School Days

I think back to this summer after attending our month-long language learning techniques course in Chicago, how hard it was to tell folks what we had actually been doing. This was especially true considering that we came back knowing not a smidge of Mongolian but actually some Spanish:) Let me see if I can now shed some light on that mystery.

Jeremy and I study at school for 3 and a half hours every day. Our school meets in an apartment exactly the same as ours. (The whole city has the exact same set-up) Instead of bedrooms and a living room their are 3 classrooms and a kitchen which can also be used as a classroom. (one of the classrooms doubles as the director's office and holds the school's computer.) Our school has five teachers including the director. Jeremy and I have a classroom and a teacher all to ourselves. This is the way this school works. At the same time there are others studying in all the other classrooms, some one-on-one, some two on one like us. This country has basically one language learning textbook written in English and this is used by all--Koreans, Brazilians, Norweigans, Indians, Figians, Tongans, and us too. This series of three textbooks takes about a year and a half to conquer. The teachers then are willing to do student-directed study. Some study biblical language, some traditional mongolian script, some business or medical terminology, and some just review.
In chicago we spent some time learning about the different learning styles and what our individual tendancies were. How to get the most out of our studies--whether we needed more book time or conversation time. Whether we learn best in a group setting or all alone in the quiet. How to learn so it sticks with us. Jeremy and I found our learning styles to be fairly opposite. This makes an interesting classroom setting five days a week!
We are hearing from most of our collegues sent out to all parts of the world that the learning atmospheres are as different as all the individuals themselves. Some study in an actual university. Some are in a high school type setting where they switch subjects and teachers. Some are in warm climates where the outdoor setting allows for much conversation. As we are legally in the country on a student visa right now--the current setting is our option. And, as the winter begins to get colder and colder, I imagine our converstion opportunities will be limited.
We have a great teacher who is beginning to sense some of our needs, although the mongol/russian learning style is very traditional with written tests every week and emphasis on book work. I could write more about this, but I will say we value your prayers for our study time, our teamwork, and continued variance in our learning as we go. As is to be expected, some days it feels as though we have turned a corner, and some days as though we have hit the wall. It is great to be reminded by collegues that we don't have anything to prove or a timetable to meet, we have as many years as the Lord gives us to learn all this and do not have to get everything the first time.