By alinesarajevo I’ve started the school year at a small school in Sarajevo after spending 10 months teaching teenagers in Southeast Asia. Teaching assertive Bosnian students takes some getting used to; typically, half my class time in Bangkok last year would be spent coaxing trembling students to speak more loudly and loosen up. Many of [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Dialogue' Category
A Day in the Life of an English Language Teacher: Sarajevo
Written by a former teacher in Sarajevo I wake up at 9:30 and walk to the bakery five minutes from my door. I pay half a KM, about 25 cents, for a buhtla cokoladna – a warm roll with chocolate inside that I buy regularly but can never pronounce correctly. Returning home to eat, I [...]
Read the rest of this entry »My Sarajevo Landlady
Written by a former teacher in Sarajevo She was an old woman, seventy-five years old, she told me, holding up seven fingers and then five. The day I moved into the flat in the building her family owned, she came up the steps the first day with some homemade sirnica, cheese pie. Every week or [...]
Read the rest of this entry »How Many Schools Can You Fit Under One Roof?
By ISA BELLEBosnia and Herzegovina must certainly be the world-champion in fitting several schools under one roof. A common phenomenon in this country is the so-called ‘two schools under one roof’ which means that there are two different ethnic groups enrolling in different school curriculum in the same building. One group usually starts early in [...]
Read the rest of this entry »One Day On Earth Media Project Wants Bosnian Citizens (10/10/2010)
From my mailbox—- I am contacting Beyond Sarajevo on behalf of a global media event that I am helping to produce. One Day On Earth is an online community of filmmakers, students, and inspired individuals all teaming up to film in every country in the world during the 24-hour period on 10/10/2010, to create a [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Interview with a Former Dutch Soldier Who Served in Srebrenica
By ISA BELLE For a school assignment, I interviewed an ex-Dutch batter who served in Srebrenica during its fall. The interview was interesting, so I decided to translate and post it here. I encourage you all to read it; however it’s best if you do a bit of research beforehand so you can understand it [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Grandaughter of former head of Yugoslavia, Tito, Speaks at San Jose State University
Dr. Svetlana Broz, grandaughter of Josin Broz Tito of the former Yugoslavia, will speak at San Jose State University, California. Topics include affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, recent developments with the European Union, as well as the future of the Balkans. Event Details Start Date/Time: 10/15/2007 03:00 PM End Date/Time: 10/15/2007 04:30 PM Location: SJSU Student Union, [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Does Bosnia Really Exist?
I am not the one who asks the above question. Apparently, a techie working on a SEO Black Hat project needs help from people who live in Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, he starts having some doubt about the existence of this country. And No! This isn’t a philosophical question nor and this clueless techie is a Serb. [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Dialogue #3: Sto and Sta: So What?
“If you don’t do/behave such and such, I’ll kill you.” Your friends probably said similar statements to you all the time. “If you don’t haul your lazy as* off the couch and do the laundry, I will kill you.” So do wives who blow this sort of harmless threat to their husbands. “Kill” is an [...]
Read the rest of this entry »I’m Yugoslav
I met a man at the Czech consulate in Munich today. He borrowed my pen to fill out an application. When I had to leave, I signaled to him that he could go ahead and keep my pen. This man seemed very polite; he made some gestures and eventually returned the pen. As I was [...]
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