Belated update

[aadler]

 
Week before last, I did 5,000 words on “Queen’s Gambit”. It was the first serious new push in weeks (probably months), and I was feeling really good about it. Then … well, I can’t say it fell apart, because that wasn’t the situation at all, but things definitely changed. More or less all at once.

Open Cut

See, I finally found the proper office, here at Guantanamo, through which to request a DLPT (Defense Language Proficiency Test). When I turned in the requesting document, the NCO who took it remarked, “You know, you’re only the second person to ask for this language, and the other one was just yesterday.” I got the name and number of the other guy, and gave him a call, thinking we might study and practice together.

Well, he didn’t need the practice, because he’s a native speaker renewing the official recognition of his language proficiency. All the same, he agreed to work with me whenever we could get together. Which hasn’t been as often as I would have liked — I have ongoing trouble catching him at home — but it’s moved me into a different zone of concentration. When I’m not working, I’m doing Farsi study. I had already made some inroads on the Rosetta Stone modules, but I went back to the beginning and started over, and still tore through the entirety of Level One in just a week. Next week, Level Two. (Unless the material gets so complicated it slows me down, in which case I’ll spend longer to make sure I get it right.) More than anything else, I’m trying to get an ear for the language, which isn’t easy without cultural immersion, but I’m doing what I can.

We’re due to leave in three weeks. I’m looking to take the test just before departure. If I can do well enough, I might get the Defense Language Institute slot (for Arabic) that I’ve been wanting for years; if not, at least I’ll have something on record, and I can start building on that.

Close Cut

Anyhow, too busy for writing. Which is a shame in itself, but the current crunch will pass, and I’ll return to writing once I’m no longer dealing with the necessity/ opportunity of the moment.

Susan has returned from her Medjugorje pilgrimage. We talked for awhile Saturday; she told me various things about the trip, but I best remember her surprise at the rudeness of the Italian tourists. She’s still in negotiations for a new job; nothing has been decided yet — maybe next week — but her qualifications are so outstanding that it’s basically a matter of which job do they want to give her? If they do hire her (which now seems all but certain), she’ll be moving back to the city where we lived when we were first married.

And I will be able, on my return, to begin properly guiding her through seven seasons of Buffy and five of Angel. After all, if we’re going to remarry, we need to be sure we’re speaking the same language.

Comments

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! You've been trying to get yhat for so long now. It is always amazing to me how we struggle for something and then, seemingly out of the blue, God can drop exactly what we want or need in our lap. I hope the experience is enjoyable as well as educational.

[aadler]

Thanks. You realize (right?) that I’m talking about the test, rather than about actual admittance into the DLI program? This is a step in the right direction, but by no means the actual achievement of the goal.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

But you wanted a native speaker to get you up to speed and presto, there is one. Also, it seems you've been struggling for this step for some time now.

[aadler]

Okay. Now I feel kind of dumb. As it happens, though, the native speaker didn’t work out. He said he was willing to help me, and I think he honestly was … just not ready to take on the effort and inconvenience that helping me would require. Any of it. Ever.

Still, as you noted, this is a positive step. At least once I have a DLPT score officially recorded, I’ll be eligible for refresher classes. This self-study stuff can take you only so far.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Drat. As you are so well aware immersion is the best way to learn a language and I thought this sounded perfect. Somehow I do think this is going to work out over time. The waiting really is awful though.