Out of the Comfort Zone of the Classroom

For the past 6 weeks I've spent 3 hours a day, 5 days a week learning Nepali. It's been lots of fun and I've slowly been able to communicate more with Nepalis at school and in the wider community.

As part of my language learning, my teacher's got me doing a thing she calls 'CLL' - Community Language Learning. This started a few weeks ago where I would find a Nepali who worked at KISC and have a 10-15 minute conversation with them using only Nepali. I asked them the usual questions about their family, where their house was, what foods they like etc, and they would answer using words and phrases I didn't really understand. Even though our conversation was limited, I enjoyed this time as it gave me an opportunity to get to know some of my colleagues.

Then, about a week ago, my teacher decided it was time to step out of the comfort zone of the classroom and into the community. We walked along the street and found a woman who was with her child at the park. I sat down with them and began asking her the questions I knew (where is your house?, how many people in your family?, what do you do for work?). The conversation was pretty one-way and after I had exhausted my questions, there was no-where else to go. The conversation was over in about 5-10 minutes.

After that experience, I was feeling pretty apprehensive about CLL as I realised how very limited my Nepali was, however, just the other day, my confidence began to grow after my conversation with Nabin.

Again, my teacher and I ventured out of the school grounds and headed up the street trying to find someone for me to talk to. She initially asked an older guy to speak to me but he wasn't too keen. Instead, this younger guy who was nearby volunteered and so I began to speak to Nabin. He was great! He spoke very S-L-O-W-L-Y and if I didn't understand something, he repeated it again S-L-O-W-L-Y, then said it in English, then again in Nepali. I came away with a few new phrases and a bit of reassurance that stepping out and speaking Nepali with the locals isn't too bad after all.

Looking forward to the adventures (that involve speaking Nepali) ahead!