We Do Adventure

Lest our last post read as some sort of rant against English language music let us redress the balance. Last weekend we got to see the powerful impact some properly performed pop can have on people's imagination. The video below is a short clip of Chip Kendall and DJGalactus Jack encouraging teenagers in Mostar to Solve It On The Dancefloor. It proves that language barriers don't get in the way if the energy is right, and that people from all different backgrounds can put their differences aside and party together. It may be presumptuous to suggest such moments solve deep-seated social issues but they have to help build a better tomorrow. So much of our behaviour, individually and as communities, is governed by emotional reactions to events; positive emotions from a shared experience have to be a good thing. It was a night they won't forget. The young people we know are asking for copies of this music which shows the moment may well live on for a long time yet.

The main reason our blog had been sitting unattended was work winning the battle for attention. Part of what we do here is work with the Evangelical Church of Bosnia and Herzegovina on youth work projects. This includes summer camps and conferences. Anyone who has ever been to a Christian camp will probably have experienced singing of some sort or another: maybe camp-fire songs, maybe things that sound like they come from the Bible, maybe tunes that sound like they came off the radio. The English speaking world has hundreds of artists producing all this and more. The Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian speaking world doesn't. All of that to say the work in question - producing new music recordings – is something that needs to happen more here. Music is such an important form of expression; we don't want young people to miss out on the chance to sing things they mean in their own language. People can, and do, translate English language songs and sing them. Sometimes they work, but of...

One of the things that can be a really stumbling point when learning a new language is turns of phrase: little collections of words that are used together to mean something other than what the words actually mean. When you start to listen closely to the way you talk you suddenly realise how many of these we use in English. Many, maybe most, do not translate. Bosnian has some too. Picking up on yesterday’s autumn themed post, I saw a cover of a local lifestyle magazine that declared ‘Jesen je zakon’ – literally ‘Autumn is the law’, but meaning something more like ‘Autumn rules’. Then there are phrases that are the same by ever-so slightly different; like ‘money laundering’. Now we know this, not because we’re involved in any financial irregularities but because as part of the running of a foreign humanitarian organisation we’re aware of the financial restrictions in place to stop such undesirable activity going on. However, our local team members will talk about ‘washing money’ rather t...

Rowan was in Sarajevo yesterday. She was, amongst other things, trying to track down a poster of the Cellist of Sarajevo. This proved a little tougher than she anticipated. One shop after another said, no, they didn’t have any. One artist kindly offered to paint her one, for a price! Finally she stumbled upon a small store displaying a postcard of said poster in their window. Inside the owner was busy framing a picture. She asked about the poster and he flipped the frame over to reveal exactly what she was looking for. Unfortunately he wasn’t in the mood for haggling so Rowan had to settle for being knowingly ripped off. If that was a disappointment then there was also some encouragement. One shopkeeper asked if she was Slovenian! This is a testament to her impressive improvements in the local language.

It’s well known fact among British travellers communicating with those of another mother tongue that any English word can be understood if repeated often enough, with increasing volume. That was why our ears pricked up at lunchtime when from the table behind us came the refrain: WE ARE WAITING FOR SOME FRIENDS! As the gentleman in question was not using his native language one might imagine him showing some compassion for someone struggling with his accent accent; not a bit of it. Rowan was soon laughing, indiscreetly, at a poor waiter startled by an English language outburst from a Spaniard. With their beer ordered they sat around waiting for their friends. Before long a line of X-Trails was neatly parked outside the restaurant, leading me to guess our entertainment came courtesy of EUFOR’s presence in Mostar. We know a few words of Spanish, thanks to a number of trips we made to the south of Spain in the late nineties; enough to make the assumption their noisy conversation later turn...

I’ve long said i speak two languages: English and foreign. ‘Foreign’ is my personal amalgam of words and phrase gleaned from my travels. On the surface it could seem a diverse and useful tool, however it is not. The one thing I can guarantee is whatever country I visit only the words and phrases from every other country jump up and down shouting ‘pick me’ in the back of my mind. We are working hard to get to grips with the Bosnian. At the same time I am shocked by the amount of schoolboy French that has resurfaced from my subconscious. A French friend recently sent us an album they have produced but Rowan doesn’t really approve of me listening to it. She claims that it’ll just confuse us. She is probably right. However, today I was at a kindergarten discussing a redecoration project. Of the four of us visiting two were local, one German and me, an Englishman. They were looking at large tubs of paint in a store room when I started to hear disgruntled noises and the word ‘Francuski’. Sud...

Over the past few years I’ve spent hours – probably days or weeks, in reality – helping people write songs. I’ve worked with people well versed in classical music, people who can’t name the chord they’re strumming and pretty much everything in between. My musical adventures have included highlights like encouraging would-be vocalists whose abilities made lightening look consistent and those whose concept of a steady beat couldn’t be less steady if it where tumbling headlong down the stairs. I’ve written with people from different continents and heard my songs translated into different languages. But today I broke new ground. It was my first musical meeting with a local, up-and-coming, singer-songwriter. (Admittedly, a claim she might not yet make for herself!) So many things were familiar – the musical get-to-know-yous and feeling your way through the genesis of a song together. However, there was one obvious difference. Despite all my language lessons it’s very clear to me that I’m st...

I’d hate to bore you by getting stuck on a theme but I learnt a new word today and it made me smile. So I’m going to write about it. I’m also going to make a few statement s about language founded on nothing stronger than my own observations and analysis. (Feel free to correct me if you know better – just do it gently!) My word of the day is ‘radoholičar’ which I am told is the local equivalent of ‘workaholic’. (That, of course, is the link to yesterday’s post!) My thoughts on language are about the way new or foreign words are assumed into language. The English make much of the fact the French have a bureau, or some kind of official body, to protect the purity of their language. English just begs, borrows and steals - adding whatever seems to fit regardless of rules. So long as it can be spelled with its twenty-six letter alphabet it’s even happy to allow an accent or two. Here we’re learning a language that’s spelled phonetically. This is a genius invention for beginners as there are...

One of the perils of language learning is the inevitable mistakes. After lunch on Sunday the waiter seemed in no hurry to present us with a bill so Rowan tracked him down, only to inform him: I need to cry...before correcting herself! Today I was explaining to some of the local people we work with how I might use ‘interesting’ somewhat euphemistically, when referring to something I didn’t particularly enjoy. Words have meanings and then there are the implied meanings. We’ve found many an English turn of phrase cannot be translated, so we’re busy learning new ways of expressing things as well as a new language in which to communicate. The clock is ticking and I sense we need to be making better progress than we are but the key is not to panic. I specialise in the deer-in-the-headlight moments, all too often falling into a panicked silence in which not even English comes to my rescue. And if something does float, nonchalantly, to mind it has every chance of being the dregs of my French G...

After a break from language lessons for two weeks there was something reassuringly familiar about sitting down with our teacher again today. I think we both felt under-prepared, I certainly did. All our good intentions for the festive period had come to nothing and we were left scrawling last minute homework this morning. But despite this something almost miraculous happened. We had both written lists of prepositions, ordered by case. That was part of the homework. What I’d forgotten is the expectation everything written in our books is etched on our memory. Suddenly I’m having to answer questions. What is ‘towards’, what is ‘under’? My perfect six in a row was greeted by a slightly raised eyebrow and a look of surprise. I didn’t quite get what was said but I’d have loved to be able to reply it was all the result of my hard work over the holidays. It wasn’t but it was an encouraging start to our first lesson of the New Year.

Rowan has bruises on her legs and my right arm aches a little. Such are our scars from shifting shoeboxes. We got the call to join a large team of people to unload a truck full of Samaritan’s Purse goodies for distribution here over the next month. We shouldn’t complain because a language lesson meant we missed half the unloading and the rain was kind and held off by the time we arrived to help fill a second container. As with all repetitive manual tasks there is some fun to be found in it and so we passed a pleasant hour passing boxes. Boxes where obviously a theme for today. Earlier we visited the post office to collect four parcels. This seemed to take an eternity as the lady behind the counter made sure all the paperwork matched up and got signatures in the appropriate places. It also got us wondering about why French is the international language of post. Am I mistaken in thinking that as Rowland Hill is widely credited as the inventor of the model postal service that English woul...

In English it is somewhat hypothetical to postulate about the naming of roses. They are roses. That’s the name they’ve been given. We talk about someone’s given name and it is indeed their unchanging identity unless they choose to shorten or misspell it, or allow others to do so. It seems teenage girl particularly enjoy experimenting with alternate spellings; perhaps in search of a unique identity, perhaps just to give some of the English language’s more underused letters a run out! I am Matt, and have been for years, although my mother will argue that ‘Matthew is such a nice name’. It is: it’s just not one I readily associate with myself. Here in Bosnia, however, names change not just on the whim of the individual but through the nature of the language. I’m still coming terms with this linguistic intrusion into what I’ve always perceived as the hallowed ground of nomenclature. I read a Bosnian TV magazine with film stars name’s transliterated. Recognise Vinz Von anyone? I decided my...

You may be familiar with this business acronym but in case the remainder of this post be lost on anyone I’ll spell it out. Keep It Simple Stupid! That was, in essence, what I was told tonight. My little bit of writing about Sunday’s trip to HŠK Zrinjski’s last home game of the year was covered in red pen. The problem is my desire to construct complex sentences, much like I enjoy doing in English. I was given an on-the-spot challenge. Write two or three sentences. Simple ones: subject, verb then whatever else. And so it was that in scribbling away obediently I turned in my first complete sentences that needed do correction. They’re not poetry or even great prose but they are right. Rowan je pričala sa Mirjom Ja sam gledao utakmicu Volim gledati nogomet Yes, it’s a challenge to be content in this simplicity but it’s also a good incentive to study hard!

An update on our progress learning language out here. The lessons have been intense experiences but they're starting to work!

One thing I'm learning, or perhaps not learning well enough, is to steer clear of categorical statements when it comes to life in Bosnia Herzegovina. Matters political, historical and even geographical are best broached as broad questions on the understanding that unexpected or contradictory answers are likely. Much depends on who you talk to. Retelling these conversations should be done with care. Hence the title of this post. For today it is after contacting a 'realtor, letting agency or estate agent' that we appear to have found ourselves an apartment! I leave that statement broad and slightly inconclusive as a testament to my learning. We cannot move in immediately, the landlord needs to prepare one or two things first, so we have to wait about three weeks. They do say you shouldn't count your chickens! Other than the wait the apartment is all good news. A nice size and a great location: I've never lived next door to a prison before! In other 'getting it wro...