Life Amidst the Flood of Language Learning

This is what life feels like right now! For those that haven't done this process of moving to a new country and learning a new language, it is an interesting but exhausting experience. The new information just keeps coming at you despite the fact that you already feel overwhelmed and want to scream at it to stop. Thankfully, I already feel like I have learned a lot but I know there is still so much to learn!

I am currently studying Indonesian or Bahasa Indonesia, as it is called here. I am studying at the Indonesian Language Center for Cross-Cultural Communication (IMLAC). There are two campuses of IMLAC, one in the city of Bandung in West Java, Indonesia and one in the town of Salatiga in Central Java, Indonesia. I am studying at the school in Salatiga. 

View of the school from the road

Yep I get to climb those steps twice a day every day, but at least it is beautiful

To give you a little glimpse into life here, this is what a typical day of language learning looks like for me... I get up in the morning and do a couple of hours of studying and homework. I walk to school just before 11 am for a Unit 2 grammar class that lasts an hour. In this class, we focus on all the different ways you can conjugate root words (kata dasar) to make verbs (kata kerja) by adding different prefixes and suffixes. I am with two others students in this class, they are a married couple from South Korea. 

I walk home again for a quick lunch and head back to the school for Unit 4. For this class period, I am the only student. This class usually lasts two hours. It starts with a prayer in Bahasa Indonesia by me and singing of a couple of songs in Indonesian. Then I stand up to give a presentation, based on questions I had for homework the day before. Then I am asked a series of questions by the teacher regarding that assignment, that I have to answer. After that I get to sit down again and the teacher writes everything that I said wrong or sentences that were not grammatically correct on the white board. We go through them one-by-one, until I understand what I did wrong and the correct way to do it. Then depending on the day we either do a reading assignment or grammar lesson. Most days are reading assignments. First the teacher reads and explains any words or concepts I didn't understand. Then I read it. Finally I have to explain the concepts or main points of the story in my own words (yep still in Bahasa Indonesia). Then once again we go through and correct anything I said incorrectly in that process. Finally we go over the homework assignment. Usually my homework relates in some way to my reading. If there is time left, I get to spend some time talking about or telling a story about me or from my life in Bahasa Indonesia. I am done with official classroom learning around 3 pm.

After a few minutes chatting with other students I start walking home. When I have the energy, I start my homework on the way home. My homework consists of questions to ask my neighbors and people at the little stores near my house. Usually I stop at one of those little stores for a snack or something we need around the house. Slowly but surely as I walk to and from school and stop in these little stores on a regular basis I building up my network of people with whom I can practice my Bahasa Indonesia.

When I get home I tend to hibernate a bit and let my brain relax with something in English :) Then I get to work on the homework for both of my classes, which includes grammar drills, writing several sentences with new words I have learned and preparing my presentation. I have found that doing a few hours of homework in the evening and then a few hours the next morning, seems to work the best.

Here are just a few pictures from the last couple of weeks of language learning... 

A page from my reading assignment last week, with my notes. 

The white board with corrections on it after one of my recent presentations

Sometimes I bring a friend to class :)

How to Survive Life in Indonesia - Volume 1

Here are just a few things I have learned in my past two weeks here in Indonesia...

• You can never have enough Tupperware, although it does seem that no matter where you live, you can never find the right lid! Tupperware is good for many things including:

• Keeping the ants out of your food. 
• Keeping things like crackers dry and crispy in this high humidity. 
• Trapping bugs like cockroaches until you figure out how to deal with them. 

Cockroach trapped under tupperware :) 

• The two women living in the house seem to have a hindu belief system when it comes to respecting the animal kingdom. So far in the past two weeks, two cockroaches, one vinegar bug, and a beautiful moth/butterfly thing have been found in the house. We are very good at catch and release of all animals into the yard. It is important to note though that vinegar bugs kill cockroaches, so ideally they should be allowed to stay in the house, even though they look like scorpions. If one must get rid of them (i.e. they are in the shower and you are worried about stepping on them), you should catch and release them into the same area as the cockroach in hopes that the vinegar bug will find and kill the cockroach! 
• Even after living here for three years previously, I still have little understanding of the what the horn and blinkers indicate a car or motorcycle is about to do. I must however try to learn it, as I will soon be doing some driving of my own on a moped. 

Our presentation today, on surviving life in Indonesia, was brought to you by Placenta UV - Whitening Lotion. Available at a supermarket in Indonesia near you! 

PS: I suppose I should now go deal with the cockroach that is under the tupperware in my closet instead of waiting for bedtime, when it will surely escape and make it very hard for me to sleep in my bedroom :)
PPS: So I was a good and went and relocated said cockroach outside. Then just now when I went to get ready for bed there was another cockroach and two vinegar bugs hunting him in my bathroom. Cockroach relocated outside. Requested vinegar bugs return to their cracks, so I won't step on them in the middle of the night! 

Learning Bahasa Indonesia - Week 1

I am just wrapping up my second week living in Indonesia and my first week of language school. As I mentioned in a previous post, after a placement test I was placed in Unit Four. I was concerned about being placed that high, as I knew my grammar was not that good but we have come up with a solution for that (more on that a minute).

I am studying at the Indonesian Language Center for Cross-Cultural Communication (IMLAC). Right now class is from 1 pm - 3 pm with about 4-6 hours of homework every evening.  I am actually in a class all by myself, which gives me plenty of time to practice and for correction. It is also exhausting, since the focus is always on me. If there were other students, we would each have to do a presentation every couple of days, instead I have to do one every day and an essay.

Ibu Susanna

Ibu (Mrs) Susanna was my teacher for this first week. It has been so nice to have an encouraging teacher right at first. We have had fun sharing stories and I am pretty sure we have disrupted other classes with the laughter that comes from our room at times. She takes my grammar to task though and probably about 50% of the time I have to redo a sentence because I didn't conjugate my verb correctly, although she said in our end of the week meeting that has decreased to 30%. I will be switching teachers next week and it will be interesting to see how that goes. 

As of Monday, I will also be adding an hour of grammar in the morning. I will be joining a Unit 2 grammar for the rest of the month and then a Unit 3 grammar class in August. Hopefully this will help fill in some of the gaps in my education. Everyone keeps saying I know bahasa sehari-hari (daily language that is not formal) fairly well but it needs to be more formal. I am glad we were able to work something out because I really do want to get this right, especially since soon I will be the one teaching! So now I am in the process of catching up on all the lessons from week one of Unit 2 grammar and my other homework. 

Here are a few pictures from my first week of study... 

Time for PR (homework)! My lesson book is on the left, a notebook in the middle to write the assignment in, and an Indonesian-English dictionary on the right. And when all else fails sometimes Google Translate has come in handy :) 

After I do a presentation, my teacher writes all the things I did wrong (either grammar or pronunciation) on the board and we go through them one by one. I also write them down in my notebook, so I can look them over later. It is already helping! 

My first test! I had to write an essay on greetings in Indonesia, do a grammar exercise and write 10 sentences with words I wanted to learn better.  

Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement via email and facebook! Onward and upward - week #2 here I come!!

First Week in Indonesia

Well it has been almost exactly a week since I stumbled from the plane and into welcoming arms, here in Indonesia. I was hot and sweaty and desperate for a place to lie down :) Since that time I have been busy adjusting to the temperature and humidity of Indonesia (yep still hot and sweaty!). I have been learning my way around, or at least I can get myself to the International School, the Language School, a nearby little store, and a yummy restaurant.

Hopefully my world will continue to get bigger. One of the things on my to do list is to learn to ride a motorbike, so I will have the ability to get around easier. The roads around here are crazy though, so it will take some time to get use to them. Plus they drive on the left hand side of the road!

Yesterday I took my placement test for language school. It was an informal chat with two of the teachers, asking me about my family, my work, and things like introducing myself and it was all in Indonesian. There are definitely some weak spots including my pronunciation and grammer. Overall though they said there were impressed that I had remembered as much as I had, since I left Indonesia over 6 years ago. They also said that my speaking was smooth and not hesitant, like I was constantly searching for the right word. So I will be starting in Unit 4. This seems high to me since there are only 9 units, but I am going to try it and see what happens. I can always hire a tutor to help out too. Language School starts July 8th and I will be attending class in the afternoon. Each unit lasts about a month. I will let you know how it goes :)

So here are a few pictures from this first week...

 I have unpacked and set-up my room in my friend's house. It wouldn't be complete without pictures of family and friends! I am so blessed to have the master bedroom in the home with a comfortable bed and my own bathroom (which actually has hot water most of the time!).

Enjoying some delicious Indonesian food! This main dish is called Soto Ayam. As almost always, meals in Indonesian include rice and the best part is the fresh fruit like, pineapple. 

We had a lot of fun last night celebrating the 4th of July with a group of expats/missionaries at the International School. We had a BBQ and potluck, followed by sparklers for the kids and fireworks. Turns out you can get some pretty amazing (scary!) fireworks in Indonesia at the market :) I put together a video with just few clips of the fireworks and singing. You can click on the link above to watch it. (If you can't see the link above, then you will need to click on the blog title or "read more" to go to the blog, where you will be able to view it)