Picture Post 2

Lots of great things lately...

• Nice fall hike with the family of one of Claire's copines (female classmates)

• Melva (PBT teammate already serving in West Africa came to visit)

• New teammates arrived in France to learn the language (means we get to build our team dynamic for Africa)

• Brent graduated from IFALPES (Institute Français of the ALPs) Laura to finish next week.

A Picture is worth a 1,000 words...

Picture of our town in the valley - taken from the summit of our hike

"Aunt" Melva painting Claire's toenails - first time ever

"Aunt" Brittany - new teammate

All the girls on our team (L-R): Laura, Shelly, Claire, Brittany

Snuggling up on the couch on a wintery night

Brent & friends graduate from IFALPES

So proud of you, baby! Brent gets his IFALPES "French" diploma Dec. 2011

Progress! I love it!! good day!

Sometimes language learning makes me feel like I'm a fish out of water somewhere floundering on the shore.

Other days I am completely floored at how much I can understand and express! Today is one of these days.

We recently went to our Bible study group here and we've been going through some "get-to-know-each other" type questions. I was amazed that I was able to describe where I've been and where I'd like to go and why. I also was able to describe my birth order (2nd kid of 4 - 1st girl) and a bit of what my family is like. Wahoo! I was so stoked that they understood me. :)

Do you realize that..

When we first got off the plane in France

I did not know how to ask: 

"Where is the bathroom"!?!

And now... Voila!! I can say that and a whole bunch more!

I took a test in school last month or so that they usually give students at the end of their studies to see how much French they know. It's called the TCF here. Kinda like we have the Test for English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) back in the States. Well, I didn't do too shabby. I tested at a level 3 of 5. I was never so stoked to see a percentage in the 40's in my life! It sounds like a low score, but I did well for taking the test that they give to level 5 students. I was so relieved to realize that some of this language is soaking in as I am here in France  - swimming in French. Immersion really is the best way.

There's a HUGE difference between the French I could learn in a class in the States and the amount of French I can learn here in France. 

I am so blessed to be given this opportunity to be right where I need to be to learn what I need to learn for the next step in my life! Thank you to everyone who has supported me and my family through praying and giving to make this a reality. You have no idea how much of an impact this time here is making on my life. God is using this time for language learning to teach me some other things along the way in addition to learning language. What a gift!
Thank you.

*smile*

The Roller-Coaster Ride: A little thing called Language Learning

Ok, so I'm finding out a lot about myself through this whole "living in another culture" thing. For one, I am just beginning to understand certain basic things about myself. For example, I need to have more sleep, calm periods of the day, a way to connect with others on a deeper level, good snack foods, time listening to worship music, time to do something artistic, and a connection time with my hubby. (Add all that to a busy day and woah!) Some of these are things that I thought of as superfluous before. Now I am realizing that in order to function properly and to not have frequent moments of flipping-out-insanity, I really need these sorts of things. (OK that was a bit scary to share but feels good to have it off my chest.) Basically, I need a break and these are the things that are restful to me. I also find it AB-SO-LUTE-LY necessary to have a happy home. I am a much happier person when my kids are doing something constructive with their time. :-D *big toothy grin* It's a tough balance to be a mom and a student at the same time in another land, but I see with precision of focus now that my attitude affects my kids' moods.

The old saying rings true, "If momma ain't happy - ain't nobody happy." So I realized this past week that I was getting to my overloaded point in many areas. The kids were going crazy (Ethan is on vacation for 2 weeks and has a ton of energy to burn off at home now). Claire feeds off of Ethan's energy and creates her own.  Brent was beginning to be stressed with home duties while I took on a 5 days/week class load yet again. Language learning classes just happened to break the dam! It's just something that happens with me when I am not understanding the language and I am expected to perform in class. It's happened to me before when I took eight weeks of Thai. It's something that happens to people regularly when they are involved in language learning and cultural adjustment at the same time.

It's called stress.
Mine just happens to materialize in tears.

I broke down crying (mind you, silently) in class. I kept my composure as hot tears streamed down my face. My teacher noticed and talked to me in the hall. I told her it was not anything personal but that I did not understand a thing that she had just spent the past 10 minutes explaining. She had mentioned that we had seen the material the day before - we had not. I was overwhelmed. Silly little pronouns danced on my page as my tears blurred these tiny, yet so important, words. Words that I did not understand but desperately need to know. Turns out I was absent the day the basic pronouns were introduced and now we were learning more. It was confusing and it still is. Not sure I can use them properly on paper and much less so in speech.

It will come. Event...ually.
I will understand at some point.

I think the overwhelming part is that one day we will have to use this language to survive in AFRICA. Oh, yeah, and then learn another language that's not written down yet (yep, that means no books to learn the next language- no alphabet). So if I look at things like that it is mega-overwhelming.

Baby steps, Laura. You can do it.

Phil 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me".

Focus.

Some days are really awesome and I seem to be getting it. French will start to flow out of my mouth like liquid and the people around me don't even hesitate - they seem to understand me. Yay!

Other days it feels like someone shoved a wad of black licorice the size of a golf ball in my mouth and told me to try to express my thoughts without spitting. I like black licorice, but in smaller quantities. And try talking with a mouth full of something you can't chew well! The words just won't come out right.

So there's these ups and downs in trying to speak another language. It's exhilarating and dizzying at the same time. I love it and then other times I get this sickening scared feeling in the pit of my stomach. (I think this is what people feel like when they are on a roller coaster. I've never actually been on one. I get motion sick so it's out of the question, but I've been on a flume ride with a big drop.) Days of success in communicating in French are awesome, like being at the peak of the hill - the top of the ride. *smile*

But look out for the drop!

At least I can expect to climb the next crest at some point until I get off this ride, but wait - I'm not planning on getting off this ride. Will it always be like this? No. At some point way in the future, it seems that I will plateau and not be able to learn any more French. Then it will be time for the next language.

Learning French like this is different than taking a foreign language course in high school or college. I actually have to go out an use what I learn to live here. The only break I get from it is if I am silent (doesn't always work - someone will try to ask you something). Oh, or if I am at home with my family, and still we try to speak in French, read books in French, watch TV in French, answer the phone in French, order pizza in French, go to the doctor in French, and so on... in French.

*SIGH* That felt good to share. It's a bit overwhelming at times to be here. Other times it is incredible! It is certainly nothing like a vacation. If it were I'd really need a vacation from it. It's daily life lived in a foreign land that's not too far removed from my own land though it is foreign to me at times. Keep us in your prayers as we're here, and consider the stretch it will be to be living daily life in a foreign land like Africa because that comes next. At least it is do-able: one day at a time - with the Lord's help. That's all I ask. :-)
Thanks for praying us through the drops.

Language Learning... what it's like so far for Laura

Language learning has always been fun for me! Brent & I are linguists - so of course, we love languages! I've studied a bit of Russian, eight weeks of Thai, four years of Spanish, and I know a few phrases of German (from my dad and grandparents), Dutch (from my mom and grandparents), and Japanese (for some reason...oh yeah, pen-pal from my teen years). I love to learn how to talk to other people! I have a conversational level of Spanish & didn't care in the least bit if I made mistakes while talking with my grandmotherly, Cuban neighbor during the year we lived next door to her. Why? Simply put: it was more important for me to talk with my friend than for me to worry about speaking the language perfectly.

Now that I live in France, language learning is a bit of a different ball park (which, by the way, they don't really have here - baseball, I mean). Language learning has become a whole new game that I must play in order to live here. (Brent had quite a bit of French in school so he has a leg up, and that does help, but it's a bit harder for me to survive when it's my turn to talk.) We have to speak French to buy our daily bread. We have to speak French at the bank, the post, the store, church, the doctor, at parent-teacher conferences (which thankfully I have not had any yet, but will have an appointment for one soon).

At the Post Office

At the Bakery

We have to speak some French to be understood and to succeed. Sometimes it is fun, but mostly it's just a way of life. It's difficult. It's scary. It's sad sometimes. It's life for now. We're told it will get easier.

It's a wonderful thing when I find someone kind enough to try to understand me. This is not always the case. It's also a bit harder to be missionaries in this in-between-the-field and home-assignment phase of life.

Church in Romans, France (Services in French)

At church I have to use French. I have to explain how long we are here, and why. I have to tell people that my kids don't speak French yet. This much I can handle. Then the fun begins. People start talking to me about all sorts of things, which miraculously I can understand a lot of, but I have no way to respond. I can say," I don't know. I don't understand," but I can't say," I understand, but I can't answer your questions yet". People look at me so sadly when I can't answer and then I give a sheepish look.


In my French class, our vocabulary is limited so far to basic things: who we are, what we do, and what we have. This is a tough situation for me. I am in a class of international students - one Mexican guy, two Arab guys, a girl from India, & me. So you can imagine what it's like when I explain myself as a linguist - they look at me with that look that says they are seeing me as having three heads. Then I explain what a linguist is and that my husband is one too, and that we don't have the typical kind of jobs that most people do. When they still don't understand, I then have to reveal that I am learning French to use for when we move to West Africa. Then they ask even more questions when they realize we've brought our kids along on this adventure. So eventually for my classmates to accept me as a somewhat normal woman, I must reveal more information that I can't exactly explain well to people of other religions:
Yes, I am a missionary.
Yes, I work with churches.
Ah-ha! The light bulb goes on for some, but the Arabs then ask more questions. They want to know what a church is. I tell them it's a place to read the Bible and learn more about God. Then they ask what is a Bible. (How many other people have to answer delicate questions like these when learning another language I wonder? I also think about what it would be like if I had another job - something simple to explain in French, like "I am a business woman." But I am not.) I thought about bringing in a Bible to show them, but then I remember my Bible is all marked up and worn from regular use and study. It is not kept pristine like a holy book should be (in the minds of those who follow Islam). So I have to explain that the Bible is our holy book, since they know what that means. Whew!  What a first week of classes!

Explaining my profession was a bit tricky, but then there were other questions later on that made me feel strange - almost less-human. (I wonder if I have ever made a foreigner feel that way in my homeland!)

To practice the verb avoir (to have, in English) we must tell things about ourselves and our lives back home. The dialogue goes like this:

Do you have a car back home?
My answer: No.

Do you have a garage?
My answer: No.

Do you have a garden?
My answer: No.

Do you have a house back home or an apartment?
My answer: No house. No apartment.

They really looked at me weird when I answered that one. I had no way other than in English to explain that I really have no possessions in the States other than what I will send to Africa.

When we reviewed animals' names, my classmates would ask if the French eat certain animals, and then they always asked me if I eat those too (since they are very curious about American ways). Answering those questions was tough, not because of my lack of French this time, but because of the setting. I might offend a Hindu and two Muslims - people I would like to befriend. What do I do? I must speak the truth, but I most certainly will offend. Ahh! Who knew such things would come up here!  I thought I had some more time to prepare my responses if I were only to encounter these questions in Africa, but this is good practice.

(I am realizing that outside of the class, where most of my classmates know a few words of English, I will have no way to answer most normal questions and be understood because my life situation is not really normal - kind of a sobering thought).

We have a lot of fun in French class together, and my classmates are very bright individuals each with different reasons for learning French. I think of all the reasons, mine must be the most unique. =0)

So this are some situations I've come across during weeks one and two of French classes. Oh, yeah, and then after class I get to go home and practice more French.

It's really fun even though it's hard. I'm glad I chose this route even though I had NO idea of what I would be getting myself into. Ha.

Language learning becomes fun for me now in another way: What weird situations can I come across in life and in class next week?

PS: Update Weeks Later... It's great that the more you spend time with people, the smaller your differences become. As you get to know people (like I am getting to know my classmates) even the largest differences are eventually shadowed by the commonality of being human. It's great getting to know my classmates better. I appreciate that they see me as more of a human and a friend each day too. My initial outlook for when I meet people for the first time, shall be changed forever. Always give the benefit of the doubt. Thank you, Lord, for this lesson.