Starting IAM Tutoring

Back to work but still feeling slow. My strength and utility comes from endurance; it will not be too helpful to be learning the language if I just stay for a year or two; it is only when I stay longer that dividends will accrue to that investment. Therefore, me learning how to rest here is a good thing. I passed by IAM (International Aid Mission) and signed up for eight hours of tutoring this week. They are known for a 5 1/2 month introductory course, mandatory for all IAM workers and available to other foreigners, but after an interview recommended that I skip it and move on. Persian script started to make sense to me last night. If I learn how to read Persian, it will solve a lot of structural issues and greatly expand my vocabulary. I'll try IAM ($6 /hour) and see if it is any better than teaching myself (which seems to be working, though too slowly). In the USA I would spend hours listening to tapes and memorizing vocabulary - an offshoot of the "audio-lingual" approach that was popular in American High School language classes from WWII until about 1980. Here in K-Town, I am immersed and use an offshoot of Dr. Brewster's "Bonded Belonger" approach, but sometimes revert to audio lingual, especially when my brain is fried from not understanding much. Now I've begun reading and writing instruction and do not know what kind of tutoring IAM will give.

7/25
Enrolling in the IAM language school (Christy Wilson founded IAM, named because He is, and invented International Assistance Mission or some such name to fit the acronym), they made a big deal of the fact that though $6 paid for one hour of personal instruction, there was a 10 minute break; instruction was to be 50 minutes per session. During my first break, the instructor showed me the tea room; we sat down and conversed - it was a simple continuation of class in a different setting - he continued to correct and improve my Dari. My second day during break, two of IAM's best teachers were having tea with me. Later, 5 other students came in for tea. That makes three students to a teacher, right? (1t/3s) Wrong - American math is different. It equaled (2t/1s) + 5s. I had both teachers to myself while the other expats spoke English in a way that excluded the teachers from their conversation ( the teachers spoke some English and you can make your speech easier to understand if you try, - these particular students were not trying). The fact that this was a language learning opportunity for me was clearly secondary to the insult that these students were showing to the teachers. Maybe I'm a confused newcomer or maybe here people respect teachers more, but to me it seemed a great embarrassment. I joined the English conversation in such a way that the teachers might understand. After someone made an interesting commentary very rapidly, I made my first attempt at translation, for the teachers. When the expat had made two or three more interesting points, his first idea was becoming clear to the teachers. I will not be translating professionally into Dari any time soon. Was I the only expat that saw this as rude? Apparently so. The teachers greatly respect me as a student; certainly I am different. In addition to the lessons I pay for, I know I can sit in the tearoom for any length of time and receive free conversation class; I do not, however, wish to take advantage. My instructors told me that after I learn Dari, I should continue and quickly pickup Pashto and Urdu (languages used from here to Pakistan). Right now, fluent Dari still seems an impossibilty, yet my teachers believe I will quickly learn. I respect them.