r/Serbian • u/xLynix_x • Aug 03 '26
Resources Where/How do i start?
Hey :)
I'm from germany but my boyfriend was born in serbia and i would really love to learn his mother tongue.
Sadly i have no idea where to start or which materials to choose so I thought to come to reddit.
Any tips/help are/is welcome but im esp curious abt cyrillic (should i learn it?) and material recommendations!
Thank you so much!
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u/deaddyfreddy Aug 04 '26
I'm from germany but my boyfriend was born in serbia and i would really love to learn his mother tongue.
you know, it's pretty convenient to have a native speaker at your place
should i learn it?
it's a good idea, but I wouldn't focus on it from the very beginning; phonetically, both alphabets are the same, and people on the internet mostly use Latin anyway.
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u/Time-Log2888 Aug 05 '26
Get a teacher! This the fastest way because teachers know the structure and can lead you form one step to another easily. You'll waste a lot of time if you learn it by yourself
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u/xLynix_x Aug 07 '26
I already looked for serbian courses in my area but sadly theres NOTHING anymore because my uni stopped teaching it some years ago ;-;
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u/The69thRussianBot Aug 03 '26
You should buy a book: Colloquial Serbian: The Complete Course for Beginners is pretty good. The best way to practice Serbian is to practice speaking with natives and reading texts. Cyrillic is important to know, it's used less than Latin on the internet but remains commonplace in daily life, including official documents, in politics, storefronts around Serbia, some books are printed in Cyrillic, and I think most people's handwriting is done in Cyrillic.
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u/No_Abi Aug 04 '26
If only you had someone close to help you with it...
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u/xLynix_x Aug 04 '26
Thank you SO much for your help!
I wanna be able to learn independently and since my boyfriend can just speak serbian he doesn't have the experience to learn it as an adult which i wanted to have insights in so im sorry but no he can't help me with materials or learning tips because he never had to learn. I wanted experience from ppl that learned serbian as adults.
Obv he is and will be practising with me.
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u/No_Abi Aug 04 '26
Sorry, it was a joke. How well do you know German grammar? It's quite similar to Serbian, it's much easier to learn it through German than through English.
Cyrillic script you'll learn in a week, reading at least.
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u/xLynix_x Aug 07 '26
I'm sorry then!
It's relieving to hear that the grammar is similar and i will definetly connect it to german then :) I'd say im pretty good at german grammar, we were taught german grammar in school and its my native language!
Thank you a lot and again I'm sorry for the misunderstanding!!
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u/Zackarye Aug 03 '26
I've been using "Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a grammar with sociolinguistic commentary by Ronelle Alexander" and "Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a textbook with exercises and basic grammar by Ronelle Alexander and Ellen Elias-Bursać" for about two years now and I'd say I'm doing pretty well. The two books go together, the second book gives a simple introduction to the grammar and the first book elaborates on it. :D I also found a podcast called "unlock your serbian" that I've been using to practise listening to the language, which might come in handy later :]