Bulgarian language from my point of view

Before I came to Bulgaria I knew only where it is located, I knew that there are mountains of course and that the main actress Nina Dobrev from TV serial "Vampire Diaries" originally comes from Bulgaria. And also I assumed that Bulgarian might be very similar to Russian. But I was all wrong about this.
Only after I came to Bulgaria I realized that it is not so similar to Russian as I though it will be. Well, there are some words that mean the same and also many that are just slightly different, but overall it is completely diverse when it comes to spoken language. Comparing to Russian for me Bulgarian sounds more firm. Maybe it is because in Bulgarian they pronounce everything exactly as it is written but in Russian they make many words sound more softer in a way. Probably that is why I realized this huge difference between these two languages only when I arrived to Bulgaria and heard it in real life. Well I can read Bulgarian and understand a little bit because of comparing it to Russian, but when it comes to spoken language, as I said, it is totally different.

These are some of the words that I found really interesting:

• In many shops assistants offer торбичка. It is plastic bag.
• заповядайте is also used a lot in shops, especially in markets. Traders say this when potential costumers walk past their goods. Also it can be used as 'u welcome' when offering something to someone...
• химикалка is pen. Reminds me something chemical, because of Russian химия (chemistry).
• сладолед is ice-cream but for me it sounds like sweet ice.
• фъстък (peanut) is interesting only because of letter ъ which I always found difficult to pronounce. I still don't get the sound of it. Is it something like Russian ы or ...? Still don't know.
• страхотен is great, awesome, wonderful, but in the same time word страх means fear in Russian (and if translator doesn't lie the same in Bulgarian).
• First vegetable word I learned is краставица (cucumber) only because of association with Russian word  красавица- beauty, beautiful woman.
• булка is bride, but in Russian it's sweet pastry or peace of bread.
• майка for me sounds like a shirt, but in Bulgarian it's mother.

Many words are slightly similar to Russian but just one letter changes like for these two:

        Bulg↓ Russ↓

• хляб  хлеб -both mean bread
• сняг  снег -snow

Some words which are definitely confusing to ones who know Russian:

• In Bulgarian диня is watermelon but in Russian it's melon.
• In Bulgarian живот is life, but in Russian - stomach.
• In Bulgaria на права means forward, but in Russia - on the right.
• стол is chair in Bulgarian, but table in Russian.
• орех is just a walnut in Bulgarian, but in Russian every kind of nut.
• The same with word ягода. In Bulgarian it means strawberry, but Russian- berry, no matter what kind of.
• Also in Bulgaria неделя is word for Sunday, but in Russian it means week.
• And Bulgarian утре (tomorrow) in Russian means morning!

Word зеле (cabbage) is used when taking a picture instead of American cheeese.

And one funny thing is about word кака. As well as in Romania in Latvia it means nothing good, in a way that it is not quite polite to use it in public, but in Bulgarian it is one of many family relation words which means the oldest sister.

When it comes to writing the only differences between Bulgarian and Russian are these:

• From Russian I learned to pronounce the letter щ as 'shch', but in Bulgarian it sounds like 'sht'.
• In Bulgarian there is not such letters as ь(softens previous letter and generally the sound of whole word) or ы (hard sound for letter и -'i' )
• And the letter ъ which is rarely used in Russian (there is not specific pronunciation for it when it's one its own), but A LOT in Bulgarian.

Also often Bulgarians use Italian ciao, but only instead of saying goodbye, meanwhile in Latvia we use it both ways (both greeting and when leaving).

As well its common to use French merci instead of Bulgarian version благодаря which is definitely longer. And just to mention the word благодаря is quite interesting because it has hidden meaning. Can say that it is made of two words: благосъстояние (wealth) and давам (to give). So when they say 'thank you' in Bulgarian they wish you wealth as well!

The most important thing that I didn't know about this language before is that Cyrillic (which I was introduced to when I started to learn Russian in elementary) writing  originated in Bulgaria!

And about the head nodding in different directions, well I didn't payed a lot attention to this, but a few times I saw such thing.