK, what’s next? |
| Iva: “Попитам” is a Bulgarian verb meaning “to ask”. |
| Becky: It has the nuance of asking for something specific. |
| Iva: For example, you can say “Попитах го как е майка му.” |
| Becky: It means “I asked him how his mother is.” |
| Iva: This verb is composed using a simple verb, “питам”, and the most common meaning of it is “to ask”. |
| Becky: What’s the last word? |
| Iva: “Всъщност” is a Bulgarian adverb used to express a meaning with emphasis, like the English “Actually”, “As a matter of fact”. |
| Becky: Can you explain this one a little more? |
| Iva: It’s composed of the preposition “в” which usually means “in”, and the noun “същност” which means “essence” or “nature”. |
| Becky: And this adverb is usually at the beginning of a sentence. Just like “actually”. Ok, now let’s move on to the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about plans. |
| Iva: In Bulgarian, when people ask about other people’s plans, activities and so on, they use this very common phrase: “Какво правиш в~ (place)?” |
| Becky: This means “What are you doing in~ (place)?” and asks about one’s business in a specific place. |
| Iva: Exactly. If asked about a company for example, this question is referring to someone’s job, position in a company, or details of the job. |
| Becky: The examples we’ve given you are composed like this: |
| Iva: First you put the adverb “какво” which means “what” in Bulgarian, then you put the verb “правя” in its appropriate form. |
| Becky: Is it formal or informal? |
| Iva: If you are asking someone directly, this will be in second person singular form, “правиш” for the informal question, and “правите” for the formal. |
| Becky: I see. Could you repeat those for our listeners? |
| Iva: “правиш” for the informal question, and “правите” for the formal.” |
| Becky: OK. And then? |
| Iva: Then you add the target place with the preposition “в” which, as we’ve mentioned, usually means “in”. |
| Becky: So altogether we have… |
| Iva: Какво правиш в~ (place)?” for the informal question, and “Какво правите в~ (place)?” for the formal one. |
| Becky: Like in the dialogue, we can ask different types of questions about what someone is doing. |
| Iva: The example was the adverb “докога” plus the future tense of the verb, where the form is “ще”, plus the original verb form. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example for this? |
| Iva: Well, we can have a sentence like this: “Докога ще продължава семинара?” |
| Becky: This means “How long will the seminar continue?” |
| Iva: Of course, there are more examples… you should know where by now, listeners! |
| Becky: In the lesson notes accompanying this lesson! |
| Iva: So don’t forget to check them! |
Outro |
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| Becky: Ok, thanks for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Iva: Bye! |
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