Language

My apologies that it's been a couple of days since my last post. It's been a busy few days out at the orphanages. And, I have been working hard at language. I've only got a few more weeks here before my break in the states (which I can hardly believe is coming up so soon!), and I want to make the most out of the time I have left for studying here. Usually, I spend my my lunchtime rereading the lesson for the day, go to class, and then spend a couple more hours on vocabulary and reading at night. Yes, I feel like I am making headway. And yet, the more I know, the more I realize that I need to know. (Isn't it like that with a lot of things?!)

I know enough language to get myself into trouble. Case in point...my recent conversation with the landlord. My sink busted last night. The water wouldn't stop pouring out, and there is no shut-off valve. So, I had to go downstairs and tell the landlord...who speaks absolutely no English. As I was knocking on his door, I quickly reviewed the words that I could use. My sentence was pretty much...Please help me my house water no stop. That plus my motions convinced him that he needed to come upstairs and look. The best part, though, was trying to understand what he was saying about when he would fix it. Pretty much I just apologized for speaking Khmer so poorly.

That's a minor situation. My heart's desire is to be able to talk with the kids at the orphanages and the girls at the shelter. It's so hard to not be able to have a lengthy conversation with them. And so, I have committed to studying as much as I can. I started out just learning to speak, but realized that many words sound similar. I knew that I needed to see how the words are written to be able to know how to say them correctly.

Let me tell you a little about the Khmer language...There are 33 consonants and 25 vowels. But, those vowels can each make at least 2 different sounds. And then there are 15 other independent vowels. And each of the consonants has a separate symbol for when it's written below another consonant. Oh yes, the words are not necessarily written from left to right...sounds can come before, after, below, or above another sound. There are first series letters and second series letters...and some can be turned into the other series with a separate mark. And there are other vowel marks that I have seen but haven't learned yet.

I usually study over lunch at a cafe new my school. The servers there know me well, and they love to see me working on language. Though, most of the time when they see the book that I am reading, they laugh. It's the same one that 6-year-olds use in school. I can only hope to move on to book two, soon!

Well...off to study. Thanks for your prayers!