Since the commercials are bound to appear on the CNN every day now (update: Serbia ads on CNN ), Belgrade officials thought that it would be good to prepare the city for possible inflation of Western tourists by updating the tourist maps – old, outdated and often full of grammar, spelling and factual errors, reports Vecernje Novosti in their paper edition. Some maps and guides contain errors such as “The Winner monument” (instead of The Victor) “Nebojsa’s tower” (instead of Tower Nebojsa) while some terms have been left untranslated such as “Oslobodjenje square” (Liberation square).
Not to make thing completely easy on the tourists, the city officials apparently decided to replace the old street signs with new ones, but decided to keep them as they were – in Cyrillic letters only, reports Glas javnosti. The city officials defend their decision by simply saying that “it has to be like that” and that “Greece has street signs written in their alphabet too”. While this may or may not be true when it comes to Greece, i don’t exactly see how it has to do anything with our situation – Serbian language has two alphabets, and it would clearly make things easier for the foreigners and tourists if they could read the street names the way they are written in most maps – in latin alphabet. I can only imagine how an average tourist would read CAPAJEBCKA or KPyHCKA, as they are written in Cyrillic letters.
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Actually, in Greece all of the street sings are written in the Greek alphabet and below in the Latin in the way they are pronounced in Greek, eg Karageorgi tis Servias Odos. It should be like that in Belgrade, in no way should the Cyrilic be marginalized, but rather co-exist with the Latin.
Just today I had a conversation with a belgian coalegue of mine about Serbia and its alphabets. We both came to a conclusion that we should nurish our cyrilic alphabet but also include the latin alphabet since the EU is based on it.
As Cvijus commented, both alphabets should co exist. Having two alphabets is not our disadvantage, but rather our advantage, and we should use it.
Oh, I enjoyed stopping my car in the middle of the street for 15 minutes until I deciphered Djordza Vasingtona and knew I took the wrong turn.
Cvijus, yes, that’s how i remember Greece street signs, but i wasn’t sure – it’s been a while since I’ve been there. So this means the guy who said this was lying.
The idea with both alphabets on the signs would be much better, but for some reason, it appears as if somebody has some problem with Latin alphabet.
Novala, but you have to admit it was never boring – you always had some deciphering to do
The best example of confusing foreigners with Cyrillic is of course, “PECTOPAH”- which means “restaurant”, and is pronounced /rest-oh-rahn/, and not as you all foreigners must have pronounced it just now
Victor, actually he said “Greece has street signs written in their alphabet too” so he said just the partial true, because in the Latin script they are neverthelss written in Greek, so let a American decipher what does Odos (street) mean.
When it comes to RECTORAH, well, from the looks of the building, the foreigners would understand that it is a restaurant, I doubt they are that much stupid
Besides, a Czech friend of mine was in Belgrade this summer and he found it pretty interesting and exotic with the cyrillics, this can also be a bit educational for the foreigners.
Here’s what he said:
“I u Grčkoj, koja je jedna od najposećenijih zemalja sveta, nazivi su napisani samo na grčkom alfabetu”
Partial truth or lie, what’s the difference really!
The point is, as i see it, that tourists don’t have to understand what it says on the sign. They should be able to compare what they have in the map and what they see on the sign. Now if the map is in Latin alphabet, as most maps are, that will represent a problem.
my fault, about the guy, however, there are parts in greece that have signs only in Greek. No if he meant the little cities in pelopnese and ipeiros, than his argument is pretty laim.
As for the maps, they could be printed in both alphabets, to make it easier
So far, none of the foreigners in belgrade that I met complaint about cyrilic signs, quite the contrary. However, we should invest in the tourist potential of the centre of Belgrade to make it easier and simplier, but I doubt that a tourist would be looking for a pharmacy in Mali Mokri Lug
What’s the problem? Does the city belong to 2 million Belgraders or a few tourists? Are the Japanese or Chinese street signs in London? Of course not.
Any worthwhile tourist will spend 20 minutes of his flight learning Cyrillic. Those bums who can’t be bothered to that don’t even deserve to come to Belgrade 
People, open your eyes. The reasons that tourists avoid Belgrade are many: the bad image of “the Serbs”, the perceived danger and instability, the lack of cheap flights, the bad image the city has in the West etc It has nothing to do with the script of street signs. In fact, some find it makes their holiday more interesting and “exotic”.
Why can’t you be comfortable as Serbs without foreign approval? We shouldn’t piss tourists off for the sake of it, but neither should we pathetically seek their approval
And while we’re on the subject, why are we giving $500,000 to Christine Amanpour’s channel? For what? Newsflash: No one watches those ads and they have no effect. No one cares, and rightly so. We should “promote ourselves” (as it’s so annoying referred to) by establishing cultural, educational and business links with other countries and just generally being a more amazing country than we are already. For example: Guča, EXIT, our film industry, Belgrade nightlife. All of those are for Serbs by Serbs, but also attract foreigners. Why? Because a country and a people is most attractive when at ease with itself.
Viktor – I definitely had fun, because I took it as it is, also as a challenge and enjoyed my stay in general. That way I agree with Estavisti. But I don’t think a lot of tourists are like me. If you don’t have much time – say, a weekend – you might not take the trouble to spend half of your time deciphering street signs.
It’s something of both sides: On one hand the letters are part of your culture (as are the Latin letters), on the other hand I also see it as a small sign of hospitality. Especially when you invite people via commercials to visit your place.
When ever you try to be like somebody else, that somebody else finds you pathetic. Lets look for example Greeks. Greeks are Greeks where ever they go, and they never change their culture nor their writting in order to impress anybody else. When you go to a Greek restaurant anywhere in the world, they are all the same, the greek music is played, greek dishes, there is always greek writting, and ofcourse hundreds of Greek sculptures. And the Western people, either are tierd of their Greek pride, or theiy adore them. But one thing is for sure, they find it interesting, because they are Greek.
When I was in Japan, all the signs were in Japanese and in englsih. The only difference was that the Japanese letters were huge, and the english letters were tiny. but the western people had no problems going to Japan, as a matter of fact they loved being in such an unknown place.
Estavisti, I partially agree with you about 500K investment to CNN. Yes there are better ways to spend money, I dont think a tourist will come to Belgrade only because he saw an add on CNN, but its a way for a tourist to hear about us. Just investing in CNN is not the final solution. Travel arrangements need to be defined and organized. Myself having lived in Germany, I know that Germans like the most all arranged packages. That means paying the lump sum, and everything else to be arranged( I like that as well). Thats how Serbia needs to promote itself, making partnerships with tourist agencies, arranging cheap flights with airlines for touristic seasons, etc. The logistics is the problem.
As a conclusion to my comment I will just give you an example of what I meant by my above arguments. Two of my Belgian friends would like to visit Serbia, and I thought of taking them to Guca to experience the real “ truba”. Given that they are from the “clean” west, I cant put them to sleep in a car.And as I heard Guca has got only one hotel. They are excited about the idea of the festival, drinks and ofcourse serbian girls
, but when I told them that the accomodation is the back seat of the car, they started having doubts about that.
CNN is also one of the most watched news programs in North America. In the west no one cares about Serbia because no one knows about Serbia. How do you attract foreigners if they know nothing about your country?
I agree with Anthony! Most only know Serbia through stories like the one I have linked below.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mafia10dec10,0,1114384.story?coll=la-headlines-world
I just don’t see the Serbian Mob playing that big of a role in the Heroin smuggling from Afghanistan…I could be wrong though…I’m going to have to do some checking on this and do my own post on my blog!
A new way into Afghanistan perhaps?
John, Anthony,
In the US people dont even know where Greece is. The targeted tourists for Serbia are not the US people, but the Western Europeans.
Majority of the US people wil visit the famous cities , like Rome, Paris, London etc. Belgrade is not in that league, and most of the US people will not bother to visit Serbia on their tour around Europe. The West Europeans are the ones that could show susbstantial interest into Serbia. Even the new Russians are potential tourists, who are willing to spend a lot of money. We should focus on those areas.
Agree with Estavisti. CNN already got money from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the spot was aired, and I did not see more tourists on Sarajevo streets after that!
Који бре Крунска — Пролетерских бригада.
Ериче,
какве бре Пролетерске бригаде и остале комунистичке глупости. Крунска и тачка.
Цвијус — Најдемократскије би било да направимо компромис: Крунских бригада.
Ериче,
Супер компромис, може
ето како Срби могу да се договоре а де се не побију
Been on Corfu this summer, enjoyed decyphering Greek letters and learning a few new words (odos-street, limani-port, paralia-beach…). Isn’t that the point of tourism etc? Thumbs up for the Greeks and the way they preserve their culture and identity.
Whoever comes for the weekend is probably here on business and will not bother to go sightseeing. They would probably take a walk downtown (where ALL shop and store signs are not only in latin script, but IN ENGLISH), and have a drink in a cafe in Knez Mihailova St.
For those of my compatriots who stated above that latin script is part of our culture, a news flash: it is not. Have a look at your primary school textbooks. Wasn’t it that Vuk karadzic lived in the 19th century, not so long ago? And from what I saw in many places, for instance at the Serb museum in Corfu, all letters exhibited there (written by Serbian army officers as well as ordinary people) were written in cyrillic script. As the matter of fact, latin script has been in use only from after the WWII, but people forget things so easily, especially, it seems, us, Serbs, who seem to have a knack for putting everyone else before ourselves. The grass is always greener over there… isn’t it just?
No offence meant to anyone, and i have nothing against writing the street names in latin as well, but i don’t think that’s crucial for tourist influx into Serbia. Now that Bulgaria is in the EU, the cyrillic script will become the 3rd official script of the EU (along with latin and greek alphabets). Bulgarians even celebrate the Cyrillic Day (national holiday). Can’t we have at least the tiniest appreciation for ourselves and our culure?
tterte
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)
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I yesterday 3 hours
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Best wishes for you!
Forgive I is drunk
There was this guy see.
He wasn’t very bright and he reached his adult life without ever having learned “the facts”.
Somehow, it gets to be his wedding day.
While he is walking down the isle, his father tugs his sleeve and says,
“Son, when you get to the hotel room…Call me”
Hours later he gets to the hotel room with his beautiful blushing bride and he calls his father,
“Dad, we are the hotel, what do I do?”
“O.K. Son, listen up, take off your clothes and get in the bed, then she should take off her clothes and get in the bed, if not help her. Then either way, ah, call me”
A few moments later…
“Dad we took off our clothes and we are in the bed, what do I do?”
O.K. Son, listen up. Move real close to her and she should move real close to you, and then… Ah, call me.”
A few moments later…
“DAD! WE TOOK OFF OUR CLOTHES, GOT IN THE BED AND MOVED REAL CLOSE, WHAT DO I DO???”
“O.K. Son, Listen up, this is the most important part. Stick the long part of your body into the place where she goes to the bathroom.”
A few moments later…
“Dad, I’ve got my foot in the toilet, what do I do?”
Honestly I think that Belgrade has more to offer to a younger group of tourist.The nightlife in Belgrade is just incredible…if you are trying to visit a city in order to go to museums or look at pictures I don’t think Belgrade is a place for you.On the other hand if you are young and looking to have fun and meet beautiful people you should come.All the art of Belgrade is on its streets!!! I’ve been to many west-european capitals and honestly the nightlife and the food can not compare with the one in Belgrade.
To many of you this probably sounds funny but the ones who came in Belgrade once ALWAYS come back.
Funny that they said “while some terms have been left untranslated such as “Oslobodjenje square” (Liberation square).”
As a travel guide editor myself, I think it’s a bad habit to translate street and square names – this is not what is written on the signs and if you’re asking directions the locals will have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s also more respectful to the locals.
On the other hand, I think having both Cyrillic and Latin on your street signs would be a great thing – it fits in the local culture as you already use both alphabets (which I find fascinating) and it makes it easier fro all people going to Belgrade, and it’s perhaps also a symbol of outward-looking mentality.
Victor – you’ll be happy to learn that in the 1970s/80s the UK embassy in Moscow had a cat called Pectopah.
Give the reference on rss the channel please