People called Romanus they go the house?

Just before I left for Albania, a friend asked me what my greatest fear was regarding the next two years. The question was actually difficult for me to answer. I was not expecting to spend two years in the Peace Corps without encountering any challenges along the way, but at that moment I was still too captivated by pictures of the crystal clear seas and rugged mountains of my soon-to-be home to give any serious thought to these things. After mulling the question over in my mind for a few minutes, though, I decided that my greatest fear was the language and the consequences that would follow if I found myself unable to learn it.

If someone were to ask me today what my greatest challenge currently is, my answer would stay the same: the language. The answer remains the same, but the reasons why are not what I foresaw before I arrived. I had never made a serious effort to learn (much less use) a foreign language before, and as I result, I didn't know what to expect from the learning process itself. In my imagination, I only considered the extreme possibilities- complete fluency or the inability to form even a single sentence.

What I did not consider, however, was the time that a person must spend on the road between those two points while learning a new language. It is both a longer and lonelier road than I ever anticipated that it would be.

If I didn't have a proper appreciation for languages before, I certainly do now. I have understood for some time that the human experience is, in many ways, defined by the ability to have complex, self-aware thought. Somehow, though, I failed to give proper regard to its inseparable companion: the ability to give form to those thoughts and to share them with others. I never realized just how important that was until I found myself unable to do it.

Language allows you discuss complex issues like philosophy or politics. It also allows you to order a suflaqe with everything but mayonnaise, thank you very much. I am still a long way away from finding my place in philosophical discussions, but am getting pretty good at ordering my lunch. Even with the simple things, though, I am still at a point in which nothing comes out easily. Shqip is an interesting language that holds very little in common with English. As with all new skills, it is very easy to become hung up on the rules that will eventually (hopefully) become second nature. Shqip just happens to have lots of these.

(At this point, I am about to give a lesson in Shqip. If you don't have the time or interest, I wouldn't blame you in the slightest. Just skip down a ways. I'll tell you when the worst of it is over and when the fun begins again. A Monty Python video awaits!)

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For those of you who have been brave/foolish enough to continue, take a look at the following sentence:

A i falenderove shoqet për dhuratën?

This sentence translates into English roughly as "Did you thank your friends for the gift?" Now then, let's deconstruct it.

A i falenderove shoqet për dhuratën?

The "A" at the beginning of a sentence indicates that the sentence is an inquiry. This is one of the two easy parts of this sentence.

A i falenderove shoqet për dhuratën?

The "i" in this sentence is an example of something called a clitic. A clitic precedes a verb and serves as its direct object. Specifically, this "i" tells you that the direct object of the verb is the third-person plural- a.k.a. "they/them." (I won't expand on this thought too much, but really, think about it for a second. If you are a native english speaker, this is quite confusing and counter intuitive. ) Now we just need to figure out what is being done to they/them...

A i falenderove shoqet për dhuratën?

The verb "falenderoj" means "to thank." There are few things that slow down my mental processes in in Shqip as much as the verbs. The conjugation of "to thank" is not very difficult in English. I thank, you thank, he thanks, we thank, you thank, they thank. In shqip, the same progression goes like this: Unë falenderoj, ti falenderon, ai falenderon, ne falenderojmë, ju falenderoni, ata falenderojnë.

That series only applies for the present tense of the verb, though. Shqip also has the imperfect tense to indicate past habits or behaviors, the past tense to indicate an action that was done at a specific time in the past, the subjunctive tense to indicate a planned or future behavior, and an imperative to indicate commands. Nothing too crazy there, but the ending of the verbs change both depending on the tense and on who is acting out the verb. Shqip also has far too many irregular verbs that change the entire root of the word for the different tenses. Thankfully, falenderoj is not one of them. Anyway, in this case we are asking about a past behavior that happened one time, so the case is past tense.

So we get to conjugate it. Again, the English isn't too complicated. Did... I thank, you thank, he thank, we thank, you thank, they thank? Playing that song in Shqip, however sounds like this: A... falenderova, falenderove, falenderoi, falenderuam, falenderuat, falenderuan? Since this sentence is being addressed to the second person singular (you), we use "falenderove."

A i falenderove shoqet për dhuratën?

Do you remember the clitic "i"? If both parties in the conversation already knew who they were referring to, you could leave their title out of the sentence all together. You are talking about thanking "i", aka "them." In this case, though, that understanding is not assumed to be there, so we must explain who "they" are that are receiving the thanks.

In this case, they are "shoqet." The friends. The female friends, to be specific. It is in the nominative case (I think. Possibly accusative. I get confused when clitics get involved. More on cases later, though). Nouns can be singular or plural, indefinite or definite. "A friend" is "një shoqe." "The friend" is "shoqja." Some friends" are "disa shoqe," and "the friends" are "shoqet." Therefore, the "i" is referring to "the friends" or, shoqet.

The first four words must be taken together to produce the meaning. "A i falenderove shoqet?" Did (A) you thank (falenderove) the friends (i... shoqet)?

A i falenderove shoqet për dhuratën?

Për. It means "for." That was your second easy part.

A i falenderove shoqet për dhuratën?

Hold on! You're almost finished. Unfortunately, we must end with noun cases. Doesn't sound familiar? That's because english doesn't really have them. The ending of a noun in Shqip will change depending on its purpose in the sentence. A noun can be nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, or ablative.

"Dhurata" means "the gift." Not "a gift," mind you (that would be një dhuratë), but "the gift." Depending on its purpose in the sentence (is it the subject? Does it show possession? Is it the indirect object of the verb? Is it the direct object of the verb? Does it indicate location?), its ending will change. Dhurata can also be "e dhuratës" or "dhuratës" or "dhuratën." And that's just for definite singular. You get completely new endings with definite plural! Not to mention all the indefinites. In this case, it is accusative and definite singular. It is the one thing that you gave thanks for. Therefore, it becomes "dhuratën."
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(It's safe again! Start reading here!)

So there you have it. That is a small taste of why my brain hurts at the end of the day. I wasn't sure that I'd ever be able to properly convey this mental challenge to anyone until a couple weeks ago. That was when I happened to sit down to watch Monty Python's "The Life of Bryan." Leave it to the Brits to create a perfect representation of the internal dialogue that takes place in my brain before every sentence that I try to speak in Shqip. Centurions and all:

So I haven't figured out how to link the youtube videos directly on my page, so you get to click here.

Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Thankfully, things are gradually slowing down in my mind. It reminds me of my first driving lessons, when something as simple as looking in the side view mirror and turning on a blinker and moving over into the next lane seemed like the most overwhelming demand someone could make of me. It slowed down and eventually became second nature. I am holding out hope that the same will happen here-- provided, of course, that I continue studying and don't expect that time to come tomorrow. I just need to learn to find my feet in my current state of limbo and to not forget to appreciate what I've earned when things do eventually start coming together. You know, Hail Caesar and everything.