大咖福利影院

When I thought I'd need to reach B2 to get a freelancer visa, Google suggested a number of options (narrowed down to Sofia, as I'm nearer Varna so it focused on Varna in my initial search)

Are you speaking well now ?

Not really. I might just barely scrape A1 proficiency in speaking and hearing. Possibly A2 for reading. But I'm now using a route to the D visa that doesn't require language proficiency, so I didn't end up doing a course. I did some online study, and I practice with my Bulgarian neighbours. It's much easier now I'm spending more time here. I'm hopeful once I move permanently, my skills will improve faster.

I think if you need a level of proficiency for work, a D visa, or citizenship, a course would be essential. But just about getting by is relatively easy to achieve.

@janemulberry

Can I ask what nationality you are ?

@JuilaOui

Click on a member's name and you'll get all the information that user has entered in the potted bio. I've heard tell that Jane used to "waltz Matildas" and scrag not so jolly jumbucks after an evening enjoying the fermented grape juice. She's here in BG to stay one stride ahead of the troopers, according to the bush telegraph... 馃槑

@JimJ, not the jumbucks no!

@JuilaOui Yes, I'm a native English speaker, born in Australia and living in the UK, except when I'm in Bulgaria! As you're French and speak a romance language, you may find a Slavic language harder to learn as it's very different. Very different from English, too! On the other hand there do seem to be a few French loan words in Bulgarian or modified forms of the word -- for example shapka for hat.

The problem with loan words in Bulgarian is that they often get mangled/garbled: eg a "digger" (not a bloke from Jane's homeland but a machine for digging holes/shifting earth etc) is a "bagger" in Bulgarian, from Bagger, the German firm which makes, inter alia, Bobcats etc) Sadly there's really no single word for a person/machine that bags things in Bulgarian, although there IS a slang/colloquial one.

French has its own quirks, of course: eg "le talkie-walkie" and the much-discussed "le vasistas" - and the English word "salt cellar" always makes me chuckle...

Languages are wonderfully fascinating and forever evolving.

@janemulberry

One man's "evolving" is another man's "dumbing down"...馃槑

I suspect every generation says the same thing!

Though I do have concerns about AI dumbing people down, doing their thinking for them. Students will never learn to analyse what they read, critically think about it, and then synthesise their own ideas if they just let AI feed them the predigested version.

If they rely on AI then we're doomed, I tell you - doomed! I use AI a lot but I spend more time marvelling at the "hallucinations" (a polite term for the totally bogus/manufactured pseudo-information that's all too often served up) than I ever save by having a willing slave.聽 The additional bogus excuses and "explanations" would be funny if they weren't delivered with so many earnest promises that it won't ever happen again...but it always does.

I'd say that Politics is definitely the area in which AI is most likely to render humans totally superfluous!

Very true! A perfect fit!

I suspect every generation says the same thing!
Though I do have concerns about AI dumbing people down, doing their thinking for them. Students will never learn to analyse what they read, critically think about it, and then synthesise their own ideas if they just let AI feed them the predigested version. - @janemulberry

I was discussing this topic with one of my Chinese students, who teaches English at a university in China.聽 He asked for my opinion on a piece of English produced by one of his own students and I opined that it looked suspiciously like an AI creation. His reply was "They capitalised on Deepseek indeed"; apparently the students write their text in Chinese and then use Deepseek to translate it into English for them because "They are not well-versed in English after all".聽 This is after 9 years of studying English, both at school and university...馃��

I assume that he hasn't read "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies"!