Language Journal 2: Talking with children & trip to Bitola/Ohrid

I used to really enjoy talking to kids, before I moved to Macedonia.  Joking around with them, getting them to laugh.  But trying to communicate with children in a foreign language is beyond difficult.  Especially when the children speak in dialect.  Today, as usual, I studied Macedonian for 30 minutes, then headed out to run some errands.  I met up with my husband at his parents house, and some close friends of the family stopped over for some coffee.  Amongst the group were two children, ages 12 and 7.  The older of the two is studying English in school, and communicating is only slightly easier than impossible.  But for the little one, I don't stand a chance.  Not to mention, I can't predict the kind of questions that children will ask.  They are completely random, and I usually understand the majority of conversation through context alone.  But children are quite unpredictable. Today she asked me where my cat was.  And I replied, "на прокривот."  trying to convey on the roof.  Then she asked me something I couldn't figure out, but heard "згуби", which I knew meant lost. But I couldn't figure out the rest of the sentence.  Then I realized that she was asking me if I had lost my cat.  See, I wasn't expecting that question.  And what makes it even more challenging, is that children have no patience.  They say something, and if you don't understand it, they will repeat it, and after that, they run away or they look at you like you weird or something.  And if they still really want to know the answer, they will ask someone else the question.  Which is what the little girl did today.  She asked her mother, and her mother translated.

But, at least I can say I was able to practice speaking a little today for the first time in days.  I didn't have a chance this weekend because me and my husband went out of town for the weekend.  Saturday, we headed to Bitola for a Biker Party. 

Then Sunday, to the Претора Beach in Ohrid.  This beach was really beautiful.  It's surrounded by mountains, the water is super clean, it wasn't too crowded, and the prices were reasonable.  I really liked it there.  But the entire weekend, everyone in our company spoke to me in perfect English.  Even the waiter replied to me in English when I asked, "Каде е толет?"  (Where is the bathroom?)  What would motivate me to speak broken Macedonian, when everyone replies to me in English?  And I'm not sure if they are speaking in English to make communicating easier for me, sometimes I think they just want to show off how well they speak my language.  Plus, it's so embarrassing to want to say something witty and it comes out not making any sense at all. But, it was a nice trip anyways despite the language part.