As easy as ABC (sort of)!

I am proud to announce that I am now literate in Nepali. Which means I can, theoretically, read anything in Nepali that you throw at me. Of course, it will be PAINFULLY slow, and I almost certainly won’t have a clue what I’m reading, but I can read. I’ve been going around reading storefront signs, and everything else I can find to practice with. It’s kind of like when a kid first learns to read and is sounding out every word they see. Yup, that’s me! The interesting thing that I found yesterday as I was reading storefront signs, is that a lot of the words are English words just spelled in Nepali (using the Devanagari script, as it's called). I spent about 5 minutes reading the sign at the NMB Bank Limited, only to realize that the Nepali words said “Enembee bank, leemeeted.” Another one that I saw today said “Loreeyal byootee parlar.” And then there are the signs at the shops where you can buy recharge cards for your N-cell SIM card. They say, “Reesharj kard.” I know...I'm a language geek...but I think this stuff is cool! To give you an idea, here is a photo of the page of consonants from my language book. There are also vowels, which look different depending on whether they're standalone vowels or attached to a consonant. And then you can do half-letters, which are the consonant symbols basically cut in half. And sometimes 2 consonants combine to make a different one, which is another symbol. But, as I've mentioned before, it's not Chinese, and there is a finite number of symbols/characters.

There is also the fact that a lot of the sounds are similar, but distinct. Like there is the "k" sound, and then the aspirated "kh" sound, which is basically "k" with a puff of air. Almost all the consonants have their unaspirated and aspirated sounds. As for "t" and "d," there are 4 different ways to say them: with your tongue at the roof of your mouth (aspirated and then unaspirated), and with your tongue between your teeth (again, aspirated and unaspirated). So it gets confusing, but it actually really helps to know the symbol for each one.

Now that I have mastered (sort of) the alphabet, I am on to grammar and vocabulary. It’s interesting - I can be really struggling to remember a word or a concept, saying it over and over to myself, and then I leave it for a minute, and when I come back to it I can’t remember it for the life of me. I have had certain ones that I get hung up on and can't seem to remember. Then I get a good night’s sleep, and somehow in the morning it’s there in my brain. If that’s not a plug for getting enough sleep I don’t know what is.

In other news, I have now figured out (well, after being shown 3 times by someone else) the back way to where my language classes are. This means that I avoid walking along the main road, which is a really good thing. There is less dust/pollution (a lot of people in Kathmandu wear masks when they walk outside, or the women shield their mouths with the scarves/shawls they’re wearing). There is also MUCH less noise (I’ve just about had enough of people coming up right behind me and honking in my ear!), and it seems a lot safer. You’d think that walking on the sidewalk should keep you safe, but even there sometimes there is a motorbike or two that decides it would be faster to bypass the traffic and drive on the sidewalk. You also avoid the big Bagmati bridge, which crosses over the Bagmati river (which smells of rotting trash, sewage, and stagnant water…lovely!). So it’s nice to avoid all that. The trade-off is that you go along all these twists and turns in these narrow little streets so that you feel like you’re lost all the time. And the smaller footbridge that you use to cross over the river looks so rusted that it might drop out from under your feet at any time, and then you’d end up IN the river that smells of rotting trash, sewage, and stagnant water. But at least it’s a shorter distance to cross! The back way takes about 10 minutes longer (40 minutes instead of 30), but it’s worth it. And I’m proud to announce that I have walked it twice myself now and haven’t gotten lost. I’m not the most directionally gifted person in the world, so it feels like quite an accomplishment. The other challenge with getting around Kathmandu is that there are no street names. So instead you use landmarks…turn right at the temple that is after the motorcycle shop and across from the bank. And then turn left on the little dirt path that goes downhill instead of up. Look for the school with the gate that has Tom and Jerry painted on it and turn right after that. And so on…

I spent Saturday through Sunday morning at the children’s home again. I love it there, and come back to my apartment with a huge smile on my face! I’ll be spending Christmas with them. Yesterday I was playing hide and seek with the younger kids, and one of the 5-year-old boys (the one beside me with the red hoodie in the photo below), who is rather a dramatic child, was loudly yelling, “RUN, SISTER, RUN!!!” to encourage me to get away and hide in time. I laughed pretty hard! Here are a few more kid photos. And there was a lovely sunset last night, too.

Tomorrow I start back into language classes. 3 hours a day now of lessons, and then we’re supposed to spend 3 hours of time outside of class studying and practicing, so it’s pretty intense. I’m really thankful that I have a few languages already under my belt, and that I enjoy learning languages…it helps a lot! But it's still slow-going. Starting from zero means I have a long way to go. I just keep reminding myself that it's only week 3 and it really is okay that I'm not fluent yet :)