Language and Violin

I can’t believe that last month marked 5 years since we got married. God has been good to us!

We were in Michigan at the time working on adoption stuff, but we did give each other some pretty neat presents. Payton worked with a friend of ours who is a jeweler to make me a ring! Nifty, huh? (It’s the silver one–I feel super special, especially since he surprised me)

And I got him/us a violin with the help of my dear friend and cousin-in-law, Joanna. Payton had talked about it for a while since he’s never learned an instrument before. Plus, he saw the parallels between starting an instrument and language learning.

1. He knows practically nothing about music theory, reading music, etc and will feel the same when we head to Asia Pacific. This is also why I bought this book, although I’m sure they don’t have one of these for Ind0nesian.2. It will take daily practice to see improvement, but if you stick with it, you will see little bitty results (ie. being able to play Ida Red without screeching or looking at the music).

3. If we both learn the violin, we’re not likely to always stay at the same skill level, therefore, we will have to die to competitive envy, which is common in language learning.

4. Sometimes you just have to keep going and pray your subconscious will somehow sort things out, but you also have to know when you’re at the end of your capacity for the day.

About a month later, we can say we love what our 5th year together has brought–so many good things from the Lord. And we also both love our violin, especially after buying a good mute. 😉 Here’s to another year and the year ahead!