Survival In Georgia

Hello everyone!

Today in my blog I would like to write about life in Tbilisi. How does it really feel like to live in Tbilisi as a foreigner? For this blog post I would like to explain it in the way that I see Tbilisi and if there is some kind of grammatical errors please bear with me.

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Georgia, to be frank is a country that I was totally unaware of till I finished my school studies. I was very eager to join a medical college as soon as I finished up my school studies to achieve my ambition of becoming a doctor. Due to some reasons I was unable to get into a medical college in India and that is when I got to know about Georgia. It was an educational fair that introduced me the Republic Of Georgia. There were so many confusions like if it's a good country or not, is it good studying there blah blah blah and at last everything was finalized and I got my admission to study in Georgia. At last my destination for the next six years was fixed as Georgia.

The second part of the story begins when I landed in the Tbilisi International Airport. The first few months of life here at Tbilisi were so difficult that I still remember them and that is what I'm going to talk about here.

Language

Language is the uttermost important thing to survive in any place and this is a worldwide truth. I studied in a English medium school and I'm good enough in spoken English as well. I thought that it was enough to manage myself here in Georgia but when I got out of the airport I realized that what I thought was wrong. The first Georgian I met in the airport, I even remember his name today, it was Giorgi. I got a sim card for my phone and I was not sure how to activate or recharge the card so I asked him some help. I said "Hi" to him and in response he smiled at me. At first I thought that he was hestitaing to talk to a foreigner but then I realized that he was not able to talk as he didn't know English at all. I showed him the Sim card pack and then he was able to guess what I was asking him and he guided me to a shop and then helped me to recharge. From this incidence the person I've mentioned here was a good man but it is a universal fact that no place is solely filled with good people which later became evident for me.

The first Georgian word that I heard was "Gamerjosh" which is another way of saying "Gamerjoba" the Georgian hello.

As I got into the city leaving the airport it became obvious for me that 80% of the people don't know English. Amazingly Georgia has a high literacy rate of approximately 95% but all of them study in Georgian which leaves them with no exposure to English. Almost every person in this country knows two languages like Georgian and Russian, some people know even French and German but there is no trace of English among the common people. There are some basic set of words that you must know if you want to survive without knowing the language in Tbilisi, Georgia. I would describe them at the last. The language barrier is so much high that you will have to dance or point at the item you need even to buy a soap from the shopkeeper.

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If you boarded a metro at the time when I was new in Tbilisi you yourself have to trace the stations as the information was given in Georgian only and so were the metropolitan buses. Now it is far better as the metro trains announcements are given in English also and each bus stand has a digital sign board that states the routes of the bus in English and Georgian. If you are in a hurry and you take a taxi, think for yourself how would you say to the driver to take you to a place without knowing the language? The same thing happens here when you are in Tbilisi without knowing language. Another sad thing is that some local people are so fond of you and they tell you something but you won't be able to understand nor you would be able to reply them. On the other hand there are some tragic conditions as well, when you encounter a rogue on the street fully drunk and blabbering something; you wouldn't understand a word, at the same time you would keep wondering if he is saying something bad or something funny. More important thing is that for a foreigner to call an ambulance is really hard without knowing Georgian as the telephone operators are not good enough at English to understand what you say. At times of danger you may also find it hard to call the police because of this terrible language barrier. Some of the important phrases and words that you may need the first time are given below.

• Hello. - Gamerjoba.
• How are you. - Rogor khar.
• Fine, thank You. - Khaargad, maadlob.
• Thank You. - Madloba.
• You are welcome. - Aara preez.
• Sorry. - Bodhishee.
• I want a flat. - Mae minda bina.
• What- raa;
• Where- saad;
• How- rogor;
• Why- rathom;
• When- rodis;
• Good bye- nakvamdis;
• Airport- aeroporti;
• Minibus- masruthka;
• Bus- aavtobus [autobus];
• Car- mankana;
• Train- maataralebeli.

I'm stopping it here for today and will continue my story tomorrow.. Thank you for reading and cheers.

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