Languages in Bulgaria?

Question

There is a realistic chance that I will be working in Sofia for a year or more soon. I care quite a lot about being able to communicate with local people wherever I am travelling, so I would like to know in advance what the possible language barriers are.

I speak French, Dutch and English. Guessing that French and Dutch are not quite relevant in Bulgaria, will I be able to get around with just English? If not, what language would be most useful for me to learn? I am willing to have a go at Bulgarian, but more keen to learn a language that will help me in other countries as well.

Answer 1

Wikitravel has a section on this.

Essentially you'll want to learn the script - even if you can't speak it. It at least helps you say words, or if someone says to try the cheese and tells you the word is 'Kashkaval', at least when you see the script saying 'Кашкавал' you'll be able to figure it out, even if slowly. It's immensely useful for street signs and being able to order off a menu - or even to learn what the name for something is on a menu if it has pictures (I'm speaking especially from experience with the Cyrillic script in Russia etc).

Often you will understand it anyway, as it sounds like the English or French word.

In terms of being understood, however, in the cities it should be easier. As Wikitravel says:

...as Bulgarian education emphasizes foreign language studies, especially English language, it wouldn't be a problem to talk and find information in English in bigger cities. It's best to turn to the young population for a direction or an advice.

As it's related to Serbian, Russian and other Eastern European languages, if you don't want to learn Bulgarian, perhaps you could consider one of those. I'd suggest Russian, as it would help you in several other countries in the area.

Answer 2

It's possible to get around just with English, it depends a lot from your destination. In Sofia, Varna or some other big cities it shouldn't be a problem, in the most towns on the Black Sea shoudn't be a problem too. But there are also some urban areas where the local people don't even speak Bulgarian fluently and don't know a single word of English.

As @MarkMayo already said, the young population is likely to speak English. The "older" population has had Russian or French as a subject in school, but it would be hard to find someone speaking French in Bulgaria.

Serbian and Macedonian are very simular to Bulgarian, Russian could also be helpful, at least for the Cyrillic script. But note that there are also some words that have different meanings in Bulgarian and Russian. For example "направо" (napravo) means "turn right" in Russian but in Bulgarian it means "straight on".