I remember when our girls were learning to talk and each sound was celebrated. We thought their little linguistic blunders were adorable and encouraged them to keep on talking. Now here I am making attempts to speak a whole new language. Definitely not as cute as a toddler, but I am celebrating some progress. This week I was able to talk a bit in Ilocano when I was walking to the market and back. One conversation was with my friend, Susan (pronounced Usan) from Can-eo. I managed to speak a number of sentences to her. Of course, the process is a bit more complicated than when my girls were learning and we just interpreted their "da" to mean "daddy." There are many syllables involved and a different way to say the same message depending on whether you are speaking to one person or a group. Consequently, I am currently reaching for my notes in my little language notebook for every attempt. Now if only their replys would be spoken slow enough for me to grasp and also happen to match another phrase in my notebook...
Lisa
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Nicely done! I know that when I am attempting to learn a language, one of the phrases I try and learn at right away is, "Slowly. slowly." It is so helpful when people slow down their speech!
ReplyDeleteGreat suggestion. I looked it up and slowly is "siinayad" in Ilocano. I added it to my language notebook.
ReplyDelete