The neighbor who brags in Serbian

How the whole thing sounds

The situation: two neighbors talk about a third neighbor. First the whole conversation, then each line on its own, with a translation.

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  Јеси ли причала са новим комшијом из трећег улаза?

  Jesi li pričala sa novim komšijom iz trećeg ulaza?

  Have you talked to the new neighbor from the third entrance?
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  Јесам. Директан је, каже шта мисли, а то ми се свиђа.

  Jesam. Direktan je, kaže šta misli, a to mi se sviđa.

  I have. He's straightforward; he says what he thinks, and I like that.
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  Мени се чини да се превише хвали. Стално прича о свом ауту.

  Meni se čini da se previše hvali. Stalno priča o svom autu.

  It seems to me he brags too much. He talks about his car all the time.
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  Није он то из зле намере. Мислим да је просто самољубив.

  Nije on to iz zle namere. Mislim da je prosto samoljubiv.

  He doesn't mean any harm. I think he's just vain.
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  Можда. Али прошле недеље је оговарао породицу с првог спрата.

  Možda. Ali prošle nedelje je ogovarao porodicu s prvog sprata.

  Maybe. But last week he was gossiping about the family from the first floor.
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  То није лепо. Ја се у таквим причама држим по страни.

  To nije lepo. Ja se u takvim pričama držim po strani.

  That's not nice. I stay out of conversations like that.
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  И ја. Али са њим се тешко разговара, осетљив је на сваку примедбу.

  I ja. Ali sa njim se teško razgovara, osetljiv je na svaku primedbu.

  So do I. But he's hard to talk to; he takes offense at every remark.
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  Даћу му времена. Људи се често отворе кад стекну поверење.

  Daću mu vremena. Ljudi se često otvore kad steknu poverenje.

  I'll give him time. People often open up once they gain trust.
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  У праву си. Можда ћемо се на крају добро сложити.

  U pravu si. Možda ćemo se na kraju dobro složiti.

  You're right. Maybe we'll get along fine in the end.

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.

Next

• The whole phrasebookAll situations in one list
• Getting acquaintedA chat in the courtyard
• At the caféAn order at a Belgrade café
• How to get thereLooking for the train station
• At the green marketSaturday, a vegetable and fruit stall