If you were curious how Peace Corps volunteers end up speaking another language in a short amount of time (at least conversationally), let me share the rewarding (but sometimes painful) process. We literally have classes 6 days a week for 11 weeks. The first 5 days is learning something new and each Saturday is dedicated to reviewing the new material. In the four hour language class everyday, I go through many emotions. And since today was the last day of language class, there is no better day to write this post. Of course, the best way to explain these emotions are through GIFs. Enjoy!
Many times, you encounter very patient Georgians as you butcher their language into unrecognizable sentences. Other times, there is visible frustration from people on how come we aren’t learning fast enough. And sometimes, this is the feeling I’m assuming Host Country Nationals feel towards me, but that is projecting my own insecurities upon myself.
And to reduce those insecurities, you can never give up! You have to show up to class everyday- rain or shine! And in Ruisi, it is rain most of the time. So it is by sheer force from God where I get dragged out of bed and walk 30 minutes uphill to only get injected with 50,000 new words a day!
Most days, we are assigned something the Peace Corps likes to call “Community Tasks.” These are lovely verbal questions we are assigned to ask our host families to practice our Georgian. When I go to class the next day and put together a perfect sentence, I feel like nothing short of awesome.
But that awesomeness is short lived. I sometimes get corrected that I use the wrong case or given a whole new meaning of what I thought I said. Life is confusing and I don’t like it.
Then my teacher asks me how I feel about the new acquired information. This is how I feel.
Still confused by my earlier interaction, we move on to learn 5 new verbs. Of course, half of them sound so much alike. And of course I’m supposed to memorize them within 30 seconds. And yes, I’m still confused.
At this point of the day, I just want to whine like baby. Why is Georgian so hard?! Why do I add “s” to everything?! Ahhhhhh.
Just as I’m about to check-out from information overload, my teacher announces it is break time! 15 minutes of internet! 15 minutes to just stare at a tree until I feel okay inside. wohoo!
Around 11:00 a.m. is when I experience deep sleepiness. I think about taking a nap but I then I remember I still have two more hours. There is no caffeine in sight. Stay awake, Rawan! Stay awake!
Then we learn a cognate! Oh wait, it is false cognate! But why?! Why can’t we just have the same word for the same meaning?! Why does my life need to be any harder???
And speaking of harder, I sometimes make it harder for Georgians to know what I’m saying. For an entire week, I kept on saying “I like to eat People” instead of “I like to eat onions” because there is one letter apart! This is my face when I realize what I just said. Whoopsie! Do you still love me?!
And saying the wrong thing can make my brain explode. Because now I can’t legit can’t tell the difference or hear the difference between the words. In the onion/people case, I started debating how important it was for me to get it right. My conclusion, very important. Thus, my brain proceeded to figuratively explode in front of my face.
At 12:30 p.m. begins the most painful 30 minutes of all. Why you ask? Because at this point in the day, I’m STARVING. All I could think about is food, food, and oh, food.
1:15 p.m…….ahh, the lovely time I reach the dining table in which food is served. Oh potatoes, cucumbers, and tomatoes how I have learned to love you so much since I eat you everyday. Mmmmm….Mmmm….