The neighborhood changed in Georgian

How the whole thing sounds

The situation: two neighbors by the entrance remember what the area used to be like. First the whole conversation, then each line on its own, with a translation.

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  ამ ათწლეულში უბანი სულ სხვა გახდა.

  am attsleulshi ubani sul skhva gakhda.

  Over this decade the neighborhood became a completely different place.
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  იმ წლებში აქ ერთი მაღაზია იყო და ისიც სამუშაო დღეებში.

  im tslebshi ak erti maghazia iqo da isits samushao dgheebshi.

  In those years there was one shop here, and that only on weekdays.
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  ახლა ყველაფერი თანამედროვეა, მაგრამ ძველი ეზო მენატრება.

  akhla qvelaperi tanamedrovea, magram dzveli ezo menatreba.

  Now everything is modern, but I miss the old courtyard.
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  ჩვენს დროში ბავშვები გარეთ თამაშობდნენ, ახლა კი ტელეფონშია.

  chvens droshi bavshvebi garet tamashobdnen, akhla ki teleponshia.

  In our day children played outside, and now it's all on the phone.
• ▶
  გახსოვს ის მოედანი? მისი გამწვანება წინა დღეს დაიწყეს.

  gakhsovs is moedani? misi gamtsvaneba tsina dghes daitsqes.

  Remember that square? They started landscaping it the day before.
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  დროგამოშვებით მაინც ვწუწუნებთ, თუმცა უკეთესად ვცხოვრობთ.

  drogamoshvebit maints vtsutsunebt, tumtsa uketesad vtskhovrobt.

  Now and then we still grumble, though we live better.
• ▶
  მართალია. ყველაფერი ისევ ისე არასდროს იქნება.

  martalia. qvelaperi isev ise arasdros ikneba.

  True. Things will never be as they once were.

Lines one by one

How to prepare for a conversation like this

Memorizing the lines is not enough: the other person will say their own thing, not what is written. What helps more is catching the key words by ear and keeping three rescue phrases ready: “I don't understand”, “repeat, please”, “slower”.

And one more thing phrasebooks do not mention: awkwardness gets in the way more than not knowing the words.

• Fear of making mistakes gets in the way of learning a language, and noticeably so. The link turns up study after study, and together those studies cover almost twenty thousand people.checked many times
  Teimouri, Goetze & Plonsky, 2019, Studies in Second Language Acquisition 41(2) · 19,933 participants from 23 countries; correlation with results r = −0.36.
• That fear can be dealt with — the methods have been tested and they work.checked many times
  Xiong et al., 2024, Journal of Language and Social Psychology · 37 studies, anxiety reduced by −0.61. Of the seven conditions examined, only age turned out to matter.

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