malayal...um, wait...what?

So we’ve had almost 2 weeks of language classes. I think that this should make me fluent. For the record, it has not. In fact I’m becoming convinced that Malayalam might be the hardest language ever. Ever. Progress is slow but hopefully steady. And always with a healthy dose of frustration on the side. Our teacher Summe has been wonderful. But there is clearly a language barrier. A very high impenetrable barrier. My respect for the Alicia Bodganoffs of the world that travel and teach English to students without speaking the national language has vastly increased. I’m surprised there aren’t more violent attacks spurring from frustration targeting these teachers.

We’ve started to learn and write some of the letters which allows us to successfully catch the Alloway bus without having to ask every time. Sadly it only works for this bus, but thankfully we do take that route often. I do hope that we continue to learn words, written Malayalam is beautiful. The words themselves are easy enough to learn and remember. I feel as though I’m a child only slightly ahead of my nieces as I walk around pointing out random objects and attempting to successfully say their name. When something is said correctly I am met with praise, when incorrectly I receive slow enunciation and repetition (and a loooot of laughter). The real joy comes when the teacher moves from words into phrases. It’s a very fast language with confusing sentence structure, pluralizing and verb congregation. She is met with a lot of blank stares as she attempts to ask us where our native place is (ninnalulte natu eviteyonu?) and how many are in our group (nigal athura peru undu?). When words remind us of funny/dirty American words, or when we try to say American phrases in Malayalam (such as 'you go girl'), or when we erupt in delirious childish laughter we are met with a return blank stare from our teacher. Followed by the question of "what happened to you?" or "what is wrong with you?" We don't even know where to begin to answer that question Summe.

The accent is by far the hardest thing to concur. And the mystery of correct pronunciation keeps you on your toes as ‘u’ is pronounced as ‘a’ and ‘th’ as ‘k’. Also they tend to put heavy emphasis on the last syllable, different from all other langagues I've studied. Of course, there are some sounds that are completely foreign to my heavy American tongue (ie- the joy of trying to pronounce the sound ‘zh’). I basically spend an hour a day tripping over words and phrases, futilely wrestling with my tongue attempting to force it into obedience of pronouncing this vastly challenging language. Fun times.

The family we are living with is wonderful and painstakingly patient. Very excited that we are attempting to grasp the language so they enjoy tutoring us. Actually pretty much everyone enjoys this task. There is a lot of laughter when we attempt to answer and ask questions, but I’m sure it’s all in good humor. And if its not, I’m okay with being laughed at. We actually went shopping one day for clothes and by the time we left we each had at least 20 new best friends. There is such encouragement and excitement for foreigners in general, let alone foreigners attempting to speak the native language. This is of course, a very foreign concept to me…and America as a whole. Maybe something we could learn from.

Thankfully we’ve managed to learn several useful phrases such as: what are you looking at (useful during the walk to campus), I don’t understand, please slow down, your saare is beautiful, I love you- will you marry me (just so I don’t accidentally accept a proposal and come home with an Indian husband demanding dowry from my family), something is wrong with you, is this vegetarian, directional questions, and close your lips. Of course this is just the tip of the Malayalam iceberg. More to come I’m sure.

Subha Ratri (Good night)

Sneham (love)-

Me.