Not yet fluent, but one day!

It seems somewhat ridiculous to me that after only a few months away from the US, American accents startle me in public.

Bucharest, Romania

While I have picked up some important Serbian phrases I am by no means fluent which is why I was incredibly surprised when "hvala", Serbian for "thank you" slipped out of my mouth so easily while I was in Romania (where the correct word would have been "multumesc" anyway). I was visiting the country with an American friend who had joined me in Europe for her spring break and it seemed everywhere we went, my brain decided to try my Serbian phrases before my native language.


At the time, I attributed this to having simply gotten into the routine of asking questions and giving greetings in Serbian- I had been in Serbia for about three whole months. In retrospect, I think the feeling of being abroad also played a role, given that while in Romania I was intensely aware that I was a foreigner.

London, United Kingdom

Shortly after that trip, which was full of many a Serbian-slip, much to my dismay and my friend's enjoyment, I headed to London to visit a friend who was on co-op there.

Now, London is quite similar to New York in many ways, so I didn't feel quite so out of place here. However, I had been in Serbia longer by this point so despite the fact that I speak ONLY english and was in an english-speaking country, my Serbian-slips continued. "Thank you" became "hvala", many of my questions began with "kako" instead of how, and while on the tube my brain reached for "izvinite" before "excuse me." I felt ridiculous. And then I realized that this simply meant I had become comfortable navigating a foreign language so much so that it became my natural reaction- I dream of the day I become fluent in another language, and while I'm nowhere near close, it's nice  to know that I can get there.