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.