Language Barriers
I like the line in the song "Wooden Ships" by Crosby, Stills, and Nash that says"If you smile at me, I will understand, because that is something everyone, everywhere does in the same language."
I have been studying the Armenian language on my own for the last few months. It is a totally different language from English with a thirty-nine character alphabet. I have not been too pushy on myself because I have feared if I was learning the wrong dialect, I would have to unlearn what I was learning. Tonight, my first Skype class will begin with Anna who is in Armenia. I have watched her video three times and begun a notebook with letters, words and phrases she introduces in Lesson 1. I hope I can keep up with my younger fellow students.
Learning Armenian as fast and accurately as I possibly can is very important to me as I begin this new adventure in my life. Nelson Mandela once said," If you talk to a man in a language he understands, it goes to his head. If you talk to a man in his language, it goes to his heart." John Kennedy proved this when he visited Berlin and said, "Ich bin ein Berliner." The world listened and he gained the love of the German people. I want the Armenian people to see I respect them and am not going there believing I am better than they because I am an American.
I have been studying the Armenian language on my own for the last few months. It is a totally different language from English with a thirty-nine character alphabet. I have not been too pushy on myself because I have feared if I was learning the wrong dialect, I would have to unlearn what I was learning. Tonight, my first Skype class will begin with Anna who is in Armenia. I have watched her video three times and begun a notebook with letters, words and phrases she introduces in Lesson 1. I hope I can keep up with my younger fellow students.
Learning Armenian as fast and accurately as I possibly can is very important to me as I begin this new adventure in my life. Nelson Mandela once said," If you talk to a man in a language he understands, it goes to his head. If you talk to a man in his language, it goes to his heart." John Kennedy proved this when he visited Berlin and said, "Ich bin ein Berliner." The world listened and he gained the love of the German people. I want the Armenian people to see I respect them and am not going there believing I am better than they because I am an American.
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