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Krista and Chris here – and like everyone else in the world – we love Game Of Thrones. Since this is the show’s last season (😭), we decided to honor it by learning Dothraki.
The goal is simple: Learn the language as best we can and re-create this scene from the show in Dothraki after one week.
HBO
We decided to learn this scene from Season 1, Episode 7, featuring Drogo and Daenerys.
To help us learn correctly, we talked to David Peterson, who is the creator of the language and the author of Living Language Dothraki.
BuzzFeed
David recorded every single Dothraki line for the actors on MP3 so they could listen to the lines with the correct pronunciation of the language. You can learn more about David and Dothraki on his website.
Krista: Even though I am legitimately excited for this, I can’t lie to myself about my abilities. I barely passed Spanish class (and I do mean barely). My brain just couldn’t grasp the language, so that does make me very nervous. And, Dothraki seems way harder at that. That being said, I am going to do my best to study and pay homage to the great Emilia Clarke.
Chris: I took like quatro anos de Spanish and I’ve shown you the full extent of what I’ve retained earlier in this sentence. Learning languages is so incredibly challenging but I’m hoping that worst case, my bad acting will overshadow any egregious mispronunciations of Dothraki words.
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed
Krista: After getting amped up by David, I was pretty confident. We each printed the script and highlighted our lines. I took some time to study the book and the words. But, on my way home I busted out the CD that came with the book, and let’s just say, it was a lot to take in. It was a lot for my brain to process in one day.
Chris: I think the conversation with David Peterson made me overly confident in my abilities because for some reason I was super chill about studying early on. Sometimes I’m a HUGE PROCRASTINATOR so on day one I was like, eh, I’ve got six more of these things left to memorize the lines.
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed
Krista: I woke up a little worried today, I can’t lie. I feel like I retained nothing from day one. So, I spent a hefty amount of time just replaying the first two lines by Daenerys. I said them over and over and over again. But, later that evening I had to look again to remember the lines. SMH!
Chris: On day two I was like, eh, I’ve got five more of these things left to memorize the lines.
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed
Krista: Today I came up with a new way to help memorize the lines, which is sort of what David did with the actors. I recorded the scene on my phone and listened to it for several hours in my headphones. I would try to say it with Emilia so I could make sure I was getting the pronunciation right. After listening for several hours, I felt like I had the first three lines down pat.
Chris: On day three I was like, eh, I’ve got four more of these things left to memorize the lines. Then, Krista decided we should go over the lines really quick and I was instantly humbled. I realized it was way more difficult to pronounce the words than I anticipated and it was clear that this wasn’t something I was going to be able to cram into my brain the night before. I made recordings of each line, and spent an hour going over the meanings and pronunciations of each word.
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed
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Krista: We had a much-needed dress rehearsal today and it went about as well as we expected…which was not well. We both decided we were going to have to start really studying from here on out if we were going to get this scene done correctly. I started also listening to the CD to and from work since I have a pretty long commute so I could hear the pronunciations of certain words.
Chris: I felt a little bit better having heard the lines, but I was still having trouble stringing them all together. I also kept mispronouncing things which was frustrating when you know what you want to say, but your mouth refuses to cooperate.
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed
Krista: Whew, at this point I am just saying what I can remember over and over again in my head. It’s so hard to retain it! Especially since I keep forgetting what the words actually mean. I feel like my “acting” won’t be as good if I can’t remember what each word means. I have my work cut out for me over the next two days.
Chris: A lot more listening to the recordings of Jason Momoa pronouncing the lines and reading the meanings of the words because for some reason, knowing what each one meant made them easier to memorize.
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed
Krista: I feel like I am 77% percent ready to perform the scene. Which, TBH, is better than I thought. When I am trying to fall asleep I am speaking Dothraki, when I am waiting in line I am speaking Dothraki, when I am in the shower I am speaking Dothraki. I am living and breathing Dothraki at this point.
Chris: The lines just suddenly started popping into my head at random, like a catchy Pitbull song or something. I’d legitimately be minding my own business and then my brain would be like “Kisha vastoki vos alikh.” I thought, “I guess that’s a good sign?”
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed
Krista: My script has BEEN THROUGH HELL! Throughout the week I brought it with me everywhere because I would always have to pull it out to reference when thinking about the lines. But, today is the last day and I am hoping I can remember and pronounce the words correctly for the scene. I’ve learned a great deal about certain words, but again, still struggling to retain it.
Chris: Reading and listening and re-reading and re-listening, over and over throughout the day. At night, I looped a video of the scene on my laptop and put it next to my bed so it could just play over and over again until I dozed off, like a Dothraki white noise machine.
Charlotte Gomez / BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed
Krista: Don’t be fooled by our talented BuzzFeed artist Charlotte’s legit GoT poster above this photo. We STRUGGLED to get the scene correct and, yes, you could say we went a little delirious. It took an hour and a half to get one perfect take of the scene! It was hard to get the pronunciation right, not laugh, and remember the lines…all while trying to make it look like we were having an actual conversation. I have a lot of respect for Jason and Emilia because it is not easy. Memorizing lines in a different language is super hard in itself, let alone having to act out a believable conversation in that language!
Chris: When it came time to act out the scene, my mouth decided it wasn’t interested in collaborating with my brain to correctly pronounce things. There were many mistakes made and it was a very sloppy, messy process that really made me have a new respect and admiration for acting and Game of Thrones, and David Peterson, and Dothraki, and even my high school Spanish teachers. Still, we toughed it out and after seven days, 20+ takes, and two very bad wigs, we finally got through the entire scene.