Friday, December 12, 2008

Goodbyes are hard to do...







Yesterday was our final day of the Hungarian practicum. We've been working very hard over the past two months and now have over 200 words in our vocabulary! But more than that, we also have two new friends. Elmer and Olga were a delight. Elmer entertained us with story after story from his amazing store of knowledge that he's gained over the years. Olga's dry sense of humor had us laughing so hard we cried. It was so exciting to see our friendship develop over the two months. At first I was all nervous and on my best behavior around them. As we got to know them we all loosened up a little bit and while I didn't display my worst behavior it is fair to say that we were all able to be very real with one another. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to work with them, and since they live here in town I think they can probably expect to see us knocking at their door quite a bit for the next 5 months.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is so special. I imagine they enjoyed you just as much. Did they ever see the girls?

Anonymous said...

Does this couple help with language training for students every year? Sure nice that you have more new friends in the area. How long have they lived in Canada? do they speak English well?

I guess your holidays will be starting soon. Have a great trip.

Love, A. Jean

Kate said...

That sounds amazing - a little like immersion, but with the comforts of home. Why Hungarian? It can't be the ease of learning it! :) I really like your hair! It's so lively looking!

Dennis and Valerie said...

Question answer time:

Mom: they love the girls. The girls were over there a couple of times and then they saw them when they came to our house for a meal.

A. Jean: This was their third year of helping. Their situation is unique in that they were both born in North America but grew up in Hungarian speaking homes. They speak perfect English, without an accent.

Kate: We were assigned to be with our language helpers. Every couple in our class had different helpers and languages. Some of the other languages were Russian, Wolof (African lang.), a few Indonesian tribal languages, Austrian, Spanish and Portugese. I've been told by a few people that Hungarian is difficult to learn... we didn't find it extraordinarily difficult, but it was only 6 weeks.