{"id":1108,"date":"2017-04-27T10:58:15","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T15:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/?p=1108"},"modified":"2021-12-06T16:50:50","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T21:50:50","slug":"the-box-is-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/2017\/04\/27\/the-box-is-open\/","title":{"rendered":"The box is open"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m currently in Tanzania, where I\u2019ll be in some training the next two weeks.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t my first time here, though.\u00a0 In 2008 I was here for a study-abroad semester, and in 2013 I was here for some PGA training.\u00a0 Before coming in 2008 I had a semester class to learn some Swahili, the main language of the country.\u00a0 By the end of that, and the semester here in Tanzania, I wasn\u2019t by any means fluent, but I could carry on conversations and (often) get my point across.\u00a0 However, being out of the context and focusing on other languages (mainly French and Jula), I forgot all my Swahili.\u00a0 When I was coming back in 2013 I couldn\u2019t remember anything.<\/p>\n

However, before coming back in 2013 I got together with a guy from my church in My Country who is from Burundi and speaks Swahili.\u00a0 I asked him to re-teach me some.\u00a0 He\u2019d give me a word, and it was like a faint memory from the past broke through \u2013 \u201cThat\u2019s right, \u2018chumvi\u2019 is salt.\u00a0 I had totally forgotten, but now I remember it\u2019s still in the back recesses of my brain somewhere.\u201d\u00a0 However, by the time I got to Tanzania, I couldn\u2019t even really greet anyone in Swahili.\u00a0 But some colleagues got me on a 10-hour bus ride to go visit friends, and I managed to make it there using English.\u00a0 While I was there, my friends were studying Swahili, having been there for just a few months. I joined them in their Swahili classes, and it was like a fog was lifting.\u00a0 The teacher even asked me to do the homework, and though my vocabulary was very limited, I was able to write the kinds of sentences she wanted.\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 By the end of that week, I was able to carry on simple conversations again!\u00a0 I went to a tourist shop I had been to in 2008 and was able to carry on all the transactions and all the chatting that went along with it in broken Swahili! (But I know there were probably at least snippets of Jula and\/or French in it.)\u00a0 By the time I took the 10-hour bus ride back to the capital to start the training, I felt confident that I could speak enough Swahili to greet people, maybe buy a snack along the way, etc.<\/p>\n

Fast forward 3 \u00bd years.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been back in My Country, living my life in Jula and French and now starting to learn My Language (the language of My People).\u00a0 But I\u2019m heading back to Tanzania.\u00a0 Oh no!\u00a0 At least this time I remembered a few phrases \u2013 salt, I want, how are you.\u00a0 Still not very much, though a little better than last time.\u00a0 However, now that I\u2019ve been back it\u2019s been like the box that\u2019s in the back corner of my brain and is labeled \u201cSwahili\u201d has been cracked open.\u00a0 I see a sign with a word on it, and even though 5 minutes ago I couldn\u2019t have told you what the word meant, now all of a sudden I know it.\u00a0 I hear someone talking and understand words that they use, though I myself couldn\u2019t have used them in the same conversation.\u00a0 Sometime I recognize a word and need to ask the definition, but the definition sticks a lot faster than if it was brand new.\u00a0 But even crazier than that is that if I think hard enough and try to remember a word, there are some that have come back without me even hearing them.\u00a0 How does that work?\u00a0 It\u2019s a word that\u2019s been stored in that little \u201cSwahili\u201d box, unused, for 3 \u00bd years.\u00a0 No one else even got it out and dusted it out for me, but somehow by being around Swahili and having other people (or even signs along the road) dust off some words, it\u2019s like the box is open and other words are free to escape and become usable again.\u00a0 Whereas when I first got here I couldn\u2019t say much more than \u201cHow are you? I\u2019m fine,\u201d less than 48 hours later I could say things like, \u201cI come from Burkina Faso.\u00a0 I can speak French, English, and Jula, but I can\u2019t speak Swahili.\u201d\u00a0 How in the world did that happen?<\/p>\n

I know that I\u2019m a language nerd, enjoy learning languages, and learn them faster than most other people.\u00a0 However, what I don\u2019t know is if everyone else has these language boxes in their brains that get cracked open when they\u2019re dusted off, and words just start escaping into your mouth and the usable part of your brain.\u00a0 For those of you who have learned and forgotten a language, then gone back to where that language is spoken, could you let me know what your experience is?\u00a0 Am I just an odd-ball, or is this normal?<\/p>\n

Either way, I enjoy it.\u00a0 It\u2019s fun to feel like I\u2019m re-learning a language over the course of a week, and to have no idea what I\u2019ll be able to say tomorrow that I can\u2019t say today.\u00a0 It\u2019s an amazing phenomenon, and I can\u2019t help think of what an amazing God we have who made our brains work like this!<\/p>\n

(By the way, the picture doesn’t have anything to do with this post, other than I took the picture at the zoo yesterday.\u00a0 And he liked when I called him by his Swahili name – twiga=giraffe.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m currently in Tanzania, where I\u2019ll be in some training the next two weeks.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t my first time here, though.\u00a0 In 2008 I was here for a study-abroad semester, and in 2013 I was here for some PGA training.\u00a0 Before coming in 2008 I had a semester class to learn some Swahili, the main […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":945,"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":[1],"tags":[448],"class_list":{"0":"post-1108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-ethnos360","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/945"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}