March 13, 2010
we will all split up to different villages around Thies based on the languages we will be learning for CBT, which stands for Community Based Training. To immerse ourselves in the language and the cultures we will experience in our sites after training in three months, we will live with a family and have language and technical courses each day in three people, and occasionally come back to the center as a group for more training.
This whole week, we have been attempting to convince the Peace Corps Staff to tell us what languages we will be learning, because they we can make assumptions about where we are going to be in our sites. The truth is, we can guess a wide area where we might be, and ask many questions but in the end, we really will just never know where our site is until they tell us in six weeks. But that will not stop us from asking endless questions. The staff loves it, it is as if they like torturing us with secrets.
Today I found out that during training, I will be learning a language called Mandinka with two others from my group. The trick is that we will not technically speak Mandinka at our sites, we will speak Jaxante, which is a cousin of Mandinka. This is because there are no families in the area of Thies that we could study with in Jaxante. Apparently, they are basically the same language with some different pronunciations. This fact made me slightly terrified, but if I do succeed it will make me feel cool that I could be fluent in two new languages by the end of this. Another issue with this language is that very few people speak it in Senegal, so my French will also improve because I will not be able to communicate in my language anywhere else.
The community we will do this training in is called Mbour, which is a touristy city with beaches. (cushy huh?). I hear rumors there is American food too. But I will likely be quite focused on being with my family and figuring out how to communicate. Again, likely with many hand gestures and confusion.
Today we had our first language class with our teacher Aziz, who will also be living with us in Mbour. Having a class of three people is quite nice because we clearly receive a lot of attention, and there is no space to slack off. We learned the basic greetings, pronouns and how to ask questions and say thank you. Basically phrases that will make us not look like rude mute idiots to our families, and nothing more. Grammatically, it seems pretty simple, not straying from the rules like English, but it is just so different that it will be difficult to remember. All day, my language mates, Spence, David and I have been practicing, and being frustrated. We are also having difficulty not listening to everyone around us speaking Wolof and Pulaar. We are a small group, but we are the Mandinka warriors. We will get it. One more obstacle is that Aziz speaks French first, so I am also learning Mandinka in half French half English. He goes back and forth. Oy. But it is sort of interesting to learn it in French because I feel as though I think of language technicalities in French because I am learning Mandinka in the same way I learned French.
So again, slightly terrified. But I will get it, because I have to. Really no choice.
