{"id":3569,"date":"2015-09-09T08:01:57","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T13:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/?p=3569"},"modified":"2015-09-12T05:25:55","modified_gmt":"2015-09-12T10:25:55","slug":"whatsa-dasawisma-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/2015\/09\/09\/whatsa-dasawisma-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Whatsa dasawisma? Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took me the better part of 4 months to actually hear the word(s) “dasa wisma.” The fact that it is also shortened to “da’wis,” didn’t help. But seeing as how the word had definitley floated around in countless\u00a0neighbourhood conversations, I can’t believe it never even registered at all (more on this later)! This got me thinking about the actual process of language learning–the way our brains start taking apart the massive endeavour and putting it into manageable pieces. It is utterly fascinating! Here’s a few thoughts on how my brain has been moving through the process\u00a0so far–and how it’s possible not to hear an important word for over 4 months…<\/p>\n

\"indoor
Some of the indoor markets here represent chaos in my mind since it’s still such a wild world of bargaining and the like. These kind of markets remind me how far I have to go in language learning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At first I think I just heard a bunch of sounds<\/strong>. It was all a blur of unintelligible noise, albeit not without context, non-verbals, and a whole slew of actors, but still just mass chaos.<\/p>\n

As I learned nouns little by little<\/strong> I would begin to hear those nouns in in the\u00a0mass of words that came up in conversations. Using the Total Physical Response (TPR) method, we were\u00a0exposed to about\u00a030-50 new words a day. Plus the entire time your brain is trying to guess what’s going on and using nonverbal cues like body language and context to help you try to decipher what they might be talking about (the really big context).<\/p>\n

Example: I would hear “chicken” and\u00a0“eating” and “vegetable” and decide whether or not we were having soup for lunch or whether or not the neighbours chicken was eating someone’s plants.<\/p>\n

Side note: some words stick, some don’t. I can remember the verb\u00a0for an animal clawing\u00a0you, “mencakar”, but not the word for island, “pulau.”<\/p>\n

Back to the brain stuff…at first, during a conversation, I couldn’t\u00a0recall words to speak, but when I\u00a0heard\u00a0them, my\u00a0brain pulled up\u00a0the picture that I\u00a0used for TPR and it helped me\u00a0guess what was happening\u00a0in the entire event (still big picture).<\/p>\n

\"Pak
This is a travelling salesman sporting his wares. We used the picture to help us learn the word for holding objects<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Example: why did this picture just flash through my head? Oh, they must be talking about holding something.<\/p>\n

\"getting
I’d barely been here a week or two and I went to the hospital with the dasawisma group to visit someone. I still recall how little I knew and could barely answer the simple question of “why are you here?” I had to rely on hand motions!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All the while, I\u00a0kept using the context and\u00a0nonverbal cues to help me\u00a0figure things out. I\u00a0started hearing more<\/em> nouns and verbs<\/strong> as my\u00a0daily intake increased, giving me\u00a0more ways to guess\u00a0what was going on in the context of paragraphs<\/strong>–the focus began to narrow a bit.<\/p>\n

Word on the street is that when it comes to the non-verbal, women might be a little more gifted in picking up on stuff. It would seem that being able to read context, tone of voice, and very subtle non-verbals give you the advantage when it comes to comprehension. Maybe it’s just because we talk a lot or are sensitive creatures??? I have no clue. The deep urge to chit chat also goes a long way when it comes to propulsion in language study. When it comes down to it, you gotta start somewhere. You can’t have deep conversations until you’ve talked\u00a0about whether or not you like the sweet, chunky drink made out of beans or if you saw the chicken with the bag stuck around its body running around like a crazed maniac.<\/p>\n

Sentence level<\/strong> is the next step. You can pick out one or two words in a sentence and guess more accurately. Yep, plenty of guessing still going on!\u00a0I think after that you begin to pick up time markers<\/strong> and subtleties in the word function and choice. That’s where we’re at now!<\/p>\n

Side note: I just watched this\u00a0TED video<\/a> that was about language learning. The 6 months mentioned definitely doesn’t include learning culture or the realities of the actual hours needed to employ all of these\u00a0things, but it’s still worth the watch!<\/p>\n

Back to the “dasawisma.” Turns out, it’s the term for our neighborhood monthly\u00a0group meeting (about 24 women) where we pay for things like our trash, the guards, and\u00a0social things. \u00a0\"DSC04650_800x533\"<\/p>\n

At my first one in April, I understood nothing besides the hand motions that told me when I was allowed to eat and drink. Later, when we had the meeting at our house, I was the one serving the snacks, but I was super unprepared for what to say and what cultural norms to follow.\u00a0In this case, language learning wasn’t enough–I could say things, but culturally, I didn’t know what to say and when! I did give myself a break since it had only been 2 weeks since Finn was born and I was not functioning on all 4 cylinders at that point.<\/p>\n

\"This
This is 4 months later, when we hosted the meeting. I forgot to tell everyone they were allowed to eat, which left them all staring at me until someone probably told them I didn’t know what to do. \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Month by month, the neighbour kindly informed me when the meeting was. Well, actually she told our English-speaking house helper who then told me. Later on, when I learned the word for meeting, I was able to ask when and where it would be held, but I noticed “meeting” still wasn’t the word she was routinely using. So, I had to revert to listening a bit more. Finally, I broke the code and found the new word. Huzzah! Now I hear it all the time. Kind of like when you’re car shopping and you start to notice that same car\u00a0at every stop light.\"DSC04653_800x533\"<\/p>\n

It’s easy to miss stuff when you’re too busy trying to talk or answer. It’s also easy to miss stuff when you’e afraid–afraid of looking idiotic and\u00a0slow.\u00a0I should be abundantly thankful that people here are gracious and don’t mind slow if you are at least trying!<\/p>\n

\"It's
It’s a cultural norm here to always take your shoes off when entering a home. I loved seeing the porch filled with shoes!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But, the dasawisma word saga didn’t end there…<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to read Part II – when the word “refill” isn’t what it seems…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It took me the better part of 4 months to actually hear the word(s) “dasa wisma.” The fact that it is also shortened to “da’wis,” didn’t help. But seeing as how the word had definitley floated around in countless\u00a0neighbourhood conversations, I can’t believe it never even registered at all (more on this later)! This got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1068,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55442,40],"tags":[997,448,76011,736,57,83318,1037],"class_list":{"0":"post-3569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-language-learning-2","7":"category-overseas","8":"tag-adventure","9":"tag-ethnos360","10":"tag-exploring","11":"tag-neighborhood","12":"tag-pictures","13":"tag-processes","14":"tag-thoughts","15":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}