A lot is happening, and getting in the way of my blogging. I had really hoped to crank out at least two posts a week after almost EVERY day in April!
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| An old picture. I write better now. |
Finally, all the classes we had paid for are nearing their end and I need to sign up for more. That money is not in our single-income budget.
So I'm starting online English teaching to get my own income, to pay for my Mandarin classes. 😄 I know, crazy, right? Just a few hours on a couple evenings. It won't be fast money at that pace, but I don't want to over-fill my time when I should be writing or editing.
I write and edit in the morning or afternoon, plus study Mandarin, and in the evenings I'm either relaxing or, now, teaching online. It's not a crazy schedule, but I'm still getting used to it. Blogging is slipping.
...AND in a couple weeks I'm going to start weekly Vietnamese classes. In my perfect world, I would learn languages with ease, but the fact is there are SO MANY WORDS! In every language.
When your schedule changes drastically, how do you get on track? Do you jump in no problem, or take a while to adjust?
It's frustrating that every language has so many words. We should all learn Smurf or Groot.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend in college studying languages, and she made a chart with a column for English, French, Spanish.... Good for basic words, not practical at this point in my life.
DeleteIn the words of Steve Martin, "Those French have a different word for everything!
ReplyDeleteI also find some languages a lot easier to learn than others - most likely due to luck of the draw on the instructor.
And to answer your question, I am strongly in the "takes a while to adjust" camp.
:-D
I figure a week of getting used to this schedule, another week to figure out how to fit all my normal pursuits into the time, and then the following week, well that's when the next class starts.
DeleteYeah, there's that period of trying to get your feet back underneath you time. Where everything is out of whack as you try to fit into the new normal. You'll get there. Good luck with your online teaching.
ReplyDeleteAnd the new thing - whatever it is - is so exciting and enticing and NEW that it takes over my brain for a bit. It'll all even out.
DeleteGood luck with your Vietnamese language pursuits. I had a friend who emigrated from the US to various countries, ending in Vietnam before moving to Ecuador. She taught English wherever she went. She said she would have stayed in Vietnam except for the language, it was just too difficult for her to learn.
ReplyDeleteWe had read that it's almost pointless for expats to learn it, because it sounds totally different depending on where you go. Finally I realized, we're only going to visit other parts of Vietnam, not stay. We've found our home, so I should learn it here!
DeleteI'll be really interested to hear how you are doing. You've got the mindset, for sure!
DeleteYour experience reminds me of Jean-François Champollion--the guy who first translated Egyptian hieroglyphs. At one point he was working so hard he had kind of a breakdown and was sent to a sanitarium. He sent a letter to his brother about how bored he was and said, "Please send me a Chinese grammar book."
ReplyDeleteI think studying language was therapeutic for him.
However you adjust to your new schedule good luck. It always takes me a little time to get used to something new but I enjoy the transition.
So, Old Vietnamese was in characters not Latin-based letters, but sometime in the 1600s a Portuguese explorer made the new language. Which is helpful to know, because it looks like English speakers should be able to pronounce it, but it's not. At all. Because he was transliterating characters based on how he thought they sound. Oy vey.
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