With a renewed sense of vigor about life, I am beginning once again to study the Russian language in earnest. I have started from the beginning, in the hope of figuring out just where the hell I took a wrong turn and got lost so many weeks ago.
Of all the challenges we have all faced here, the language has been the most frustrating and the most difficult for me. My cluster-mates are amazing. They have absorbed the language and all its idiosyncrasies with a degree of clarity and ease of which I am the envy of, and at the same, so very proud of. I watch and listen to them holding lengthy conversations the likes of which I never would have believed possible 10 weeks ago. I am so amazed at their abilities.
This is where I get frustrated, however. I am so lost. I can’t understand what everyone is saying, so I can’t participate, and I can’t share in the laughter that is so prevalent in the class. I always want to ask "What's so funny?" but if I do, I'll just be annoying. Why should they repeat everything for me? It would just suck the life out of the joke.
So I just sit and wait, and hope that the next time, I’ll get it.
Of all the challenges we have all faced here, the language has been the most frustrating and the most difficult for me. My cluster-mates are amazing. They have absorbed the language and all its idiosyncrasies with a degree of clarity and ease of which I am the envy of, and at the same, so very proud of. I watch and listen to them holding lengthy conversations the likes of which I never would have believed possible 10 weeks ago. I am so amazed at their abilities.
This is where I get frustrated, however. I am so lost. I can’t understand what everyone is saying, so I can’t participate, and I can’t share in the laughter that is so prevalent in the class. I always want to ask "What's so funny?" but if I do, I'll just be annoying. Why should they repeat everything for me? It would just suck the life out of the joke.
So I just sit and wait, and hope that the next time, I’ll get it.
Hang in there Jo--the language was tough for me too. It was only after nearly a year that I started to understand what people were saying. (unfortunately for me, that's when it was time to go home...) Great to read your posts. Good luck in your new home!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your words of encouragement Brad! Things arew much better now.
ReplyDeleteJo