Week Nine: An Ode to Mondays and Archives in the Target Language

            Illness derailed not only my language study this past week, but my other coursework as well. I have felt perpetually behind in all areas of my life, but I can now (perhaps even for the first time) express legitimate enthusiasm that it is Monday! Monday is the start of a new week and a new chance to get my language study right!

            Pertinent to my last post about opportunity-specific language learning, I’m already in possession of a small vocabulary of illness-related phrases and vocabulary, and I am confident that I could, for example, express that I had a headache or that I required immediate medical attention. However, I feel as though there are some culturally-specific parts of sickness that I am missing out on. For instance, I told a friend (in English) that I was going to gurgle warm salt water to help my sore throat, and he thought this was repulsive, but it’s a common practice in my household, because that’s what my mother told me to do when I wasn’t feeling well.

To that end, I am sure Rwandans have their own unique remedies for curing this ailment or soothing this pain, and though it may not be absolutely necessary for my research, it would be nice to at least be relatively familiar with them, if not to anticipate a colleague’s suggestion, then to ensure I don’t appear completely clueless. Unfortunately, I think the best way to discover these culturally-specific insights is to observe them in practice; however, if anyone has any suggestions, do let me know. Perhaps a Rwandan Web M.D? I would imagine, too, that over-the-counter aids, such as Tylenol or Motrin, are likely sold in country as well, but perhaps under different names. Even though the drugs’ names may have little to do with Kinyarwanda, I feel familiarizing myself with them would be practical, as I prepare to do more extensive in-country research.

Pertinently, I am applying for a fellowship that would enable me to conduct archival research in Kigali. If being in Rwanda again was not enough of an incentive to increase my study of Kinyarwanda (and French), briefly perusing the primary sources available at the Genocide Archive of Rwanda was just the motivation I needed, as many of the sources are in Kinyarwanda and French. In conclusion, I will be very busy between now and then in preparation!

Week Eight: Opportunity-Specific Language Learning

            This week wasn’t the best for me outside of my language study. Instead of allowing this to get me down or even distract me from my workload, however, as I would normally, I made a conscious effort to commit myself to activities that I knew I had control over. Indeed, I cannot prevent a colleague from being rude to me, but I, alone, can ensure that my homework is being completed to the best of my ability. I cannot guarantee that I will receive a fellowship I am applying for, but I can work to make my application the best that it can be. I cannot control what others do, nor the circumstances that I am in at all times. I can only control what I do with those circumstances or in changing them.

            Accordingly, I had a few unfortunate incidents this week, one involving have to respond to a rude email and the other, thinking that I had lost my wallet at the grocery store (and thinking so for about an hour). Luckily, I found my wallet, and the email scandal was resolved, but in the literal sense, these examples of life’s little annoyances occupied a significant amount of my time and emotional energy. That’s when I decided to use these opportunities productively: If I wanted to, could I respond to a rude email productively in Kinyarwanda? If I wanted to, could I complain about the rude email to my mom (using curse words, as appropriate)? If I wanted to, could I tell someone that I lost an object and ask them for help finding it? And, finally, if I wanted to, could I tell a police officer, for example, that I thought something of mine had been stolen?

There isn’t always a lot of opportunity to produce such occasion-specific conversations in a lot of textbooks and classes, due to the formulaic manner in which they are structured, but I’ve really enjoyed locating gaps in my language knowledge and trying to patch them. For example, I don’t know any curse words in Kinyarwanda, and though they may not be particularly helpful to me, insofar as I don’t use them, it would be nice to know if someone were using such a word to refer to me or someone close to me.

In the future, I would like to think of more opportunity-specific conversations in which my language skills would be found lacking and talk to my language partner, J, about them. Perhaps, in the process, I will happen upon Kinyarwanda euphemisms and proverbs that I would not otherwise have access to.

Week Seven: Slow and (Working on) Steady

            It’s been a slower week for my Kinyarwanda study. I set myself a deadline to write a first draft for a fellowship application, and that took precedent last week. There’s not much to say about this, beyond my reiteration that I need a better system for time management, but with my other classes, I didn’t feel like that was possible this semester. If I had to find a silver lining, however, it would be this: At least the other weeks were more so dedicated to my Kinyarwanda study than my fellowship application!

            Another aspect of my week that made me feel less accomplished was that I was unable to meet with my language partner. Well, that’s not right. I was able to meet, and, in fact, I was prepared to do so, sitting in front of my computer with Skype open at what will hopefully become our regular time. But that’s all I was able to do, as she never logged into the system. Happily, I used this time that would otherwise be used for speaking Kinyarwanda to study the language, but I would be remiss if I didn’t confess that it made me a little nervous.

I’ve had this problem before, when my language partner does not show up for our meeting, and I feel uncomfortable, if not a little presumptuous, asking where he/she is, as after all, he/she is doing me a favor. Luckily, my current language partner, J, sent me a message on WhatsApp later, apologizing for missing our meeting and explaining that she had been traveling at that time. To the best of my ability, I tried to respond to her in Kinyarwanda, and she provided me with positive feedback.

            In addition, last week, a classmate of mine, K, who is also studying Kinyarwanda, located a number of resources of which I would like to explore further, though I haven’t quite yet. She came across a Kinyarwada-French dictionary, which is perhaps the most extensive one (that I have encountered at least). And access to a more extensive Kinyarwanda vocabulary may be just the impetus I need to return to French (again), not that a more comprehensive reading knowledge of the language would harm my research either.