Thoughts of A Language Student
Three weeks of doing it Brazilian style! Time worth commemorating with a few reflections.
It never ceases to surprise me how ones outlook alterates when moving. Three weeks in Barra have presented new situations and experiences equal to a year at home. Or two.
Being abroad learning a language and a culture makes me feel strong. Communicating in a fourth language is stimulating. So is playing music - a project I´ve accepted as key to happiness and independency in my life but procrastinated for so long.
Other feelings prevalent during this time have been dependency, insuffiency, vulnerability. In these respects, from time to time this cultural experience for me has meant going back to childhood. Which isn´t bad - the openness to influences childhood stands for is perfectly suiting when wanting to learn new stuff fast! I´ll leave the period of sorting out what I really like and what I don´t to the future. Right now I enjoy simply living life in the fast lane, absorbing everything I can from this country of mind-blowing rhythms and beautiful language.
The language studies are going fine. Although frustrating at times, I´m making improvements almost every day. I believe the key to happy language learning is to accept moments or even days of defeat merely as a part in the ever-lasting spiral staircase of learning a language. In that way, moments of defeat also represent moving up a step rather than the opposite. Which of course is just a more complicated way of saying that we learn from our mistakes ;-)
I go out a lot. Spent yesterday in the historical centre of town (pictures coming up soon), going to a concert on my own. Going out to dance with yourself and the world as your only company is great fun which I can warmly recommend! Tonight is Friday night which means going out with my teacher (see her homepage at http://www.basicalingua.com/) and the other students at the school. Should be good fun although it inevitably means being trapped with the English language for a night. On the other hand, being understood for once perhaps isn´t so bad after all ;-)
Enjoy the pictures!
All my love,
Joakim
It never ceases to surprise me how ones outlook alterates when moving. Three weeks in Barra have presented new situations and experiences equal to a year at home. Or two.
Being abroad learning a language and a culture makes me feel strong. Communicating in a fourth language is stimulating. So is playing music - a project I´ve accepted as key to happiness and independency in my life but procrastinated for so long.
Other feelings prevalent during this time have been dependency, insuffiency, vulnerability. In these respects, from time to time this cultural experience for me has meant going back to childhood. Which isn´t bad - the openness to influences childhood stands for is perfectly suiting when wanting to learn new stuff fast! I´ll leave the period of sorting out what I really like and what I don´t to the future. Right now I enjoy simply living life in the fast lane, absorbing everything I can from this country of mind-blowing rhythms and beautiful language.
The language studies are going fine. Although frustrating at times, I´m making improvements almost every day. I believe the key to happy language learning is to accept moments or even days of defeat merely as a part in the ever-lasting spiral staircase of learning a language. In that way, moments of defeat also represent moving up a step rather than the opposite. Which of course is just a more complicated way of saying that we learn from our mistakes ;-)
I go out a lot. Spent yesterday in the historical centre of town (pictures coming up soon), going to a concert on my own. Going out to dance with yourself and the world as your only company is great fun which I can warmly recommend! Tonight is Friday night which means going out with my teacher (see her homepage at http://www.basicalingua.com/) and the other students at the school. Should be good fun although it inevitably means being trapped with the English language for a night. On the other hand, being understood for once perhaps isn´t so bad after all ;-)
Enjoy the pictures!
All my love,
Joakim
posted by Joakim at Saturday, December 02, 2006
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home