Language Lessons

So what do we actually do at our language lessons?   The first part of our lesson works on the written part of Dari by learning the persian alphabet and how to write it.  We are half way through the letters.  The hard part of this alphabet besides the letters looking so different is that the letters will be written different depending on where they appear in the word.  Also as many of you  know, persian is read from right to left.   The middle part of our lesson is where we learn new vocabulary, how to conjugate verbs and how to say certain phrases.  We end our lesson by the teacher leading us in speaking Dari to each other through asking and answering each others questions.   Our teacher tries to keep us going at a quick  pace so our brains can get used to hearing and responding in a timely manner. 

Our teacher is a Afghan refugee who used to be a math teacher.  We feel privileged that the program was able to find him here in Tajikistan.   He is very patient, does a great job of explaining the concepts and answering our questions.  Our class consists of Noel, myself, and then Mark and Heidi Blomberg who are fellow team members.   We had thought about having Winter and David sit in on the classes but decided it might be too fast for them.  Instead we have been teaching them what we are learning as we have time.  It helps us reinforce what we are learning as we teach them.   They will also be having a tajik class at their school once or twice a week once school begins.

At the end of our first week, we have learned to ask who, what and where questions and respond with how we are, who we are, what we do and where we are answers.  We are over halfway through the alphabet which has 32 different letters.   It is slow going but we feel like we are making progress.   For me, my biggest challenge is the pronounciation.  I often have trouble saying words in English let alone speaking in another language that has new sounds.  We ask that you pray with us for quick minds and tongues that will speak the words correctly.    Teresa