So I think it’s starting to get to the point where the amount of work put on us is starting to get to us. The amount of information thrown at us each day can be a little overwhelming sometimes. Every time more information is given to me, I feel like I lose some piece of information I learned before.
Yesterday, I noticed a couple trainees getting annoyed with small things that would not normally bother them (or at least, they wouldn’t react to it so much). I felt like I had to really tread carefully yesterday. It was not fun, especially since I already have to pay such close attention to how my actions are read by Moldovans. I don’t like having to change my behavior because a couple people are in bad moods. But seeing as I have had my harder days, I can understand how they might feel. Besides, we are a team. We need to be able to lean on each other, and I will need extra patience from them on my harder days.
Having 4 hours of language class is proving difficult. My LTIs are incredible, and they have a great amount of patience with us (particularly with me and my terrible Romanian). Whenever I mess up (which is a lot), they seem to blame themselves when it is not their fault at all. I probably should explain to them how often I mess up with the English language!
Some of my Romanian mess-ups:
I was trying to conjugate the verb “can” to say “he can” and ended up saying “he smells.”
I wanted to say “I worked in a school” but ended up saying “I lived in a school.”
And my favorite, I was trying to say “In 2010, I decided to join the Peace Corps” but I ended up saying “in 2010, I died.”
Showing posts with label language lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language lessons. Show all posts
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Mel Brooks Is My Grandfather
So week 1 is complete. Even though I have been here more than a week, according to the schedule, this was the first week of the 10-week training period. And I have officially completed it.
I was reviewing the Romanian I have learned since I have been here and a lot has been covered. One of which is the names of family members. Nadia made a family tree using pictures of people from magazines to represent the members of a family. So we practiced saying each members name while pointing the members on the family tree. She tried to not use anyone famous, but Mel Brooks was the grandfather. In addition to learning family members, we have learned numbers, months, days of the week, telling time, basic introduction of oneself, describing our family members, and definite and indefinite nouns. I have not mastered everything yet, but I can sometimes pick out a word my host family is saying to each other!
Last night, the Cojusna trainees were invited to a masă with Lauren’s host family. Masă literally means table, but it’s used for feast too. And a feast it was. The food was yummy, and the company was great. My favorite part of the whole experience was despite the fact there was difficulty in understanding each other sometimes due to language, there was still a lot of laughing and fun. For future reference, always say yes to an invitation to a masă.
At dinner today, I was actually starting to understand some of the Moldovan. At the beginning of my time with my host family, I felt awkward sitting at the dinner table with them without being able to contribute anything except if they were looking for an English word. Now, I do not feel that awkwardness. And I listen to what is being said to try to pick out any words I know. Sometimes, I’m very proud of myself cause I can figure out the topic of the conversation. Other times, I doubt my understanding of Moldovan, because there was a point tonight when I thought “monkey” and “aunt” were said in the same sentence. But maybe they have a phrase like “a monkey’s uncle”!
I was reviewing the Romanian I have learned since I have been here and a lot has been covered. One of which is the names of family members. Nadia made a family tree using pictures of people from magazines to represent the members of a family. So we practiced saying each members name while pointing the members on the family tree. She tried to not use anyone famous, but Mel Brooks was the grandfather. In addition to learning family members, we have learned numbers, months, days of the week, telling time, basic introduction of oneself, describing our family members, and definite and indefinite nouns. I have not mastered everything yet, but I can sometimes pick out a word my host family is saying to each other!
Last night, the Cojusna trainees were invited to a masă with Lauren’s host family. Masă literally means table, but it’s used for feast too. And a feast it was. The food was yummy, and the company was great. My favorite part of the whole experience was despite the fact there was difficulty in understanding each other sometimes due to language, there was still a lot of laughing and fun. For future reference, always say yes to an invitation to a masă.
At dinner today, I was actually starting to understand some of the Moldovan. At the beginning of my time with my host family, I felt awkward sitting at the dinner table with them without being able to contribute anything except if they were looking for an English word. Now, I do not feel that awkwardness. And I listen to what is being said to try to pick out any words I know. Sometimes, I’m very proud of myself cause I can figure out the topic of the conversation. Other times, I doubt my understanding of Moldovan, because there was a point tonight when I thought “monkey” and “aunt” were said in the same sentence. But maybe they have a phrase like “a monkey’s uncle”!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
There Are No Sensitive Butts In Moldova.
Today was the first time we had our lessons in Cojusna. It’s in the village’s high school. It was not the most comfortable thing sitting in chairs that are meant for younger children for the 4-hour lesson. I guess I’ll get use to it.
After my lessons, my host family took me to pick strawberries. Even though we can do this in the states, I never had. It was gorgeous, and the strawberries were so very tasty. I don’t know if I’ll need any dinner tonight. The best strawberries were getting hit with the sun, so they were warm and would melt in my mouth as I ate them. There was a thunder storm in the distance, but I seemed to be the only one concerned. I guess they’re use to it in Moldova. After all, it has rained every afternoon that I have been here.
I love the view from my window. I get to see it every time I sit down to write. It’s a little escape from reality. My time in Moldova reminds me of Under The Tuscan Sun. There is going to be a lot of hard times and feeling of loneliness, but there is lots of beauty in the scenery and the people.
I also hung out with Diana and 2 of her friends. Her friends don't know English as well, and they had a much harder time finding what to say than Diana and Daniel do. The best part was when they told me that I was boring, when they meant that I was bored since I didn’t know Romanian as well. At least, I hope they meant that I was bored. And they want to me to go to the disco in Chisinau next Saturday. I actually want to go to the disco eventually, but I don’t feel comfortable enough with my Romanian to relax and enjoy myself while I am there. Hopefully in a couple of months. Despite our difficulty in understanding each other, they were very pleasant and understanding of my Romanian handicap.
After my lessons, my host family took me to pick strawberries. Even though we can do this in the states, I never had. It was gorgeous, and the strawberries were so very tasty. I don’t know if I’ll need any dinner tonight. The best strawberries were getting hit with the sun, so they were warm and would melt in my mouth as I ate them. There was a thunder storm in the distance, but I seemed to be the only one concerned. I guess they’re use to it in Moldova. After all, it has rained every afternoon that I have been here.
I love the view from my window. I get to see it every time I sit down to write. It’s a little escape from reality. My time in Moldova reminds me of Under The Tuscan Sun. There is going to be a lot of hard times and feeling of loneliness, but there is lots of beauty in the scenery and the people.
I also hung out with Diana and 2 of her friends. Her friends don't know English as well, and they had a much harder time finding what to say than Diana and Daniel do. The best part was when they told me that I was boring, when they meant that I was bored since I didn’t know Romanian as well. At least, I hope they meant that I was bored. And they want to me to go to the disco in Chisinau next Saturday. I actually want to go to the disco eventually, but I don’t feel comfortable enough with my Romanian to relax and enjoy myself while I am there. Hopefully in a couple of months. Despite our difficulty in understanding each other, they were very pleasant and understanding of my Romanian handicap.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Day 2 Moldova (aka Sarah’s Birthday, Which I Had To Miss And Had No Way Yet To Communicate To Her That I Was Thinking About Her)
Today begins training! Woot! It started with going into Chisinau by public transportation, and meeting at the Peace Corps headquarters. From there, our PCT mentors walked us around Chisinau. They showed us the piazza, where I could find anything I would want (mostly) to buy. We continued to walk around seeing various town sights before returning to the PC headquarters for a lunch with all the trainees, PCV, and PC staff. For the afternoon, we were introduced to Moldova and a little about how our finances work.
Between breaks, I was able to bond with Andrea over some of our anxieties. After talking with members of my training group, I was a little more nervous about things. Many of them speak another language and have study or traveled to other countries. And they were catching on to Romanian fairly quickly after only one night with their families, while I was still trying to figure out how to plug my electronics in. It’s unpleasant feeling like I still need to ask the questions everyone else already knows the answers to and needing to hear new words many times before remembering them, not just once from my host family. Andrea was feeling the same way I was, and it’s nice to not be alone in this feeling.
Afterwards, we had our first language lesson. The focus: the Romanian alphabet. We also practiced a few phrases to communicate with our host families. We were also given some of our immunizations.
When we returned to our village, Holly’s host mom was not home, so my host family invited her over to wait. Holly and I hung out on the families “deck” and related our anxieties (are you beginning to see a pattern in my conversations?). I told her how I wish I had more language experience like her so that learning Romanian would be easier. She told me of her anxieties of teaching since she had never taught before. Overall though, we both know we are going to enjoy our time here and look forward to what’s to come.
I met Daniel today. He speaks English as well as Diana. I enjoy hearing Diana and Daniel converse. It reminds me of my siblings. And it’s amusing hearing them consistently yelling to each other to help find the English word they are looking for.
After today, some worries have disappeared and many have developed. But it’s nice to know I’m not alone in my anxieties, and I have people to relate them to.
Between breaks, I was able to bond with Andrea over some of our anxieties. After talking with members of my training group, I was a little more nervous about things. Many of them speak another language and have study or traveled to other countries. And they were catching on to Romanian fairly quickly after only one night with their families, while I was still trying to figure out how to plug my electronics in. It’s unpleasant feeling like I still need to ask the questions everyone else already knows the answers to and needing to hear new words many times before remembering them, not just once from my host family. Andrea was feeling the same way I was, and it’s nice to not be alone in this feeling.
Afterwards, we had our first language lesson. The focus: the Romanian alphabet. We also practiced a few phrases to communicate with our host families. We were also given some of our immunizations.
When we returned to our village, Holly’s host mom was not home, so my host family invited her over to wait. Holly and I hung out on the families “deck” and related our anxieties (are you beginning to see a pattern in my conversations?). I told her how I wish I had more language experience like her so that learning Romanian would be easier. She told me of her anxieties of teaching since she had never taught before. Overall though, we both know we are going to enjoy our time here and look forward to what’s to come.
I met Daniel today. He speaks English as well as Diana. I enjoy hearing Diana and Daniel converse. It reminds me of my siblings. And it’s amusing hearing them consistently yelling to each other to help find the English word they are looking for.
After today, some worries have disappeared and many have developed. But it’s nice to know I’m not alone in my anxieties, and I have people to relate them to.
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