We have moved again, and spent most of this week figuring out our new place. How does this stove work, where does the garbage go, how do we wash clothes here, how will we filter our water? Very exciting stuff. A little more exciting, we are practicing speaking exercises now in language learning and it’s fun, frustrating, and hilarious at times. Prime examples of quotes from language practice:
“The cabinet has clouds. . . . no, doors. . . no, windows!”
“Ok, put on your books. . . your book? Why are you laughing- oh, your SHOES!”
“So, what’s the difference between monkey, grass, and buffalo again?”
“The boy wears the pot, no, wait! The. . . pants. . . on his ears!”
“This is a. . . um. . . um. . . hrm. . . a lid? A lid! HA!”
Adjusting to life somewhere very different feels like being a toddler again. Especially when your language helper’s six year old claps excitedly for you when you get something right and says “Good boy!” But the humor and enthusiasm of our endlessly patient teacher helps, and we have to enjoy the process. We are learning, one silly sentence at a time.
Team Ryley 
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Greg & Sue Dehmer
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Hi Greg and Sue – We have added the email address that you commented with to the Newsletter mailing list.
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I can see that it is challenging to learn Swahili – I watched two lessons out on the internet taught by Kenyan’s to get a feel – wow – with a base closer to Arabic than the Latin languages and a structure that is logical in it’s own way but a very different logic than English – I can appreciate the challenge. I guess the good news is that it is easy to read phonetically and not hard to pronounce the syllables.
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You are correct about the ease of phonetics. For me (Ryan), there are some parts that are easier than for Haley – the “conjugation” of verbs for instance. I was exposed to this with Spanish which helps me. Still have to remember it all though!
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