Well, I just got blood taken out of me. Again. Yeah, just this time, it was in Russian. And Ukrainian.
As far as the language goes, I've noticed 2 things which stand out most clearly to me. The first is what I discussed with you in Zaparozhe, seperating the English and Russian. The way I often imagine it is that there is some core idea behind every word that we use. We have already associated the words we use in our native tongue with these cores, we did it mostly without thinking about it, and it continues to evolve throughout our lives. The problem arises when we learn a new language that we confuse the words with the ideas they represent. We start to build the new language based off of the language we're already comfortable with. Unfortunately, it just isn't efficient. You end up translating your thought, which is an abstract, first into your native tongue, and then into another language. It's possible to do that very quickly if you practice it alot, for some people that works fine.
The way that I've found is better is to cut out the middle. Find the way you have connected language in your mind and seperate the words from the cores. By placing a sort of mental distance between the two, you create space to add in new words that can describe the same core idea. The best way to create that distance is to force yourself to think in the new language. When you get stuck on a thought, you can't resort to your native tongue, you have to find a workaround.
The second thing I've noticed is specific for Russian. Russian is very modular in structure. There are certain base words, modules that carry a very basic and broad meaning. These words may not in and of themselves be useful, but when combined with a prefix or suffix they can become very specific and help convey a lot of meaning in one word. An in-depth study of prefixes can help a lot with understanding, even if you don't know the word that the prefix is attached to.
For instance, the word отправить, which means to send. A similar word is направить, to guide. If I didn't know what отправить meant, I could break it up into two parts, the prefix (от), and the base word (править). от gives a sense of moving away, while править means to govern, rule, or lead. Knowing that adding a prefix gives править a sense of guiding (направить), I can assume that this word has something to do with guiding or governing away from something.
It's so weird when people through in Ukrainian words. It's also weird when you say several sentences to someone in Russian and then they respond to you in Ukrainian as if they didn't just hear you speaking Russian. The lady taking blood started out by asking how old I was in Ukrainian. Then she explained to make a fist half in Russian and half in Ukrainian. Then she gave me the rest of the instructions in Russian. Then she finished out the conversation in Ukrainian. I'll never understand this place...
The only exciting thing that happened this last week is that we baptized and confirmed our investigator on Saturday! It was super cool, really stressful, and I forgot to fill out his paperwork, so now the office is on my back! Woohoo!
There's no real blow by blow report of this past week. I did give President a short report about learning the language though. That was fun. I'll clip that onto the bottom for those interested.
Anyway, today we're gonna go play frisbee with some members and their friends, and then haul some stuff all the way across town! Yay!
Peace out!
Elder Robison
Pictures from the big conference! The MTC district, together again at last!
Me and Elder Fuller, looking devilishly handsome as usual
Language report!
The way that I've found is better is to cut out the middle. Find the way you have connected language in your mind and seperate the words from the cores. By placing a sort of mental distance between the two, you create space to add in new words that can describe the same core idea. The best way to create that distance is to force yourself to think in the new language. When you get stuck on a thought, you can't resort to your native tongue, you have to find a workaround.
The second thing I've noticed is specific for Russian. Russian is very modular in structure. There are certain base words, modules that carry a very basic and broad meaning. These words may not in and of themselves be useful, but when combined with a prefix or suffix they can become very specific and help convey a lot of meaning in one word. An in-depth study of prefixes can help a lot with understanding, even if you don't know the word that the prefix is attached to.
For instance, the word отправить, which means to send. A similar word is направить, to guide. If I didn't know what отправить meant, I could break it up into two parts, the prefix (от), and the base word (править). от gives a sense of moving away, while править means to govern, rule, or lead. Knowing that adding a prefix gives править a sense of guiding (направить), I can assume that this word has something to do with guiding or governing away from something.
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