Language

written Thursday, 19 April 2007


I've talked to the relevant people here at Peace Corps about the fact that I am being posted to a village that speaks Pulaar and Jaxanke, and not Mandinka, the language I am learning. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I am concerned that I am not learning the language that is spoken in my village. What can be done about this? Can I start studying Pulaar?

Peace Corps: No. The last volunteer who went to your village studied Mandinka, and she did great.

Me: Yes, but she told me once she got there she had to speak Jaxanke, not Mandinka. And she couldn't speak with people who spoke only the dominant language, Pulaar. So how about at least letting me switch into Jaxanke class, since Jaxanke is similar to Mandinka?

Peace Corps: No. If you switch into Jaxanke, you won't reach the required Intermediate Low language level in Mandinka by the end of training, because you will confuse the two languages.

Me: But if I won't be speaking Mandinka in the village, what difference does it make if I achieve Intermediate Low level? Wouldn't it be better to have beginner level of a language I will actually be using, rather than a higher level of a language I won't use?

Peace Corps: Those are the rules. You must achieve Intermediate Low in Mandinka by the end of training.

***
Ahh, gotta love bureaucracy. On the plus side, though, they did promise to give me a Pulaar book at the end of training to take with me to the village, and if I can find someone in the village to tutor me in Pulaar, then Peace Corps will pay for it. So I am trying to look at this in a positive way: by the end of my two years here, I will probably have learned two, if not three, African languages. (I like learning languages, so for me that's a good thing).