Georgian Language Study...

Someone told me not to get discouraged when Shirley picks up the language faster than me—women are just better listeners!  And as predicted, Shirley is farther along than I am, but I wouldn’t want any other study partner!  We are both enjoying our studies and get excited when we can understand a native speaker or communicate something we need to say.  The Georgians really like when we speak Georgian—though their first response is to assume that we are speaking Russian.  We must always explain that we don’t know Russian, but a little Georgian.

 

Currently we have lessons twice a week with a Georgian tutor.  We have learned the alphabet, which has 33 letters and we’re studying conversational Georgian.  It’s a difficult language but very interesting.  There are some sounds that we’re required to make that are just very difficult—which have given us some good laughs!  Being able to converse at the market and describe things we need or want, and getting around in a taxi wherever we need to go, are 2 successes we’ve had to date.  We’re glad for the progress that we’ve made so far!  Our tutor has a bubbly personality and she is a great help to us.  Not to mention we have a lot of fun in our lessons.