Shqip

Besides being a great Scrabble word (if it were legal), Shqip is the name for the Albanian language in Albanian. It is pronounced, roughly, “ship”. The quote on the cover of the Peace Corps language manual says “it is not difficult to learn…after a few months of diligent study”. I am not sure I agree with this as Shqip giveth and Shqip taketh away.

In Elbasan, there is a statue of Kostandin Kristoforidhi and he is buried in the churchyard within the castle in the center of the city. He was a 19th century scholar whose work was preeminent in the standardization of the Albanian language. Much of this had to be done in secret since it was banned during the centuries of Ottoman rule. I sometimes think I should lay flowers at his tomb because he selected the Roman alphabet rather than the Greek or Russian (other candidates), so it at least looks familiar to an American. Even so, there are 36 letters in it, with 9 combination letters, an extra “c” with a squiggle underneath it and extra “e” with 2 dots over it (like a German umlaut) that make it especially confusing to look up words in Albanian in the dictionary. Many letters are pronounced pretty close to their English equivalent, which helps, but many are different, which confounds. Verbs are pretty straight forward, but nouns have 5 cases with different endings and with two kinds of adjectives which have to agree with case and gender of the nouns they follow.

No one in my host family speaks English, but I speak Spanish pretty well and a niece of my hosts speaks Spanish. I think she learned it mostly from watching a popular tele-novela (a Spanish language soap opera, heavy on the sex and violence) which is produced in Los Angeles and has sub-titles in Albanian. Some in the family also speak a little Italian from working there in the past. Since Italian has a lot of cognates with Spanish, I find my ability in Spanish is very helpful.

I also watch as much of this show as I can stomach and try to improve my Shqip from the sub-titles. Last episode, the main character had a fight with her husband over another woman, left in a fit, was car-jacked at gun point by a Mexican mafia moll in an incredibly skimpy halter top, drove off a cliff, resulting in a fire and explosion, was blown clear of the car, but suffered total body burns. Luckily, a plastic surgeon, who does controversial research in burn treatment using cloning techniques, happened to be driving in the other direction and saw the crash. He and his passenger, another doctor, put her in the back of their car and did emergency surgery at the clandestine OR he has at his home. Meanwhile the police have assumed that the car-jacker was the main character, burned beyond recognition and have declared her dead. The doctor has decided to keep her survival a secret while she recuperates, the girl friend is taking advantage of the situation to make the move on the guilt stricken husband and the wealthy father of the main character suffered a heart attack at the news of the accident. This synopsis has left out important details of various sub-plots, but gives one an idea of a typical day in LA. I am sure I am gaining lots of useful vocabulary from watching this show.

The language classes in the Peace Corps are really terrific and my growing ability has been a great supplement to my limited talent for charades. I do find I am using the phrases “nuk a di” and “nuk kuptoj” (I don’t know and I don’t understand) a bit less. The two language teachers working with my small group in Thane are young, Albanian natives, both born in Elbasan. One has a degree in English and worked for UNICEF taking care of Kosovo refugees before coming to work for the Peace Corps. The other has a degree in teaching Albanian and lives with her husband in Italy where they have a pizzeria. She likes working for the Peace Corps and has returned the past couple of years to help with the 3 month pre-service training program for incoming volunteers. They are both great and their teaching styles complementary. I find my only excuses are my age and my failing memory, eyesight and hearing. I probably need to be more diligent.