There are many things typical for Bulgarian people that foreigners find strange and confusing some of the time. We all know it is fairly normal for different cultures to have some difficulties when they mix with one another. But still it is unavoidable for foreigners not to be surprised by the way Bulgarians nod their heads exactly the opposite way to the well accepted one all over the world. For example when people mean to say ‘yes’ they usually nod their heads up and down and when they want to express a ‘no’- the nod is horizontal. But Bulgarians do it the other way around! So, if you are in a situation when a local person is telling you ‘yes’ together with nodding his head horizontally do not be surprised. The trick is to listen carefully at what they are actually saying and ignore the nodding and its original meaning as otherwise the two actions will appear controversial to one another and will not make any sense to a foreigner.
This seems to be an easy lesson to learn and apply to all situations but it is not!
Another very peculiar thing about Bulgarians is that they project language structures from their own language into the English language as well. The confusion comes when a foreigner hears a positive response to a negative sentence. Just to give you a few examples of typical Bulgarian response: ‘yes, you are not’, ‘no, of course it is’, ‘yes, it is not cold’. So, if such speech is accompanied by some nodding in our special Bulgarian way that will surely cause a major roll of misunderstandings.
Well, I am afraid I have to admit that there is no universal way of dealing with Bulgarian nodding and responding to negative or positive sentences. My only advice is: listen carefully and ask clarifying questions before you jump to any conclusions!
