For the second time in as many years, I have spent 7+ months
studying for a two hour test. For the second time in a row, I can say that I
studied successfully! I even passed this time with a little room to spare.
Passing my test this week also allowed me to check one more requirement for
tenure off my list: I am now off of language probation. After nearly 12 months
of training and preparing to go overseas, it’s finally going to happen! J and I
have been making preparations to leave
over the last several months (let’s be honest, J has shouldered the majority of
this work). This included stocking up on essentials, packing out, getting legal documents in order, and lining up all the technology logistics (why yes, you can use Tivo
with the American Forces Network, and you can often buy the equipment for such
things from previous tenants… which, of course, we have already done).
When we weren’t madly planning, I was studying or in class.
Sometimes, I felt like I was going in reverse, losing what little ability I had
to speak the language. But other days, my classmates and I found that we could,
in fact, argue the merits of voting or discuss Rawls’s veil of justice in
Lithuanian. Whether either of these topics will help me do my job remains to be
seen, but they do sometimes spice up the classroom conversation. I imagine
teaching a foreign language can be both tiresome and frustrating. I think our
instructors spend the better part of 5 hours a day correcting grammar errors in
every single sentence we utter. It takes a lot of patience to help us improve,
and I can’t say enough about their efforts to get us all up to the required
level without pulling all their hair out!
After seven months of spending every work day with a small
group of classmates and two instructors, I was the first to leave this week.
Even though I passed, I feel like I’m still going to have a hard time
communicating in Lithuanian. I bet next time I post, it will be to tell you
that I told the cable guy our salt needs replacing, or some other such
nonsense.
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