Lesson #6

Just catching up on vocabulary lists I have written out. I actually made flash cards for my vocabulary, which I do not usually do as study or learning technique. However, I felt I needed more varied practice and a way to "quiz" myself on the new words I am acquiring. No verbs yet. No dictionary.

Reading this language is quite difficult, even considering my beginning/novice proficiency. Thinking back to the early stages of my Spanish and French learning, I still could look at a simple sentence a determine/identify which words were what (e.g. which was the subject, verb, object, adverb, adjective, etc). Of course, my Spanish background probably influenced my French learning. But Yaqui, it seems nearly impossible.

This is likely due to the lack of simple sentences available to me, and I have VERY limited verb knowledge (I just found out the past tense marker "k" has more form than just "k" and is very irregular- no wonder I couldn't find the verb in these sentences I've been looking at!). Regardless, I continue to look at sentences in both Yaqui and English/Spanish to determine which parts of speech each Yaqui word might be, that is, I continue my hypothesis testing!

Lesson #6: Motivation and Encouragement- from YOURSELF!
Having little knowledge of a new language can be frustrating, but it is essential to realize that this is the starting point. In a way, learning Yaqui has become a personal challenge to me, due precisely to its difficulty. It seems from my Myers Brigg survey, I am ill-equipped for successful/proficient language learning (ESTJ). Still, I believe I can encourage myself to become a better learner, even if I am not preconditioned to be one. Rather than relying on an instructor to foster other "personality types" that might be more conducive to language learning, I will have to find ways to either use my personality type to my benefit or hone new types to improve my language learning.