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Tempu aprende, the learning season

R and I just finished a week of intensive Tetun. 4 hours a day, for 5 days. (I achieved my short-term goal of being placed in the same class as R, hooray!)

In the afternoons, we work on various projects- R on a strategic review, me on the manual for village workers. On Tuesday, I delivered my first tutorial to a group of 20 Timorese doctors who are in training for a postgraduate family medicine diploma. On Thursday, I went to a lovely clean rehab centre in Becora, on the east side of town. They deliver physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy and prosthesis and mobility aid manufacture and training. Kapaas, super.

We met J today, who advised us to 1) be patient 2) remember to invest in relationships 3) understand that trust takes time

We are house-hunting.

The dry season is turning to the rainy season (tempu udan), though our tutor explains that this intermittent light rain is not the true tempu udan but a preceding tempu haas funan- mango flowering season.

 

My reflections:

  • I enjoy language class
  • Talking to a language teacher is crucially different in a few ways than talking to a regular native language speaker: the language teacher’s job is to instruct, and they tend to speak slowly and clearly. The language teacher is delighted by effort. The regular native speaker may be bemused by it.
  • It’s also tempu aprende pasiensia, time to learn patience.

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