Typing is hard

Learning a language is kind of like learning how to type without looking at your fingers. I remember in 8th grade when I moved to Texas for a semester. I was in the admissions office and they told me that my only option for an elective was typing because I was coming in halfway through the semester. At first, I was really against taking typing because I felt like I was doing alright typing by looking at the keyboard. Fortunately, my mom forced me to actually put an effort towards the class so every morning at seven am I would sit down in an extremely cold room and begin to type. Like all typing classes, you first start with a program that makes you practice a couple of keys at a time over and over again. I remember thinking that there wasn’t any use to this and that it wasn’t helping me learn how to type faster or without looking at my fingers. This went on for months, until one day I realized that I did not have to look at my fingers to type fast. Unlike before, I don’t have to think about what letters I need to type and my fingers just know exactly where to find them. I feel like this is very similar to becoming fluent in a language because one day, you don’t need to think about what you are trying to say, you just say it. I am most definitely not at that stage of Malay. I continue to try to speak Malay every day and learn new words and force myself to try to convey what I am thinking in Malay instead of English even though I know that it would be faster to just speak in English. Like my typing class, I can not see the improvement from a day to day basis. A lot of times it doesn’t feel like I am improving at all and I am still speaking at the same level from the first week in Malaysia. It is extremely frustrating at times, especially since learning normally comes easily to me. I am trying to remember that like how I learned how to type, I have to continue to practice every day and eventually I will be able to succeed. One day, I won’t have to think about where to put the adjective in the sentence or what the word is for ‘should’. Until then, I have to be frustrated and stumble over my words. And that’s alright. Language learning is very scary because unlike other subjects that one can learn, learning a language disrupts your entire thought process. But it isn’t impossible, and I think that is what you have to focus on. Plus, the results are worth the effort. Yesterday, I was at school and my host mom was talking to me in Malay explaining the logistics for transportation that day to get home. Since she is a teacher at school, she can not leave when my host sister and I leave, so every day she tells us where and when my host dad will pick us up, Another teacher was passing us and kind of stopped and looked at us in shock. I was very confused at first but I soon realized that he was amazed that my host mom was speaking in Malay, and I could actually understand it. I was pretty proud that I had surprised him because it kind of validated all of the work I have been putting into learning Malay. I want to continue to surprise people, and I hope by the end of the year I will be able to write this entire story again in Malay without having to look up any of the words. Just like typing, practice makes perfect. 

Here is a photo of Caroline and me because she also frustrates me and I thought it would be fitting for this post. Just kidding, ily and imy Care :)