CLA English

Wow, two months have gone by.  I think that is the longest we have ever gone without posting on our blog since we started it, almost three years ago.  It's high time we updated you on what has been going on around here.

The main reason we haven't been writing lately is that we have been swamped.  The regular semester ended on June 6, but it was followed by a 3-week course that was a follow up to my Culture and Language Acquisition class.

From June 9 to 27, the seven students worked full time at learning . . . English!

Most  of our English-speaking coworkers were going to be gone, so we made an invitation for some people to come join us as "natives."  Three ladies responded to the call and Donna, Mary, and Donya showed up to give us a hand.  They were a tremendous help with the program as they spent time with our learners doing everyday tasks while speaking English.  The students were continually in their "home," a house next to ours looking for someone with whom to listen and practice.  

They also had a chance to experience some of Bolivia with the students.

Bolivian breakfast: Api and buñuelos with Eliana and Eli

 

Donna and Mary getting some produce at our market

Donya, Donna, and Mary try out some pacumutos at the market

Kaylee was a major help as a language helper and hostess.  Even Anne, Addison, and Lydia played an important role as little native speakers.  Some of the students spent a lot of time with them.

Our first dinner party

 

Addi and Lydia went to ask Matias if he could come over to play

We did a lot of shared activities such as:

Go to the zoo

Game nights

Matias is watching rodeo in the background while we play cards

Visit the library of an American-style Christian school

"Don't put the books back on the shelf unless you know the Dewey Decimal system!"

Home church (we were on guard duty)

Camping

It was a lot of work, especially because I was overseeing all of it, continually giving advice and answering questions.  We had fun, but we're glad it is done!  We are now in our fourth week of winter break and are gearing up for classes to start up again next week!

(as usual, there are more photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111523008579163861983/CLAEnglishPracticum?authuser=0&feat=directlink)

So . . . what do you do?

"Profe"

That's what I get called more than anything when outside of the house these days.  "Profe" is short for "profesor" in Spanish, and I'm sure you can guess what that means in English.  Try pronouncing PDO-fay, light on the "d" (just a flip, really) and heavy on the "o" and you'll be pretty close.

I haven't taken the time to really write about what we are doing here now that we've changed gears.  Here's a look at what we're up to:

As a "profe," I spend five hours per week teaching two different classes: Culture and Language Acquisition and Spanish Grammar.  Most of the rest of my work week is spent preparing for those classes and spending time with staff/students.

I am not a language teacher in the sense that I am teaching about language rather than teaching language itself.  Call it Applied Linguistics, I guess.  The fundamental principle of my current role is to prepare the Etnos students for their future language learning.

As an organization, we highly value native languages.  Our focus is planting churches among ethnic groups where the indigenous language is strong, yet the people have not been taught God's Word, or have been taught in a trade language, resulting in a lack of understanding and, thereby, lack of fruitful ministry.  The purpose of the Culture and Language Acquisition program is to prepare these trainees to be able to move into a village and learn the heart language of their target people group without the aid of dictionaries and classrooms, all while building relationships and gaining an understanding of the worldview and culture of their new friends.

CLA Class

In Spanish Grammar, I am indeed teaching the grammar of the language, but to people that already speak it.  Three of our current students are Bolivian, two are Argentinian, and the other two are Chilean.  Although some also speak other languages (Quechua, Aymara, and English), Spanish is their heart language.  While the class does reinforce their knowledge of their own language, the principal goal of the class is to teach the structure of their grammar and the reasons behind the forms.  Then, armed with this new understanding and terminology, next semester we will be teaching Grammar Analysis to apply the same principles to other languages.

Thankfully, all of the groundwork has been done for these classes and I was essentially handed the curricula at the beginning of the semester.  However, I have to assimilate the material in Spanish and make it my own in order to teach it properly.  I have added a lot of my own stories and experiences to the mix which makes it easier and more natural to teach.

When I have extra time, I am preparing for a one-week practical technology module that I will be teaching at the beginning of next semester with another faculty member.  The focus is on passive solar such as solar ovens and water heaters.  I am doing a lot of research on various types of projects that we could do and am starting to think about preparations we will have to make to be able to build some of them.

I have also been given the opportunity to preach on occasion at the church we attend.

The bulk of Kaylee's time is taken up with household duties and homeschooling the girls, but she is involved in the inner workings of campus as well.  She has taken on the cleaning of the offices and classroom and is working on getting to know the student gals better, to be able to have input in their lives.

Together, we host the weekly staff meeting in our home and have a student couple that comes over a few hours a week for mentoring/counseling.

One of our student lunches

Kaylee has also been an indispensable help to me in my CLA class as well.  Not only does she help me think things through as I talk about my class prep with her, but with some of the class elements themselves.  As part of the practical training of language learning, we have hosted the students in our home to demonstrate what it is like to experience another culture and language.  In June, we will be having a 3-week language practice time which Kaylee will also be heavily involved in.

 And mixed into all of this craziness, we try to spend some time together and with our funny children.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel!

We'd like to give a big THANK YOU to all of you who prayed for us yesterday! 

The day didn't start like we'd planned: I got a 6am phone call from our immigration lawyer and ended up spending a couple hours at the ID office (still working on visa paperwork, another request for prayer!) which pushed Kaylee's evaluation back to later in the morning.

In spite of a rough start to the day, Kaylee did a good job on her evaluation and advanced a level!  She is now at Intermediate High (6 of 10) and just one level short of her goal.

I also went up a level, to my surprise!  Mauge, the director of the language school, said I am DEFINITELY in Advanced Mid (8 of 10), which was my final goal for Spanish study!  It's kind of surreal, but that means I am technically done!  Talk about an unexpected Christmas present. :)

Our focus now is to get Kaylee finished: as I mentioned, she would like to advance one more level, to Advanced Low.  This will most likely include me taking over the lion's share of household duties (aka Mr. Mom) so that she can devote more time to study and class.  We will be doing lots of thinking, praying, and talking with our overseers about how I can make the most of my time.

The most exciting part about this is that the light is finally showing at the end of the tunnel on our journey to the Guarayos!

Survival Mode

Getting out of Survival Mode and back into routine

 Twice since coming to Bolivia we have found ourselves in "Survival Mode." Many of you may have your own understanding of what that means when life gets crazy and you're barely hanging on. Today I would like to share with you what that looks like for us.

When we first arrived in country we were overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with a new language and a different culture, but it went much deeper than that. Every time we stepped out our door we didn't know how to conduct ourselves. We didn't know how to buy the food and supplies we needed. We didn't know what to expect for price and had the pressure of "don't spend too much. You're gringos, they'll try to scalp you!" We didn't know how to cook with the food we did obtain, especially at this altitude of 9,000ft (I'm pretty sure Nathan was worried we would be eating soup packets for the rest of our lives). We didn't know where to buy anything. And quite honestly, neither Nathan, nor I had ever lived in a city of 800,000, compacting the insecurities and anxieties we had. We were required to use public transportation, giving directions with minimal knowledge of the language and how to give directions (I handed my cell phone to a taxi driver once so Nathan could give him the directions!). Let's just say, life was hard. We were surviving, barely making it from one day to the next.

This feeling of survival mode definitely hit again the day that our land lady showed up and told us rather strongly that we needed to move out of her apartment. Once again we were in new territory. How do you look for a house in this country? What should we expect? What kind of contract do we sign? Nathan spent many days walking the streets looking for signs on the exterior of homes and asking at the tiendas for homes for rent (that's the way it's done here). He also jumped online and checked the newspaper every morning. He was stretched, incredibly stretched, as he made phone call after phone call. (Do you realize how hard it can be to make phone calls in your own language? Try doing it when there are not only Spanish speakers at the other end of the line, but also Quechua speakers trying to speak Spanish!) I found myself, sadly, in a fit of anxiety. I felt as if our lives as we know them here had been pulled out from under us and every day we were struggling to get food on the table, shop, think through all of the necessities for our children and accomplish the task of finding a house. I realize now that a great part of that survival mode for me this time was succumbing to my anxiety instead of trusting our great God for the provider He is and always has been for us. But this mode of survival is still a reality of this lifestyle and something we must be prepared for as drastic changes hit us in the future. I can imagine the survival mode we'll go through as we move into the tribe will be much larger.

Progress!!

Kaylee and I both had language evaluations this week, to determine where we are at in the process of learning Spanish.  We are excited to let you know that we both advanced a level! 

Here's where we are at:

The language-learning process requires constant adjustment of expectations.  The higher you get on the scale, the more time it takes to reach the next level.

I also just uploaded a 4th video from my trip to Urubichá.  Even if you've seen the photos (in our last post), this may give you a better feel for the town:

Raising Missionary Kids

No doubt you're familiar with the Missionary Kid stereotype:  awkward, out of style, out of touch.  Unfortunately, it's a stereotype for a reason:  because it's often true.  Have you ever thought about "why?"

Part of our extensive training touched on this subject.  Kaylee has read (and is re-reading) Third Culture Kids.  We're aware of the issues, and want to do our best to make sure that our girls are comfortable and well-adjusted no matter where they are.  However, the fact remains that they are not "normal" here, and when we return to the States for furloughs, they won't be "normal" there either.

The main reason I'm thinking about this right now is because of something that happened on Saturday:

Our church runs Horita Feliz (little happy hour), a weekly kids' program, in 4 surrounding neighborhoods.  On Saturday, I took Anne to the one nearest us.  Although we tried taking her a year ago, everything was still too much of a shock for her and she wasn't ready.  I believe she is now, and we're going to make it a regular part of our week.

We were the first ones to show up, even though we were 10 minutes late.  She and I sat down and continued the conversation that we were having on the way there.  Before long, 5 little girls showed up,  all but one a year or two older than Anne.  They sat there, chattering away, occasionally asking me something about Anne.  They were very curious about her, in a friendly way, and eventually came and sat closer to us.

That was when I realized:  Anne is now at the age where girls really start to communicate and relate to each other verbally.  And she's alone.  She knows that one of the reasons we're going to Horita Feliz is so that she can have more exposure time in Spanish, and we talked about that as we sat there, waiting for the program to start.

She said to me, "I wish we had not moved here. . .but I know that we had to."

I'm proud of her attitude, even though she is often shy (sometimes rebelliously) and hesitant to use what she does know.  She is learning.  And she is finally showing some interest in putting effort into learning the language, because she sees the need for it.

In the meantime, how much is her social development going to be set back??

Although kids do have an easier time picking up language naturally, it is simply not true that "they'll be speaking like natives before you know it" or "they'll be fluent before you are."  It takes time and effort on their part as well, and they can't study like Kaylee and I do.  Anne has a friend her age at church; they play together every Sunday.  We also have a teenager and 20-something that have started to come over a few hours a week to play with the girls and give them more time in the language.

As you pray for our progress in language learning, PLEASE do not forget to pray for that of our children as well!


Anne and the kids singing "I'm in the Lord's Army," in Spanish:

(If you click the Full Screen button in the lower-right corner of the video, you can see that Anne is actually doing the motions. . .an improvement, as she gets comfortable with participation)

Progress!

As we mentioned in our last post, we had a language evaluation on the 1st.  Thank you for praying!  We both feel that we did our best, and we both went up a sub-level!  Remember my boring chart from before?  Here's where we are currently at in our language ability:

Kaylee broke into Intermediate!  I didn't quite make it as far as I hoped, but am "comfortably Intermediate-High, entering Advanced-Low."  To get to Advanced, I need to speak more fluidly, which means more speaking time.

All Greek to you?  Hopefully this post from a couple weeks ago will help you out: Language Learning: Why is it taking so long?

After my evaluation, I took a jaunt through the countryside to a little Quechua village called Sankayani:



(Click on a photo to see them larger!)

We also had a birthday party for Addi last week. She turned 3! As usual, photos are in Picasa Web Albums - Sirviendo a Cristo

Evaluation Dec 1!!

Here we are at evaluation time, again.  Tomorrow, both of us will be having giving Oral Proficiency Interviews to see how far we have advanced in the last 3 months.  Kaylee's is at 9am (6am MST) and Nathan's is at noon (9am MST).

While we both feel like we have progressed very well, we have both been sick in the past couple weeks and we feel like we've been struggling a lot in our conversations the last few days.    We both hope to cross critical steps in the ladder of progress (for more information about it, see this post).  Please pray that we will sleep well, wake up refreshed and ready, and perform to our best ability in HIS strength.

We hope to be posting good news soon regarding our results!!

Language Learning: Why is it taking so long?

As we approach the 9-month mark here in Bolivia, the question we get asked the most right now is, "When are you going to be done studying Spanish?"

You've probably seen programs that advertise "Fluent in 6 weeks or your money back" and the like. Well, like most things, it just isn't that easy. The big question is how to define fluency.

Our language progress is measured using a system similar to the ACTFL standard for proficiency testing. Essentially, we have regular proficiency evaluations that very accurately place us on the ladder of progress. Basically, it's 4 levels, broken into 10 sub-levels, as in this very boring chart I made just now:


Where are you right now?
Our evaluations establish our "floor" of language use. That is, when we reach a particular level, it means that we never speak below that level. Our last evaluation, at the end of August placed me between levels 5 & 6 and Kaylee right on the high end of level 3, reaching for 4. We will be having another evaluation in another month and both hope to break into the next BIG level!


What is your goal?
Obviously, we want to speak as well as possible. Our organization has established a standard that we do not teach publicly until we have reached at least Advanced: Low (level 7). I am shooting to reach Advanced:High (level 9).The reasoning behind this is simply explained by a mistake I made in class recently:

I was talking about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and got to the part about Lot's wife turning to the city and becoming a pillar of salt. I said:

Ella dio una vuelta a la ciudad. (She walked around the city). . .nope. . .um:

Ella dio la vuelta a la ciudad. (She turned the city over). . .nope. . .er:

Ella se dio la vuelta a la ciudad. (She turned toward the city). . .Whew!

How would you like to sit under a teacher/preacher that made mistakes like that? The only reason I changed my statement is that my instructor corrected me. If I had been teaching a Bible class, I would have just kept on going after the first statement, without realizing that I had led everyone astray. Not a big deal, right? But what if I made a similar mistake when teaching about the life of Christ, or the nature of salvation?

Unimaginable harm has been done here because of people teaching at low-level "fluency."

But isn't Spanish just a trade language? Why learn it so well?
Yes, that's true to a point. We do plan to do the bulk of our ministry in the Guarayú language (an indigenous language completely unrelated to Spanish). However, Spanish is the most widely-spoken language in the country, and anytime we are out of the tribal area, we will need it! Also, we are building relationships now with the local church here in the city. For them to share in our future ministry, we need to be able to accurately share with them.

However, the most important reason is that we work with Bolivian nationals! At this point, it looks as though we will not have any expat missionaries on our tribal missionary team. The other families that are getting involved in this tribe are Bolivians that have gone (or are going) through our organization's national training program, similar to what we did in the US. For us to work and fellowship together, we must be able to communicate with them at a high level.

When will you finish and move into the tribe?
That's a complicated question! If we continue to progress as we have, I hope to finish my Spanish study next spring. Kaylee will hopefully finish around the end of the year or early 2013. A lot of that depends on what I get involved in after I finish Spanish and how much I can take over at home to give Kaylee more study time.