Saturday, March 03, 2007

The frustration at not knowing

The frustration at not being able to express what you want to say when the Sensei asks a question. Having to stick to the structure and the few bits of vocabulary you have learned thus far is really annoying. But it is nothing compared to the frustration of not getting certain parts of the language you are trying to learn. And not being able to ask questions, or to intelligently inquire about what your are learning. As a kid when you are learning a language and processing things, it isall happening at the same speed. Learning a language as an adult, having already developed the ability to think and reason, makes things more frustrating. You have this great desire to pose questions, to confirm unclear things, to iron out this ambiguity or that. And yet it is next to impossible because you don’t share a common language.

No comments: