Monday, 9 July 2012

The Challenge of Language Lessons



I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, me being old and all that, but this language is HARD.
First came the alphabet. It just doesn’t make sense!
‘A’ that sounds like the u in but, ‘b’ that sounds like the b in book (ok) ‘B’ that sounds like the v in very, a thing that looks like r but sounds like g in get, then…. A weird looking shape that resembles the pi sign that sounds like d in door. A back to front R is ya.
As if that isn’t bad enough, there is oo and agh, you and your, a C that sounds like ‘SS’ and a P that is R with a roll of the tongue. And the tongue. You put it in the front of your mouth to go illlll, than half way back to go issshhh. I feel like I have a lisp.
The teacher is patient but I can see it is wearing thin, especially when she points at the page with purpose and goes “You know this!”
Numbers…huh!
Neg, yohorr, gorroh, dorroh, towl. That is my phonetic translation. Somewhere in there is naam, yorroh and arroh. When the teacher asks how old I am, I break into a sweat, push the hair back from my brow and sigh. She waits, unrelenting. “Minni …..tevn …neg …zorroh” “Zar, san” Yeah, I got it right!
Ohhh don’t get me started on parts of the body. rap = gurr and it means arm. Xypyy = finger but it sounds as hororrow. yNx =ear, sounding like cheecht but the N is back to front and there is nothing on the keyboard for legs which sounds like hoolsh. I have tried to source a Mongolian to English Medical dictionary but there is no such thing to be had. I think I’m in for trouble.
Have you ever heard of a defter vowel? I don’t think that was part of English when I went to school. They have so many rules, what goes after depending on whether it is a strong or weak vowel.
We learnt the Mongolian word for camel, horse, sheep, goat and cow. Not sure how much I will use those words in a city hospital! Every now and then there is a word I can relate to, like machine (written MaWNH, but the N is back to front) meaning car and bank (written baHK) being bank. But don’t confuse you oos or your os, cos you could end up with a glass of hair rather than water.
My co-student (a really nice girl from Melbourne) and I, have started a few tactics. If we copy from the board really slowly, we have to do less work. And we take it in turns to go to the toilet in the middle of class. Break time is starting to stretch out and today we said we had an appointment 15 minutes before class was finished. I think the teacher was wise, ’cos she gave us homework. I feel like a 10 year old, using every possible method to avoid work in the classroom, I can’t remember doing that when I was 10 years old.
But with all that said, I can get in a taxi and say “chigerret”, and the taxi driver knows I mean “go straight on”. I can ask “Hed vay” in a shop and the assistant will show me the calculator, which is just as well because I haven’t sorted numbers yet.  I can say tom for big and jejig for small, I can tell someone “mini ner Diane” and ask “Tani ner hen bea?” to find out their name. I can say hello and goodbye, yes, no and OK. The first thing I learnt was thank you.
I still have a few formal lessons to go and I’m hoping it gets easier, but I don’t hold out much hope. My biggest problem yet to face is getting to work in a non-English speaking hospital with staff with VERY limited English and my VERY limited Mongolian, and no English to Mongolian Medical Dictionary. So there could be trouble ahead. But I am trying to remain positive and pick up a few words a day. I guess it is all part of the experience of living in another country and I now have more compassion for those new Australians who don’t have English as a first language.



Postscript : I wrote this about two weeks ago. The lessons are over (thank God, they were so stressful) and I have found that medical dictionary, all 3 volumes and definitely not pocket size. A Lonely Planet Phrase Book has arrived from Australia (thanks Darryl) but in a restaurant yesterday the waitress was in fits of laughter when she delivered our dinner and I said “hello how are you” followed with a quickly corrected “Thank you”. Guess I still have a way to go.

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