Language Learning

We started tutoring last week and so far it has been great. In retrospect, I wish Peace Corps Philippines had given us a use-it-or-lose-it tutoring allowance and help in finding a tutor; it's a much richer experience if you learn some of the language. Both there and here, I can do my job with only English, but I know it would have helped to know some Tagalog and I am already using some of the Armenian that I've learned. Our tutor has been a Peace Corps LCF (Language and Culture Facilitator) several times and she has interesting stories and memory tricks to help us remember some of the words.

First we learned all of the sounds that exist in Armenian and not English - some of them occur in Moroccan Arabic, so we've used them before. We've learned greetings (she says Armenian is the only language in which good morning is literally "good light"), pronouns, to be, some question words and some numbers - and we have started on the Armenian alphabet. The regular volunteers have language training for four hours a day, six days a week, for three months; we'll have it twice a week, for an hour and a half, for three months, with none at all next week and other travel coming up, and I will appreciate all of it. I know already that there is so much work that there will be the temptation to skip, but to me it is a priority and we just have to fit it in.

Some of my favorite things - colloquial for yes is ha and for no is che - if you want to say "isn't it?" or "you know?" you can say "ha che?" All words have stress on the final vowel, and the letters are always pronounced in the same way. "Jan" after someone's name is like Japanese "San" crossed with "my dear." A common phrase is "problem chka," or "no problem;" there is an Armenian word for problem, but now the English word problem is common enough (at least when something's no problem). Lav is good and vat is bad, so-so is vochinch or kamuts-kamuts. The word for I is yes. No gender - the word for he, she and it is the same, na. Snorhakalutyun is thank you - believe it or not, that flows off trippingly off my tongue now, though stesutyun, goodbye, doesn't yet. There is an easier goodbye - hajoghutyun, meaning good luck, is the word - it's easier because it is often shortened to hajo. Hello plural or formal is barev dzez - to be less formal, use just barev. What is inch, how is inchpes (though for how are you, you can also use an informal how, vonts). For a yes or no question, the structure is the same (the adjective, and the conjugation of "to be" that automatically tells you the subject) - it's just the inflection that makes it a sentence as opposed to a question. Hima (now), that is probably enough for lsor (today)!

In other news, one of the PCVs we were supposed to visit next week slipped on ice, broke her ankle in three places, and is being med-evac'd back to the U.S. If you are medically evacuated and you can't make it back in 45 days, Peace Corps medically separates you, end of service. I hope she makes it back! And I am once again glad I broke my computer as opposed to a bone. We're working on other options for our trip....