This
week, I feel decidedly okay about my language study. With the intention to meet
with my language partner, B, I felt motivated to study this week. I returned to
my Kinyarwanda notes from our intensive study in Boston, reflecting on nice
memories from the class, mnemonic devices I had developed, and B’s teaching
techniques. The beginning of the week was, indeed, very productive.
And
then Thursday at 10:00a.m. (EST) arrived, but arrived was all it did. Indeed,
Thursday at 10:00a.m. was supposed to be my meeting with B (again). As you
know, the first week, he cancelled, due to a forgotten doctor’s appointment, and
last week, there was some confusion regarding scheduling and the African
Literature Association, so it was cancelled then, as well. This week on
Thursday at 10:00a.m, I didn’t receive any communication from him- not a Skype
call, an explanatory email-, and I haven’t heard from him since. Of course,
there could be any number of explanations for this, including family emergency
and just forgetting and anything in between, but due to the repeated incidents,
I can’t help but feel a little discouraged.
After
all, I am studying Kinyarwanda independently, but in order to reflect the
communicative nature of the language itself, I have to incorporate other
speakers. Of course, sometimes I can be innovative in this process. For
example, I can listen to others singing in the language, I can read what
storytellers have to say in the language, and I can reflect on what Rwandans
have to say in the “Comments” section. However, to be truly communicative, I
have to be able to receive the language someone produces and respond
accordingly. My difficulty in maintaining a language partner has prevented me
from doing so to the degree that I would like, and, well, I have trouble
finding a silver lining in that.
In
class, we have all discussed various problems and/or struggles pertaining to
our language partners, such as difficulty in teaching them how to “teach” us
and otherwise misguided directions. A problem we have not discussed, in depth,
however is this: how do we address the struggle of a language partner who is
absent more than he/she is present? The simple solution is, of course, to find
a new language partner, but with a less commonly taught language, such as
Kinyarwanda, the “simple” solution is not always the one available.
B’s
absence from my Kinyarwanda training this semester not only impacted my
progress week to week, but it also places at jeopardy my ability to follow
through on my final evaluation plan the manner in which I have outlined it. And
I really don’t know what to do about that, beyond look for another language
partner, perhaps while in Rwanda this summer. Indeed, two of my classmates, L
and L, are studying Luganda, and their language partner is an instructor of the
language in Uganda.
I
feel that this was a very discouraging update, so I will leave you with a funny
language-based story to maintain your morale, as well as my own. I was
discussing my language study with my friend, and he was asking what age-level I
thought I could speak at, which I had trouble assessing, but then he proceeded
to ask me if I could say this and if I could say that. The first question was
if I could ask where the bathrooms were, which seemed practical enough, but
then he asked me if I could say “Where are my pants?” And I laughed, because I
thought the question was ridiculous, but he claimed that in every foreign language
classroom he’d been in, he’d been asked to learn that question. I, of course,
have never been asked to memorize such a question, but I can put it together in
Kinyarwanda:
Ipantaro
yanjye ni he?
I
guess that is my somewhat unrelated silver lining of the week…
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