This week, I continued to work on my
flashcards; however, as I feel I have a pretty solid base on which to grow, I
have cut back my “construction” time to twenty minutes and increased my study time
to at least forty minutes per day. Of course, I believe this is a practical
approach, particularly as my flashcard “deck” grows, but I also believe it was
a way to address a problem I mentioned last week, that is- I was concerned I
was spending more time on preparatory work than I was actually studying. Now, I
am quantifiably spending more time studying my flashcards than I am preparing
them.
In addition, I continue to watch
genocide testimony videos for approximately twenty minutes per day, and I think
that is going very well, insofar as it ensures that I am listening to
Kinyarwanda being spoken by a diverse assortment of speakers on a weekly basis.
Although a language partner is more than useful, I am sure some language learners
grow accustomed to their partner’s particular accent and ways of speaking. With
these videos, I am exposed to a wider range of speakers than I believe I would
otherwise have access to.
I am still contributing to Google
Translate, with at least five terms per day, but as a more meaningful
contribution, I am working on increasing the rate at which I publish
Kinyarwanda lessons on my language-learning website. This week, I published
two, one on the far future tense and another on the imperative. I also left a
space to talk about the near-near future tense, as well, a lesson I have been
developing, but do not find suitable for publication yet. I am also trying to
return to lessons I have already constructed and improve them, if and when
possible. I try not to spend more than a half-hour per day on this activity,
but working on my website makes me feel good about myself, so sometimes I slip.
Granted, if it makes me feel productive, I could argue that I should keep doing
it, as long as I would like, but it is time-consuming, and my energy is
probably best spent on a variety of meaningful activities (some I’m already
doing and others I have yet to locate).
Last week, I decided to start
recording myself speaking Kinyarwanda, for practice, for motivation, for
confidence. So far, I feel a bit silly doing it, and there are many more pauses
than I would like. Admittedly, I am out of practice, but perhaps in the future,
I will make these recordings more guided, as if I were speaking to a language
partner. For instance, I could pose a topic that I have to talk about, list a
few terms that I have to mention, and/or identify verb tenses or structures I’d
like to practice out loud. The last suggestion feels a little inorganic, but
maybe speaking to one’s recorder is a little unnatural too. Anyway, I’m still
trying to locate what works for me in this regard.
Last week, too, I met with fellow
language learners, and one of my classmates, L, shared a story about her visit
with her mother and grandmother. She knew she had to make room for her target
language, but she also wanted to spend time with her family, so she gave them
two options: 1.) She could go to another room to listen to the radio in her
target language, or 2.) She could stay in the same room and listen. Their pick!
And I guess they decided to have her stay in the same room, which turned out to
be a very meaningful exercise for L, because it led to a few questions on her
family’s part, identification of vocabulary, and the need for her to be
extra-attentive in order to address their inquires and observations. Of course,
this was an organic activity for her, but she said that she thought of me, due
to the difficulty I mentioned studying at home in front of my family.
Inspired by L, and presented by an
opportunity to visit home this weekend, I am going to study Kinyarwanda in front
of my family, likely my grandma, but perhaps my mother too. On a more
interesting note regarding family and motivation surrounding my Kinyarwanda
study, I intend to visit Kigali for at least a month this summer, and my mother
expressed interest in visiting me while I am there. Granted, many things will
have to fall into place for this to work, including her finances, my finances,
my schedule, her schedule, but I am imagining scenarios where I would have to speak
Kinyarwanda on her behalf or explain something to her from Kinyarwanda, and
these imagined scenes are proving to be quite the motivator for me. Indeed, it
is one thing to use a target language to help yourself; it is quite another to
use it to help someone else, notably a loved one.
Finally, I also purchased a few new
Kinyarwanda resources this week, including an English-French-Kinyarwanda
dictionary. It is not the best, nor is any Kinyarwanda-English dictionary I
have found thus far. Indeed, it is only columns of words. Depending on where
you are in the text, column A is French, column B is English, and column C is
Kinyarwanda, and the order is rearranged based on user preference. I thought it
might encourage me to study both French and Kinyarwanda at once, but so far, so
nothing. Hopefully, that can be improved upon, as I’ve owned it only a short
time. I’m imaging flashcards with words in French on one side and words in
Kinyarwanda on the other.
In
addition, I purchased a Kinyarwanda-English Alice
in Wonderland coloring book (which, oddly enough, does not credit Lewis
Carroll), but it disappointed my expectations as well; however, I don’t want it
to be a complete “bust,” so I’m trying to think of meaningful activities for it
beyond “adult coloring,” which is apparently a thriving market now!
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