Albanian people in Macedonia
1,Chang chung!!
The most common action (more than 5 times in 1 day) towards us like in Kosovo. Since they take little care about other language (especially Asian; they even believe Chinese = Japanese = Vietnamese) and they have little sense of guessing (or recognizing) the language's sound*, they spit this word like saying 'hello' to us. Most of the cases, our reaction is not so important. For them, the fact that 'They managed to draw Chinese attention with using Chinese sound' is sufficient enough result. Usually their curiosity and patience is limited with this level. At this moment, the meaning of Asian tourist is just 1 minute (max. 10 mins.) attraction in their daily life. Of course, They've not reached the level of thinking how we're bothered by their action. However, it's also understandable since they spend 1-2 mins. whenever they come across friends in the street.
Conclusion: At this moment, they don't have any idea how they treat strangers. They apply their way of dealing friends with their knowledge
*it is usual they regard us speaking Chinese even if we're talking in Albanian... for them, usually the classification that 'the language which strangers are speaking' is heavier than 'the sound similar to Albanian's mother tongue' (back to topic)
2,A motel receptionist in Struga
- When we asked "can I have breakfast?", he took the sound as 'tomorrow', for the first time in our long trip
- later he offered us a cup of cafe
- when he saw us again in the city at night, he followed us for 30m (quite a long distance) to warn us not to go to dangerous area.
3,A guy I met in Tetovo and his friend
- Introduced me a good place to see whole the city.
- Even showed the oldest mosque in Balkans (in Tetovo)
- Invited me into their house
- Though he couldn't speak English, he tried to communicate with me both in Macedonian and Albanian.
- His mother gave me a pillowcase
- Offered me 2 cups of cafe and 1 burek even though his house doesn't have telephone
- Though he mentioned the incident onto 1 Albanian guy killed in Mavrovo (by police), never mentioned about independence nor ethnic legitimacy.
4,A guy we met in Struga
- What is communism? "The situation that Macedonians force us to be the same as them"
- Why do you need university? "studying in our language is a great thing" (It doesn't explain anything why they need 'official state university' just an education institute is enough. also he never think of the problem after graduation... getting jobs (maybe he'll complain 'strong discrimination for getting jobs'))
- "Kosovo is OK, we don't care" here in Macedonia, we have a big problem
- When he saw us being offered a cup of cafe by a Macedonian game shop keeper (just after meeting him), he saw us as if he was seeing betrayers. (actually he forced us to decide which side we would choose)
- When we asked if they were originally nomads, he explained about their (Ilirian) history, but couldn't answer our question, even didn't notice the fact that he couldn't.
- offered 2 coins (=10den.) to us