During the vacation in Sri Lanka, I made a few resolutions right in this blog. First, I said that I was going to lose a bit of weight. The first week back I bought new digital bathroom scales and I'm pleased to say that I average between one and two kilograms lighter than the day I got them. My other promise to myself was to learn a little Sinhala.
Although language acquisition is part of my livelihood, I generally deal with Intermediate to High Intermediate learners of English. It has been years since I worked with beginners. As for my own skills in any other language beside English, well let's just say, I have none.
The people in the screenshot above have the patience of Job. (Either the company uses the same man and woman for all their language series or these folks are Burghers!) I put the disc in the drive and when I looked at the clock again an hour had passed. I still have a bit of trouble distinguishing between the men's washroom and passport. Also, it should be noted that hotel, credit card and water sound nearly the same as in the language I already use. Remarkably, I still feel that I learned more Sinhala language in the hour than I had since first visiting Sri Lanka in the 1980's.
Jay is a patient fellow but I don't think he could bear an hour of flashcard flipping just so I could memorize a dozen vocabulary words. Excuse me if I end this entry now. I am itching to get back to my "Essential words and phrases for absolute beginners."