Bujanovac – Twenty or so young Albanians from Bujanovac and the surrounding area, who are mostly secondary school students, began undertaking extracurricular activities of learning the Serbian language, along with their fellow citizens of the Serbian community, who are learning Albanian.
Bujanovac – Twenty or so young Albanians from Bujanovac and the surrounding area, who are mostly secondary school students, began undertaking extracurricular activities of learning the Serbian language, along with their fellow citizens of the Serbian community, who are learning Albanian.
For both the Serbs who want to learn Albanian and the Albanians who want to learn Serbian, the OSCE Office in Bujanovac organized free three-month courses through which students will gain the basic language skills in both languages, enabling them to communicate more easily and overcome language barriers.
Serbian language courses have been organized in previous years as well, while the learning of the Albanian language was something new, which the OSCE offered for the second time. Upon the cycle completed this year, there are more and more persons of different ages and professions who are interested in learning Albanian.
The desire of young people from the Albanian community to improve their Serbian was welcomed by the President of the National Council of Albanians (NCA), Ragmi Mustafa, who also attended the beginning of these activities.
“Guided by the saying "As many languages you can speak, as many people you are worth,” I certainly welcome that young Albanians have the opportunity to improve their Serbian language skills, and young Serbs learn the basic Albanian language skills. These are the languages of our communities, and being able to speak both of them will make it easier for them to communicate, which means mutual understanding in every respect, "Mr. Mustafa said.
Lendina Hiseni, who is one of the beneficiaries of the Serbian language course and a second grade student of the Sezai Suroi secondary school in Bujanovac, said that she had a strong desire to master Serbian.
“Of course, we learn Serbian at school, but what we learn in class seems to be insuffieient for everyday communication. I am here because I want to communicate more easily and better, which is a great desire for mine, "Lendina said.
Albanian students are taught Serbian by a teacher at the "Sezai Suroi" school, Jelena Randjelovic, while her colleague, Hisen Sacipi, teaches Serbian beneficiaries of the course.
Source: Bujanovac News and Coordination Body
