People thought that I’m crazy! Ha! When I for the first time decided not to eat sweet for one month people at home refused to believe that- they spent many hours in trials to persuade me not to do that. Well, they couldn’t, but that’s not the most important. What is important is that it worked. It worked then, about a year ago, and it works now. I decided that three times in the year for one month I will not eat sweet things and won’t even drink sweet things- only water, soda, milk and tea without sugar. Why? Because I stopped relishing these things which used to give me great pleasure- I decided that when I “lose” them for one month then I will enjoy them more. I think it worked- a week ago my month of self-restrain finished and during this week I again succeeded to enjoy things I’d desired for a month and I still do that- every sip of cola, every chocolate is something tasty and it gives me pleasure- just what I wanted. During these months of restraint I also found new tastes- it’s much better to dine and drink only water- you feel the food and do not mix the tastes with juice, for example. It sounds strange, but I found new tastes and rediscovered the old ones. People thought that I’m crazy but they just couldn’t and still can’t imagine…

Meet Joe Black

I watched a wonderful movie. I’ve watched it before and it became one of my favourite but when I watched it 2 days ago I again discovered its wisdom and how much I like it. It is a perfect fusion of good acting, original plot and understandable and valuable messages. And, of course, great soundtrack. It is called ‘Meet Joe Black’. If you still haven’t, watch it! I hope you’d like it!

Why I don’t use emoticons

I was asked some days ago why I don’t use emoticons. And I decided to write here the answer. I don’t use emoticons because I consider them ineffective- I’m sure they won’t be exactly the most appropriate for a certain situation and person. I think that if I write to someone he should be able to infer my mood as I try to do with people.  If you make the right deduction, you know someone well. Isn’t it a challenge to think always what your friend wanted to say, what he implied? Wouldn’t he feel better if you understand him without some ‘help’? (Shakespeare didn’t put emoticons on his sonnets to clarify the feelings he had (as far as I know)). And I don’t compare myself with him- this just proves that in normal communication we don’t need these.

Emoticons express the average emotions- they are statistics (and statistics can say that one happy and one sad person are approximately indifferent, which wouldn’t be right for both of them). Feelings are something complex- they can’t even be described with one word- how could a picture show them properly? How can I explain the feeling of happiness that I speak to someone but at the same time I’m really concerned that I might bore him- is that a ‘smile’ or a worried face? Or both? Or nothing? Or something else..?

And as a conclusion: People are complex, their emotions are complex, and emoticons are simple. They just don’t fit. I compare them to using ready- made phrases to write letters- it is always better if you think out something yourself. Although I don’t mind reading emoticons I don’t want to write them because I like to concentrate mainly on words. (And the chief reason is not only the fact that I’m not good in English).

Lost time and success

I lost three days of my life. How? I took part in an informatics competition. And now I take the consequences- I don’t have time for anything- I, with great effort, try to make up for these 2 school days and the weekend. And it is unbearable! I went there “to represent the school” and to “check” at what level of knowledge I am. (According to the results it should be 0.) However, that’s not important- the important thing is that a boy from our school won first prize and these people classified this as good presenting of the school- no one dared saying that this success is only his and his private teacher’s- it has nothing to do with school, because the boy knew everything he would know about informatics if he studies at school before he came in my high school. He has learned just nothing from his current official teacher. The great injustice that they attributed the whole success to the school’s education is appalling! He succeeded because he has someone to really teach him and he has his resolution to succeed. Bitter truth but still the only truth!

When the lights went out

‘Where was Moses when the lights went out?’

‘In the darkness’

Yesterday night the electricity stopped for some time. You will ask if there is a problem. I usually think that there’s no problem in this, too, but yesterday I realized how much we (or perhaps only I) depend on it. There was nothing urgent but I was just going to call a friend of mine, whom I hadn’t seen on-line for weeks on Skype, and I couldn’t. (When the electricity came he was not there.) And this was just the beginning of my inconveniencies. We found only two candles and it was not so light in the room but we had to reconcile with that. We expected everything to be normal in about 5 minutes but it didn’t happen this way. We decided to do something to fill our time because no one could do anything- I couldn’t read, my mother couldn’t solve crosswords, my father- to watch TV, my grandmother- to knit- we decided to have dinner. Some people think it is romantic- dinner at candles- in a way it is. However, it was not so convenient to take all the dishes and cutlery with a flashlight in the other hand.

The situation made me wonder about the times when there was no electricity. Ordinary people’s day should have stopped almost with the last sunbeams. You can’t stay in candles for 4-5 hours in winter, right? They exhaust the eyes. And my problem was the thought that I wouldn’t be able to read- my plans were ruined. However, after about 40 minutes everything was OK but the feeling that I depend so much on something (for contemporary people this is, probably, normal) didn’t make me feel good!

A Big Response to Three Comments

We certainly can’t say that languages HAVE common Indo- European roots. They HAD them long time ago. Now they are almost unrecognizable. And since then every language got its own way and developed its own lexis and grammar structures. (The proto language didn’t have so many words so that every language to be able to get its part, I’m almost sure.) Greek might be a cousin of Swedish but Greeks can’t understand Swedes. Of course I know that our language is not unique but it is a separate language. We should preserve it as it is and try to develop it- this can happen only if we use its roots, not the adopted ones, to create new words. The point is that we should have words for everything in every language, so that we don’t have problems like “I wish everyone knew that word in French because it describes my idea in the best way”. If we start to create words in Bulgarian, if we have a word that exactly connotes this word, wouldn’t it be great, would it be wrong? I again say- we have English- it is more than enough for international communication. Of course, nationality is not so important- I just tried to put as many reasons for coining new words as possible. And I just say that language is one of the main, if not the most important element of the culture of a nation. It really matters.I really do not consider that any foreign word should fit the modern taste of anybody. Why? Because when there is a word expressive enough in the native language there is just no need to put in use another. When the language has the potential to create new words from the native roots, there is no need. Even simple borrowed words like „експресивен” do sound strange when someone uses them.When I said dying for Bulgarian I just meant that it does not develop its own roots, but the foreign ones. It is important to coin new words for everything, not only for the scientific terms. Descendants of the Proto Greeks and the Latin people still exist. If the language of the terms indicates that knowledge belongs to the nation, which speaks this language that means that knowledge belongs only to these people. I don’t think it’s true. Just the opposite, because scientific knowledge belongs to all people they should be able to create their own terms- that are appropriate for their language and that are easier for them to understand. Probably if Bulgarians survive the language called Bulgarian will survive, too, but would that be the same language- in which words of foreign origin dominate and create the new words? I doubt! That’s why I’d like us to create new words. The whole point of publishing all these articles was not to try to offend any nation or person- it was because I really see that our language has that potential to create new words that fit it and thus provide more synonyms, too. Unfortunately, we don’t do that.  And to the question, ‘What else would you do to preserve your language?’ I have no answer- I have no ideas. I am just one person- for the change I wish I need more people who share the same opinion. However, if we ever grow enough to pay attention to that, we can follow the example of the Icelanders- starting from the 18^th century till nowadays.

When will we catch up with them… the Icelanders? (Will we ever do that?)

I am sitting on the table, grating a pumpkin for pumpkin-pastry, and thinking again about the thing that bothers me these days- how to prevent the entering of foreign words in Bulgarian and why we are so hospitable with them. There should be something else, another reason for us so broadly to use words, alien to our souls and to the first language we have spoken. We actually put them another meaning, something slightly different from the native word, but usually something better. We suppose that „аромат” is exactly a pleasant smell, something more than just „мирис” although they mean the same. We use „демокрация” instead of „народовластие” because the former is for us something that is more correct and the latter is “too simple”. We never realize that they mean exactly the same; they express exactly the same idea. I think I finally got it- we just subconsciously have that inferiority complex- that we are nothing and that the others are more educated, wiser, more competent. This use of foreign words shows that we not only assume we are less than the others (we might be), it shows something more frightening than I could have imagined- we never, even for a single minute think that we can be at least at their level! As if we wish our regress! I disapprove this! Shame! Shame! Shame! That shows that we are superficial, we follow the shadow and we lose the substance- we should understand that a word carries a meaning we put in it. Of course, it is better if we can infer the meaning of a word by looking at it- that can happen easier if the word is native, right? We have to realize that creating, understanding and using new native words will surely contribute to our sophistication!There is another aspect of the topic I discuss here- native terms in science. Why should we bother to translate something if it is only related to science? Yes, why? Because science and technologies become a big part of our lives. And why should we suppose we are so stupid that we can’t discuss science at home, in our everyday life? We so much separate science and everyday life that we again show we are so distant from it, and we never want to be more related. That has to change! And one of the steps we can take is to gradually start to enrich our lexis with native neologisms. We have to know that in Iceland they want to be able to speak about ANY topic without using foreign words, that’s their aim, and Icelandic is a language spoken by only 300 000 people.Another thing I can add to prevent anyone from saying that I am insane to talk about this- someone might say, “To use words like „вчувстване” instead of “empathy” sounds ridiculous”. I am sure that it will sound the same way to a native speaker of the language that the word “empathy” originates- if he thinks about that. However, he wouldn’t. Why?Because neologisms sound strange during the first fifty years- then they are just ordinary native words.And for the people who still think that languages should use more and more common lexis because that makes them simpler to understand and study I will say- we already have a language at which we can understand a person, no matter where he is from- that is English (In it less than a quarter of the lexis is native. Do we want this for our language?). Enough is ENOUGH!

Following the spirit of my previous article I will now ask a question: OK. We are careless about our language, but why? Some people will say- we have so many other things to care about (O, come on! I don’t ask for money!). Others will say- is there a problem, because we don’t see it (Are you blind!), why should we do something to change the foreign words with native neologisms. These both show that people really don’t understand the importance of this problem- nowadays language is the only thing that defines a nation. Years ago people said that there are three things that did this- religion, history and language. Nowadays less and less people are religious (I mean really, not just obeying the rituals and celebrating) and history- do I have to comment this- so many times people changed the aspect from which we look at the events and so many times there were new and startling turning points because of new discoveries that we can’t distinguish the real fact from the newest sensation based on speculations. And even if we could now people are so mixed that it is really impossible if we try to put a person in a certain nation using these criteria. So, the only thing left is the mother language of the person. And if these were not enough for skeptics, I’ll just add- if we don’t try to develop it our language will die. And a note- putting newly borrowed words in our lexis only pollutes is, it doesn’t become more developed- it only merges with other languages. Thus we just consciously kill it and nothing else. Think for a while- if we continue in the same way, will in ten years’ time our language be „език свещен не моите деди” or it will be just “something that I can’t exactly define but it really sounds like English, although they don’t use the correct word order”. That’s why we should try to preserve our language- and this can happen by doing only one thing- trying to substitute foreign words with native neologisms. This doesn’t harm the language- it is like a surgery- it pains it the beginning but it is for the best. And, of course, some people would say that this is against the moral- consciously to try to influence a language- I’ll answer- everything we do (applying the grammar rules, for example) is a conscious influence on a language. When we put new words of foreign origin in it we do the same. And it is our right as the main “users” of the language- it is up to us whether we’ll do it the right or the wrong way.

And now let me ask you something- which is the first neologism in Bulgarian that comes to your mind? Is it something simple like „възлед” or „излет”, or something strange- sounding like „посткомунистически” „антикорупционен”? Do we study at school that newly created words can be really useful and useable? I think that’s a problem- we somehow subconsciously assume that new words in our language can be created only through using some foreign prefixes and roots. Because it is simpler for us- we are not as seriously taught Bulgarian as we are taught any other language. That’s why we don’t know our language and its great potential. I really wish we were more responsible for our language! We shouldn’t think it is normal to have a lot of foreign words in our lexis- languages with fewer speakers than ours have more native words than we do- they are more enthusiastic about substituting international words with native ones (for example, in Hungarian, Slovenian and Finnish they have a native word for “computer”). They know that every language, no matter if it has 100 or 100 000 speakers, is a big wealth and for the native speakers it is even bigger wealth because it is theirs, it defines them as a nation. Our language has helped, helps, and I hope will help us realize who we are. However, we should help it too AND NOW…

I would like to say a few words about the people who struggle for language which has not many loanwords and foreign words. They are called purists but we always pronounce this word with some disgust, as if they are crazy people who want something impossible and don’t make anything useful- when there was purism in Bulgaria people thought this. In fact that’s not true- because of these people we have preserved a lot of words, which have had foreign equivalents and we even now have a lot of the words they created for some events, new for their time. And the wish for relatively clean of not native words language is not a utopia- it successfully exists in a European country. Please, read this! I admire these people- we should follow their example. If someone could hear me…

In these days of darkness in our souls, caused by the uncertainty of the situation in Bulgaria, I don’t care so much about the teachers- their strike and what they will do afterwards. What I’m really concerned about is our language- Bulgarian. I stay at home and listen to people who try to comment some of the events that happen and I certainly doubt if I am in
Bulgaria, if I am listening to Bulgarian? The television fills my head with words as “децентрализация”, “оптимизация”, “диференциация”, “спекулация” and many others. And after a moment, if I think for a while, I, shocked, realize that I’ve heard less Bulgarian than
foreign words. Isn’t this awful? You might consider my position too extreme or strange but I do not want to hear that kind of words in Bulgarian, I want them to become extinct from our language. And that opinion of mine does not mean that I think we should abandon them at
once and deprive ourselves of a quarter of our lexis. No! I’m fully aware that exactly these new words carry the new concepts and complex ideas, they are a product of the development all over the world, of civilization itself. Now in these times when the world changes so fast we can’t do without these new ideas. However that does NOT mean that we should use exactly these words to name them. A simple example- about 100 years ago we didn’t have a word for newspaper- instead we used the Russian word (which is not actually Russian) but people who loved Bulgarian and cared about it thought of a new word to represent this new, for these
times, object. Thus an established in Bulgarian word of foreign origin was substituted by a really native word. This is a proof that in is not impossible to create useable native words. We use that kind of words and we even don’t know that some people employed a lot of efforts to create
them. That’s why I’m really impressed when I read something like: “It is insane to think that we can avoid using borrowings.” or “A borrowed word is a word that has no corresponding word in a language” in a textbook or a scientific article. I wonder whether these people believe
what they say? Every word has its roots it the language it originates and they are basic terms that exist in any language. That’s why we can substitute every foreign word with a native one. We just have to remember that initially this word didn’t exist in its original language.
Someone CREATED it. How can it be impossible to put in use a new word when they actually do this every day? Nowadays it is even easier than a few decades ago- with the television that is present at almost any home. Now it is the main reason for the newly borrowed words in any
language. It is really simple. But no one pays attention. At the end I think that they do this because of the simple, and stupid in its cause, feeling of being superior to someone by using words that he does not understand- that usually happens in the literary criticism but also on the TV. They get ready words mainly from English and they just pronounce them in a Bulgarian way. They misuse some of the words, consciously use foreign words instead of Bulgarian and they think in their pitiful souls that they are sophisticated. Or at least sound this way. That’s certainly not this true- it just shows their laziness (to translate a word), thus the carelessness about their own language (which is a certain reason for disrespect) and their cheap trials to look intelligent.
And at the end we say that our educational system is ineffective- how could it be otherwise when studying even the basic terms of any science is comparable to studying a foreign language. Wouldn’t it be more positive for the students, instead of looking in dictionaries or studying by heart to think for a while, to find the roots of a word in their own language, and
thus not only to develop their thinking but also their love for their native language? Wouldn’t then more people know their language better? (We use the same strategy for studying a foreign language.) People want to do this but they don’t have this opportunity. It is not a reason for laughter when you see that a boy says that in the “мандра” they work with “мандарини”, it is a damned shame. Now tell me that I need not be concerned!

I have a dream- I wish nobody asked me about my dreams.