Language learning

Khmer language class was the same today as always. Words bouncing off of my head like hail stones bouncing off of concrete. About one word an hour words made it through my protective skull, then almost as soon as it makes it in it's forgotten.

My learning process

The teacher says the word, explains the word and writes the word on the board phonetically. Some of the time, I can understand how to pronounce it and sometimes not. The room has cement walls and the instructor's voice bounces off the walls. I cannot tell the difference between a "T", "B" and "P". Sometimes, I have to wait for two or three of the students to say the word before I can understand how it sounds. I look at what the instructor wrote and think of what I heard and I write it down. Good (sort of) so far.

The instructor has other students in the class use the word in a sentence that he has written on the board. When it comes my turn, I go BLANK. Talking to others, I am not the only person with the problem.

I had the word "yesterday" in my head and was using it. For the past two days it has completely disappeared. I could not think of it or find it in my notes.

This is driving me crazy and making me very depressed.

I know that we have supposedly learned enough words to carry on a simple conversation. I try to think of a word to make a sentence, I can remember several things around the word but NOT the word.

Four hours of this a day is more than I can take. For the first two weeks I was doing my homework. Homework is so depressing that I have stopped doing it. I am thinking of cutting class.

Knowing that some of the people I will be working with do not speak English and that I need to build a relationship with them make speaking Khmer very important and my failure hugely depressing.

Yesterday I checked the VSO application form. It asked for my "Language Learning Ability". I put "VERY WEEK". Yes, i spelled it wrong, that should have told them everything about my language ability right there. Me sitting in this class is a huge waste of money for VSO.