While crossing the road, the chicken got lost, in translation:

Many people around me use the excuse that they have been living outside of their native country to write and even speak inserting foregin (usually English) words in the middle of a sentence in Bulgarian. Frankly, I find it a repulsive butchering of both languages, and it is often a pose which covers up their insecurities and complexes, for coming from a country as small and insignificant as Bulgaria.

To that, I say, firstly, no amount of pretending and word-inserting will do the trick. You come from Bulgaria (and of course, this applies to people from any other country) and you will always be Bulgarian. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. Most people will not judge you on the basis of your nationality or your language, they will judge you on your personality, your abilities, your grades from university, your behaviour and your interests. Those who judge you for being Bulgarian are few and those were probably people who weren't worth spending much time with. Yes, we have gypsies, we're poor, we speak languages usually with a distinct Eastern-European accent and we may smell of garlic, but we also come from a country which has the Bulgarian Rose(and I bet many of you know why this is so special), we have unique in the world yoghurt, our country has been around for longer than most others, officially for about 1300 years, we kept our religion and traditions throughout 500 horrible years under the Ottoman empire's oppression, we created the Cyrillic script, we contributed to the invention of computers. We have delicious food, good wine and beautiful women. Yes, we also have chalga.
 

Gypsies sometimes will parade a dancing bear around the town.

Delicious Bulgarian yoghurt

Secondly, when you insert English or other foregin words in the middle of a sentence for no good reason, in me, it provokes the question "Why?". The answer, in my head, is always the same. Either, you want everyone to know that you speak (or appear to speak) this foreign language or you lack the vocabulary in Bulgarian. In either case, it's not a situation that puts you in a good light. Oh, but it's easier that way, you say, the English word just comes to mind faster. Let's say I believe you, let's say you're not a poser. You still need to be able to speak your mother tongue well before you can speak any other language well.

The clever amongst you will notice I myself write in English. Indeed. It's not because I don't speak Bulgarian. It is not because I want to show off that I speak English, either. In my experience, those who are truly good at something are never the ones who try to flaunt it. The reason why I blog in English is because, 1) most of my friends are non-Bulgarian speakers, which would limit the amount of readers I get, and let's face it, there are not that many of them anyway. 2) It has served me well in the past to be able to show my blog to a university, because it is a sample of my writing. In the future, this could also be the case with employers.

Rose-pickers in traditional folklore dress in the Rose Valley, Kazanluk,

Of course, this article will resonate with a number of my friends, otherwise I wouldn't have had a post to write in the first place. I just wish they could embrace their country and their language. It doesn't make them better than others but it doesn't make them worse either.