Time for Tajikistan!
Can you believe it? I’m already in Chicago for pre-departure orientation, leaving for Tajikistan Thursday night!!!!! Okay okay okay there are SO many thoughts in my head right now.
RUNDOWN OF 6/20/18
I took a 10:15 am flight to Chicago, met some of my fellow Tajik learners! After waiting about 4 hours at the airport, we headed over to our hotel, Hilton Embassy Suites with a HUGE room. For dinner, we ate ate a nearby outlet mall with a NSLIY stipend (eyyyy) and poked around a candy store before heading back.
At the hotel meeting room, we tried an activity where we had to stand where our roommate was based on where they were from in the US, using the room as a general scale for the nation. Things we learned? 1) we basically are from CA, NJ, or TX. 2) it’s hard to find the Bay Area. Our next activity was to sit in order, youngest to oldest, without speaking. We sorta failed...
We then got our T-shirts, which I will put a picture of in this post. After, my roommate had the brilliant idea of ordering Coldstone from Uber Eats, so the 11 of us just chatted and ate ice cream sandwiches until room check time, 10 pm!!
RUNDOWN OF 6/21/18
Woke up and ate breakfast with my NSLIY classmates - got an omelette made, which was really yummy. We then checked out and went to Salon A for our official meeting / orientation. It was a little boring, and they mostly talked about rules like about drinking/drugs, picking up your phone, etc. We did one activity where we had to figure out translations of animals from different languages (I knew 2/10, 蛇 for snake and rana for frog). Lesson was we all have to work together, yay! Another activity we did was about what to do in unfamiliar scenarios. I think this had some overlap with the NSLI-Y interview? So we discussed what to do in various situations, including if our host family doesn’t speak Tajik to you, if you’re feeling left out of a group, if someone keeps making fun of someone, if you’re trying the best that you can but are still behind everyone else and the teacher compares you to other students. A few were about safety too, such as if a person claims to be undercover police and asks for your ID, or if someone is following you, or you see a fellow female participant being harassed by local men. We also made a personal code of conduct, which included lending support to each other, being non-judgmental and open-minded, and not being too sucked in onto your own electronic devices. I think this was really touching -- I’m really worried I’ll be the weak link of the group or left out, so I know that if I stick to these rules, even if I may not click with everyone, we’ll be a respectful and mutually supportive group of learners. Side note: lunch was great! I ate too much so I don’t think I’ll eat for dinner -- had a turkey wrap and some carrot cake and fruit (pineapple/watermelon). After lunch, we had some more orientation. The US State Department representative Chris wasn’t able to come, but we learned about future opportunities, like joining the Foreign Service (there’s an exam), Borne scholarship, language flagship programs, and OPIs (which cost over $100). We then did another activity where we acted out skits! Elaine and I did one where I was a student asking a host family member for safe water, with VERY elementary Tajik phrases: Ман ташнаям. Хуб? Раҳмат!
LANGUAGE REVIEW
Let’s continue with what I’ve been trying to do the last two weeks or so — review some Mandarin and Japanese before I leave, since I most definitely won’t have time to study those in Tajikistan (or room in my suitcase for extra books).
Mandarin
Well, I have a Chinese culture book called "Common Knowledge about Chinese Culture" with Chinese/English translations with little passages about different holidays, traditions that I was flipping through. Who doesn’t like reading about eating mooncakes and dumplings? Things I learned:
~ 腊月 means the 12th month of the lunar year, pronounced là yuè. There's a dish called 腊肉, but when I tried to make a pun that it could be spicy (which it isn't), my dad didn't think it was funny. Rip. (spicy 辣 is also pronounced là)
~ 延续, which generally means continue or prolong, is pronounced yán xù, but the first character is annoyingly similar to 挺 (rather, tíng) and 2nd character of 圣诞节 (Christmas, dàn).
~ I soon got distracted by a Chinese textbook my sis had from her freshman year. I read the first passage and responded to the questions, and even wrote a short essay (that my dad proceeded to mark up with a gazillion corrections, hahaha). I don't have it with me, but it was about my childhood and what influenced me. A few phrases I learned: 为人处世 (behavior in society), 与人为善，与书为友. I like this second phrase because it describes what my parents taught me (教育！）: to be kind towards people, and dedicate yourself to learning and education. I also learned 无忧无虑 (carefree, worry-free).
~ Thennnn I found this cute edition of the Little Prince with English on one side and Chinese on the other! I read about 4 chapters so far, and I wrote a little summary of it & started a vocab list of everything I didn't know. Warning: it's quite long. A few of my favorite include: 喜笑颜开 (smile)，杰作 (masterpiece)，竭尽所能 (do everything in your ability)，荒诞 (absurd)，逼真 (authentic)，迁就 (accommodate).
2. OKAY THEN phew so that's my Chinese so far. I did a lil Japanese -- Lesson 9 of Genki 1 was about short form, past tense verbs so I wrote a terribly simple journal entry of what I did one day, and a short thank-you note. I'll retype the note below -- @Isabella, @Melissa :D
3. NOW FOR TAJIK OKAY.
Clearly I have bitten off more than I could chew. Note this process of language studying was derailed over the weekend by my Spanish final (yes I still had a final on Monday)… I feel like I still don't know anything in Tajik (because I don't). Here are a few observations I had:
Sentence structure is sorta like Japanese - subject, object, verb. It's verb-final!
I already mentioned this, but Persian is Indo-European so it has some connections to English/Spanish. Ex: modar = mother, padar = father, dush = shower (in Spanish, la ducha is the shower).
I thought it was interesting how hondan хондан means "to read," and hon in Japanese can mean book!
There's literally no Tajik-learning resources online except for Google Translate, and we all know how dependable that can be. Well, I tried my best. Here are a few sentences I thought could be of use:
I study Japanese, Tajik, Chinese, Spanish. Ман Ҷапонӣ, Тоҷикӣ, Чинӣ, во Испанӣ меомӯзам.
I like piano, dance, writing. Ман фортепиано, рақс, сабт дӯст медорам.
I have an older sister. Ман хоҳари калони дошта мебошам.
I am 17 years old. Ман ҳабдаҳ сола хастам.
My mom and dad are from China. Мадари во падари ман аз Чин хастанд.
I need water. Ман об лозим аст.
Can I take a picture? Оё тасвир гирифта метавонам?
*Can you help me? Homework
*To love
*to go
*grandparents
magazine
TRIP GOALS
Now, time for some reflection on the trip ahead of me. I am going to track any language goals / daily reflections in the planner I bought. For things I do, I downloaded an app called DayOne on my phone where I can enter daily journal entries! And, I'm not sure about WiFi access, but I would really love to be able to blog in Tajikistan… I have the Wix app on my phone handy just in case.
I feel like I need to set goals for this trip. I did this with my family group at YYGS-IAS last year, and thought it was silly. But, I looked back on it when the program was over, and it really touched me because I had grown so much over those few weeks. So, here goes!
Become close with my host family
Accept their invitations to go places!
Do homework NOT in my room every day
Greet them every day
Make connections with my fellow NSLI-Y participants
I hope to keep contact with them after, as companions on this crazy trip of a lifetime.
Improve my language skills
Be able to have a conversation by the end!
Talk to my family daily
Learn a new word every day
Interact with Tajiks in real life!
MAKE. MISTAKES. And keep smiling.
Living
Be more confident, independent
Taking care of my needs -- water, medical help
Handling situations that make me uncomfortable (e.g. staring, name-calling)
Budgeting money - I have $200 to convert to somoni! I want to get gifts for my friends and family, but also to enjoy myself a little.
Budgeting time - having fun, but also finding time to do homework, contact my family!
Culture
Learn more about the way people live in Tajikistan and think about the world
Gain understanding of some customs - dance, food, etc.!
I recently read parts of a book that I received from the Princeton Book Awards, and it explained studies that showed how the act of smiling, merely rearranging your face muscles into the position of smiling, made people more open to ideas and more positive. I think smiling is going to get me through this. (Full circle: 喜笑颜开！）
The book also discussed how in more grueling mental tasks, people are more open and willing to explore ideas after restoring their glucose levels. I also think eating all the yummy snacks I brought, and food in Tajikistan, is going to get me through this.
Well, that's all I have to brain dump for now. See you soon!
