Slovak.

My inner language nerd is excited at the prospect of a new language. Or five – but let’s stick to the ones we’ve already started, shall we? After a short time of observation, spoken Slovak seems fairly easy to understand – in my opinion it is very similar to Polish. The written language requires slightly more imagination to make sense for a novice like me. Interestingly, the letter ä exists in Slovak: I thought it was a German/Scandinavian/Finnish peculiarity.

And then to the random observations made today

• There are no functioning traffic lights here – and I’m still alive, which is a small miracle considering the fact I’m the queen of absentmindedness and would be more than able to walk right in front of a tram by accident.
• Some of the groceries in Tesco are about as expensive as in Finland. There is an awful lot of cookies and chocolate here, even more than back home.
• Most young Slovakian men look like they’d like to play in a British indie band.
• People are very helpful.