How's your Romanian coming?
So, how's language learning going?
These are questions I'm asked regularly. Sometimes I'm not exactly sure how to answer. I like to be positive, but I also like to be honest. And honestly, sometimes learning a new language is frustrating. Sometimes, I just feel like a toddler and would really like to throw a temper tantrum in my frustration. I want, so badly, to communicate things in Romanian. Yet, often all that comes out are disjointed sentences. I often use the wrong tense, wrong article or forget if a word is masculine or feminine. Speaking Romanian with strangers still makes me uncomfortable. I can understand a lot more Romanian than I can speak. However, when people talk really fast or mumble I feel like there is no hope.
However, the more I learn the more comfortable I become. I'm understanding more and more Romanian every day. I've been practicing my reading and it's getting easier all the time. I even read some things today that I could actually flow with and not stumble over the words. It's the little victories that encourage me.
I'm encouraged by the positive feedback I get from my Romanian friends and teachers. I'm always excited when I learn a new word or sentence and get to use it soon after. You should see how excited I get when I put together a full sentence without help!
Overall I know I am progressing and I'm trying to be patient with myself, but I don't think I'll really be satisfied anytime soon. As I sit here writing this I'm surrounded by six girls who are all speaking Romanian to one another and me. I know that living with Romanians is a big help to my language learning (many of them speak at least some English, that's a blessing and a curse.)
I just keep reminding myself that I'm going through the natural phases of learning a language. Just like little toddlers understand a lot more words than they can speak, I understand a lot more Romanian than I can speak.
Just a shout out to my friends at MTI in Colorado Springs from the PILAT program: I would be ten times more frustrated and probably quite discouraged if I had not attended PILAT before coming to Romania. Every day I am reminded of things I learned in PILAT and I am able to apply them to my language learning. If you don't know what PILAT is you should check it out at mti.org It is an incredible program to train individuals moving to a new country and desiring to learn the language. Thanks Andrea and gang for all you do to prepare people like me for language learning!
Most of all I'm so thankful to Jesus for creating us with the ability to learn languages. It is a natural ability God created in me. Every Sunday I'm thankful for the opportunity to praise Him in a new language. Hearing my brothers and sisters in Christ pray, teach and encourage in Romanian is awesome. I also absolutely love singing in Romanian! Looking forward to the day when people of every language will praise His name!
2 comments:
Yay for the update! Soon you'll be babbling out full stories in Romanian non-stop like Fisher does now. I'll have to tell you "shut your mouth" like I do to him too. Lol! He started responding to that now by saying "but I talkin'!" Love you, friend! Miss you lots!
So from your nerdy language teacher friend, I think you're probably doing fine :) Just keep encouraging yourself! I always tell my Spanish students it will take a while because as you get older, the place in your brain that learns languages "prunes" itself. It gets rid of the connections that allow toddlers to learn language so easily because you're not using that connection anymore after you become fluent in your own language. So it takes a while to rebuild that connection...it's so weird because one day it will just click. You'll start dreaming in Romanian if you haven't already, and then you'll know you're totally getting it! This happened to me with Spanish. Rest assured that you are in the absolute best situation to learn a language (immersion). You'll get it, I promise :)
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