Learning the Language

Many of you are aware that I have been attempting to learn some Slovak. I recently victimized a poor little 8 year old girl one day at a family party because she understood me when her Slovak grandmother did not! I took complete advantage of her, presenting her with many Slovak words and phrases while she looked at me with fear in her eyes. She acted as though she was under the inquisition since I continued to harass her when she obviously understood what I was saying. I was just very excited that someone actually understood me!

This young girl takes Slovak dance instruction from a recent immigrant, so she has learned some of the language as well as dancing. Not to worry, though, because I'm sticking just to the language. No dancing for me. Plus, I can pretty much guarantee that Marty wouldn't be able to catch on to any Slovak dance moves which was obvious at his botched attempt to polka at Jim and Heather's wedding despite our spending about 4 hours practicing just 2 nights before. Perhaps it was the excitement of the day that caused his feet to do their own thing, who knows? But I certainly don't plan on making any dance moves when I'm in Slovakia. I may do some gallivanting, but I'm steering clear of dancing.

Which brings me back to the subject at hand. In my recent studies, I was confused by the word, fl'asa, which my Slovak program uses in two different contexts. Fl'asa vody - Glass of water. Fl'asa piva - Glass of beer. Fl'asa vina - Bottle of wine. I questioned why the same word would change and not be consistently the same. Given two out of three, I would have presumed that fl'asa meant glass.

Wrong! Apparently pohar is glass and Fl'asa is bottle, which really could get me into some trouble since we all know my alcohol limit is slightly less than one glass. And, with me ordering Marty a bottle of beer (which I understand is pretty large) and me a bottle of wine....let's just say that things could get a little crazy. And, if there was polka music playing, then who knows where that would lead ?

So, at this point, I can't help but wonder if there are other important words that I have learned incorrectly.

Perhaps I should just stick to voda and forget the vino!