Üks kohvi, palun

Learning Estonian is not so easy, but we did our best during the language course. 

Since the beginning the teachers tried to make us speak Estonian, it was really fun, there were times that we did not know what were we talking about… But we could learn the basic daily words, like “tere”, “aitah”, “kuidas”, “kana”, “terviseks”(upsss!! Sorry!! That is another story)…

However, our first real contact with the Estonian language was the day we decided to try our skills in a store.
One day after the lesson we went to Viru Keskus to drink a coffee at Robert´s coffee (http://www.robertscoffee.com), we just said “üks kohvi, palun” and… They understood us!!! It was real!! We could speak Estonian!!!

In my opinion, when you live abroad, it is important to make an effort and to try to speak the lenguage of the place you live in. When you do that you show respect and interest in their culture. Even if you only say “thank you” or “goodbye”, but that simple word make a difference for the speaker and, most important, for the recipient.
Estonian is not a common lenguage, so I noticed that everytime I said “tere”, “aitah”… I made that difference. It showed that I was interested in being part of their culture even thought I could not speak that much.

Actually, the summer course included also Estonian history lessons. So we learnt about the singing revolution, Estonian geography and we had organized trips.
At the end of the course we had to do a presentation in Estonian… (Thank you google translator and thank you Estonian friends for helping my team!!!) We prepared the recipe of a Spanish omelet and… The Spanish omelet itself!!! Thereby, our international friends and teachers could try the tipical Spanish food.

That omelet made a difference for our presentation, as "Üks kohvi, palun" made a difference that day.

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