365 - Duolingo

Yesterday I scored a 365 day streak on Duolingo. Duolingo is an app that helps you learn different languages. As you complete lessons, you score experience points (xp) to keep track of how far you are, and if you meet your daily xp goal it adds to your streak*. I'm a real fan!

I've been using it to:
refresh my German (21,328 xp)
learn Spanish (17542 xp) and Chinese (6918)

Duo, himself

and putter around in Portuguese (2089) and French (1526).

The German lessons have mostly succeeded in reminding me of which gender various nouns are and added some words and phrases that a missionary rarely needs to use, like business terms for handling accounts.

Before trying Spanish on Duolingo I had read the Book of Mormon in Spanish twice. The app has been VERY helpful in filling in a lot of gaps and making me very confident in my ability to read Spanish. Hearing it or having conversations with native speakers? Still not so much. I can follow along a Spanish church lesson or talk as long as I already know what they're talking about and it makes a lot of sense, but if anyone starts telling a story about something that happened to them I don't already know, I get completely lost.

Joy has joined me in working on Chinese. The other day she listened to a sentence in Chinese and asked if I could translate it. I could tell it was in the lesson on nationalities, but I couldn't figure out what country they were saying. I admitted that and asked, "So what country IS he from?" And that was correct: What country is he from? *LOL* I was able to say a few phrases to a transfer student successfully. That was nice. My favorite sentence is "Teacher please help my younger brother," because with Chinese tones it sounded like a perfect background for a techno song. I'll mutter that phrase over and over, banging out a beat with my dry erase markers or what have you just having fun.

They recently added a competition, where you are paired with 49 others who are active this week. At the end of the week they total your xp for that week. The top 10 of you go up a level, the bottom 5 go down a level, and everyone else stays where you are. After a few attempts, I've made it to level 4/5, where I hope to stay for the foreseeable future.

Gift of tongues

Slightly more than a week ago I saw another friend posting about the Duolingo language learning app. I decided to check it out and was quickly hooked. I then spread the contagion to Joy and to Superstar.

I'm brushing up on my mission German, filling in the many holes in my Spanish, and starting Mandarin with Joy. Joy is brushing up on her mission Spanish, starting Mandarin with me, and has started poking around Dutch as well. Superstar is mostly working on Spanish, but he's also played with Italian and German a little.

Each of us has been diligent for an entire week so far. I can tell a real difference in my own comfort level. I've read the Book of Mormon twice in Spanish, but when it's time for me to actually say something and form a coherent sentence, it took several minutes of concerted thought. Now I can actually share some basic thoughts about my day with Joy and be understood.

So three cheers for Duolingo!

Wanderer in a Strange Land

You actually can go home again. There are just start up costs.

I expect to feel like I'm in a foreign country in Nigeria. I don't expect that in the US.

As we prepared to leave Nigeria and return to the US for the summer, we made careful plans. Among other things, we decided to leave as much as possible in Yola and buy anything we needed here, bringing only those clothes and so forth we would not be bringing back to Yola. That would preserve space for what we want to bring back with us. But that meant when we first arrived, we shampooed with the complementary hotel bottles, had no razors, etc. etc. etc. Few things say "Not At Home" quite like not having the specific things you use daily. [Fixed within 24 hours]

When we got to the US, we had no car insurance. So even though my parents were willing to let us borrow their car, we weren't legally allowed to. We hiked the mile to the store and back, lugging our medications, toiletries, and a few other things with us. Few things say "Not At Home" quite like not being able to get around. [Fixed within 72 hours]

When we got to the US, we had no phone. I expected this would be a major problem when we first arrived because I was certain there was no way on the Face on the EARTH we would get through customs and security with 2 red-eyed children, 2 red-eyed adults, and make it to our connecting flight with only a one hour layover. How would we let Mom know the new time to pick us up once our flights were rescheduled? Well, we found a way and it turned out by some minor miracle that we made our flight anyway. But few things say "Not At Home" quite like not having a phone, anyone's phone numbers, or ability to get hold of anyone. [Fixed within a week]

We're staying in Goleta right now, which is my home town. I know where everything is. Joy doesn't. Few things say "Not At Home" quite like needing to ask someone where literally everything is. How do I find food? Where can I take the children to play? When is church?

"You assume when you come back to the US, you assume you have a sense of independence again ... and it takes a while to set that up," Joy adds.

On the other hand, few things say "Welcome Home" quite like having all your favorite, beloved, only-in-the-US foods ready and waiting for you (Thanks, Pop!); knowing that everyone not only speaks the same language as their primary language, but speaks it the same way you do; the many hugs and smiles from friends and family; sleeping in the same room you had 20 years ago with your son sleeping where you did 30 years ago; (in my case) knowing where everything is; and finally rebuilding that ability to live and function independently. We got library cards within the first 2-3 days also and checked out nearly 50 books, mostly for the kids.

It's wonderful to be Back Home.

Popcorn

Last week while grading, I found a new computer game -- think Pong with 4-20 balls going at the same time and an updated version of the world's first electronic hit, Popcorn, playing in the background. It got me readdicted to the song and I sought out a good updated version. I haven't found one as good as the video game soundtrack, sadly.

I couldn't wait to share it with Prince again. So one morning I played it for him. Since it looked like he needed some pressure, I also rubbed his face in time with the music. (Lee-de-dee, rub the forehead; dee-dede-dee, rub the nose; dee, rub the chin; repeat). He enjoyed that very much. Sometimes I used my own hand, mostly I held his hands and had him give himself the pressure.

Princess watched in fascination. As soon as Prince and I were done, she put her hands on her forehead to ask for the same game. I played it with her for a moment and she laughed and laughed. I thought nothing of it.

That was more than a week ago. Princess has a regular habit now of staring at me intently, then putting her hands up on the side of her head to ask for Popcorn. I figured out what she meant out of context too and taught Joy to play the game. She regularly asks for it during meals since it's a game she can play while waiting for her food.

This morning, Joy was nursing Princess. Princess stopped eating and then out of the blue Princess hit Joy in the face! Joy recounts:

"I told her no. She did it again. I said, 'No, that hurts. We don't hit Mommy in the face.' And she looks at me and appears to be thinking. And then she said, 'Dad' and put her hands up to her ears. I realized she wanted to play the Popcorn game. I said, 'No. I'm not Daddy. I want soft.' And I touched her face soft. She tried to touch my face soft, and it wasn't soft. So I said No, and then she tried again and it was soft. I said 'Thank you.'"

We are very impressed at her budding communication skills. Her favorite word is "Dad," which is sometimes only "Da" and some rare times "Dada." She says "Yeah" and she tries to say "Jesus" when He is pointed out to her. Oddly enough, she doesn't say "Mama" very often.

She raises both her hands and waves them when she is all done eating. We've tried to teach her the sign language for "More," but most of the time she does that when she doesn't want more. When she knocked away the spoon with some baby cereal on it this morning, I commented it was the 'international sign for Something Else Please' and Joy laughed. She said to make sure I included that in this blog. She knows to fold her hands when we tell her to for prayers and can wave bye-bye most of the time.

Nigerian English 1

Prince is learning to speak Nigerian. For instance, he counts "five, six, sevwon, eight" and the days of the week include "Monday, Tuesday, Wen-es-day, Tursday...." And thus the immigrant battle to maintain cultural/linguistic purity begins! (Y'see, son, there's school English and there's home English; at home, you speak home English...) At least I have the advantage of coming from Southern California where I've debated the importance of both blending in and maintaining cultural ties before.

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Yes and No don't mean quite the same things. If I ask the guards if the bus has already come and left, they invariably say yes. So I call the bus driver, who informs me he is still on his way. The guards either mean that "Yes, the bus is still coming," or "Yes, the bus came an hour ago," but that's not the question I ask. Several other expats have confirmed that Nigerians have a different sense of reporting on the past and future than other (US/India) cultures.

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We buy our milk in cardboard cartons. It's been irradiated so it can keep on the shelf for 6 months without refrigeration. Joy went to the store and asked for two boxes. They pulled out two cases filled with boxes. Finally she learned the correct terminology: Give me two pieces of milk.

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Joy's driver advised her to stop asking around for Oatmeal. "What is this ~oat-milk~ of which you speak?" They just call them oats. To me, oats are for horses, oatmeal for humans.

How worldwide is General Conference?

I'm not sure why this didn't post when I wrote it a month ago. I'm even more confused why it didn't post last week when I reposted it. Let's try it one more time, shall we?

More than half of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) live outside the US. More than 1 in 4 members speaks Spanish as their primary language and more than 1 in 10 speak either Portuguese or a Philippine dialect. In the last thirty years, Africa's share of LDS membership has grown from close to 0 to 3%. Every year, the membership looks less and less like the stereotype most people have of the Church. That's one of the reasons I keep up the "LDS in ..." series, to showcase the lives of actual members in this diverse world.

The newest LDS temple is in San Salvador, El Salvador. This is the 4th Central American temple (Mexico has it looks like 12). There is another new stake [a large grouping of congregations] in Peru, the 96th, bringing the country closer to becoming the 5th in the world with over 100 stakes.

I was interested to learn this morning that - just as Christ, Messiah, and Annointed One express the same concept translated in different languages (Greek, Hebrew, and English) - Allah is likewise the Arabic word for God:

In these instances the Greek word θεὸς is translated into the English “God”, the German “Gott”, and the French “Dieu”. These are not differing unique English, German, and French deities but rather just the generic word in the respective language to express the Greek word. So it is with the Arabic word الله‎ (Allāh).  ...
Who would have ever guessed that Arabic speaking Muslims, Jews and Christians use the same Arabic word (Allah) to name the God they are worshiping? To illustrate by way of personal experience, when my family and I traveled to Israel in 2006 we sat in on a Roman Catholic mass attended by Palestinian Christians. Does anyone want to guess what word in Arabic we repeatedly and distinctly heard throughout this beautiful Christian liturgy?

-- Derrill