Last Monday, I started my official language lessons at the American Center for Mongolian Studies (a.k.a Bridge School)- located at the east of UlaanBaatar. The night before, I received a text that if my lessons have not yet been confirmed, I should report to the office at 10 am. I planned of waking up late but at 7:30 am, I was awaken by Alylose and was told that the school bus was picking me up at exactly 8 am. Out of frantic anxiety, I called the VSO emergency number to inquire on my language lessons. How stupid of me! This wasn't an emergency so Bishrel did not entertain my inquiries, she just told me to call Urnaa instead. So I texted Urnaa and received her reply that I was having my lessons then.
At 8:11 am, I rode the school bus that was waiting at the corner outside our guesthouse. The driver was so angry and incessantly pointing on the clock to remind me that I was indeed late. We then fetched a number of students ( majority of them I think are Koreans) on the way to the school. When we arrived at the school, the principal showed me my room. The room is like that of the nursery's and resplendent with alphabets, phrases and posters of images (Fruits, Weather, Colors etc)
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| My small room at the Bridge |
I am currently taking the Survival Course which will last for two weeks. This course teaches the student the basics of Mongolian language or simply how to survive Mongolia with a number of helpful phrases.My MWF teacher is Odnoo while Alta teaches me on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There is an advantage of not joining the batch for the language lessons because in this way, my language lessons will be more intense than what the group had. However, for my ICT lessons, since VSO will not be inviting the speakers again , they will be the one who will give me my ICT.
Lessons
Each lesson lasts for 3 1/2 hours and a recess at 10:30- 10:45. Odnoo taught me how to read the Mongolian cyrillic alphabet and how to greet in Mongolian on my first day. Their alphabet is written differently than the English except for letters a,o,m and t. Their letter r is the English's letter p, their c is the counterpart of s, an inverse N is their I, our Y is their U and our letter H is their N. Mongolians have two letters for B depending on the sound: be and we; two letters for O (O and OO); y for U and Y for UU. It took me 30 minutes to familiarize myself with their alphabet since I had a hard time with several unfamiliar letters like that of an asterisk for J and some other letters like: л, э, ц, д
After the grueling minutes of trying hard to master their alphabet, Odnoo taught me of few Mongolian greetings like Sain Banuu (not in Mongolian) which means hello. My first lesson in greetings was not too overwhelming because I had memorized some of Mongolian greetings even before I arrived here.
On my second day, Alta taught me of few introductory statements such as: Where did you come from? ( Ta hanas irsem be? or in cyrillic script: Та хаанас иршен бе? ; What city are you from? ( Ta yamar hotos irsem be?); I am a nurse ( script: би сувлач ) etc. I also learned how to count from Alta (тег, нег, хоер , горов ...)Contrary to Odnoo, Alta is very strict with the pronunciation and since I am an Ilocano, I had a difficulty in pronouncing soft nose sounds. Oh Mongolians and their throat, nose, palate sounds.
I am thinking of requesting the change of the course name from Survival to "Extra Challenge- Hard Edition" course. Each day it gets harder and harder especially when Odnoo taught me that Mongolian statements follow the S(ubject)-O(bject)-V(erb) arrangement contrary to the usual S-V-O which I think makes it more difficult. Instead of saying: Where do you live? In Mongolian, the proper way to ask is: Where live do you?
The School Bus Driver
This is the tale of the school bus driver that I shall name Mr. Grumpy. Every morning, he picks me up on that corner outside my house and not once I have ever seen him smile to me. He is not tolerant of latecomers probably since it can get really heavy on Peace Avenue at 8:30 am onwards. In order to avoid Mr. Grumpy's grimaces and clock pointing gestures, everyday I woke up at 6 am.Still, out of my five days at school, I had been late thrice: on Monday at 8:11 am, 8:01 on Tuesday and 8:05 on Wednesday. This coming week, I vow to receive a nod or smile from Mr. Grumpy so I should be up at 5 am.
On my second day, Alta taught me of few introductory statements such as: Where did you come from? ( Ta hanas irsem be? or in cyrillic script: Та хаанас иршен бе? ; What city are you from? ( Ta yamar hotos irsem be?); I am a nurse ( script: би сувлач ) etc. I also learned how to count from Alta (тег, нег, хоер , горов ...)Contrary to Odnoo, Alta is very strict with the pronunciation and since I am an Ilocano, I had a difficulty in pronouncing soft nose sounds. Oh Mongolians and their throat, nose, palate sounds.
I am thinking of requesting the change of the course name from Survival to "Extra Challenge- Hard Edition" course. Each day it gets harder and harder especially when Odnoo taught me that Mongolian statements follow the S(ubject)-O(bject)-V(erb) arrangement contrary to the usual S-V-O which I think makes it more difficult. Instead of saying: Where do you live? In Mongolian, the proper way to ask is: Where live do you?
The School Bus Driver
This is the tale of the school bus driver that I shall name Mr. Grumpy. Every morning, he picks me up on that corner outside my house and not once I have ever seen him smile to me. He is not tolerant of latecomers probably since it can get really heavy on Peace Avenue at 8:30 am onwards. In order to avoid Mr. Grumpy's grimaces and clock pointing gestures, everyday I woke up at 6 am.Still, out of my five days at school, I had been late thrice: on Monday at 8:11 am, 8:01 on Tuesday and 8:05 on Wednesday. This coming week, I vow to receive a nod or smile from Mr. Grumpy so I should be up at 5 am.
New Friends at School
On my first day at the school, I was approached by It Tsu Jung, a Korean student who have been studying in the Bridge for 3 months.He will work as a Kindergarten teacher here in UB.They said that Koreans easily understand and speak Mongolian because their language closely resembles it. I also met one Filipino student: Ate Rose who is an Ilocano and works as a Catholic missionary here and Prospero- an African missionary who studied for five years in the Philippines and also a missionary. Last Wednesday, I met Ate Nelly and Berly who are both Christians and work as part time English teachers at the Bridge and on Thursday, I had a chance conversation with two tall German students and one Korean whose names I forgot.
Surviving the Survival Course
Next Friday will be my last day at the Bridge and so far I can say, in spite how hard the language is, I am still surviving it. Yesterday, I put my skills to the test when I ordered at a vegetarian restaurant and got a bad combination of strawberry juice, coleslaw and rice porridge! Tsk tsk!
Surviving the Survival Course
Next Friday will be my last day at the Bridge and so far I can say, in spite how hard the language is, I am still surviving it. Yesterday, I put my skills to the test when I ordered at a vegetarian restaurant and got a bad combination of strawberry juice, coleslaw and rice porridge! Tsk tsk!
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| A Menu in the Lovinghut which tested my language skills. |
