Lauren Learns Luganda

I spent most of my Thanksgiving break either hosting family for the big feast or taking a bit of a step back and recharging my batteries for the final couple weeks of class. I really  value down-time and see it as critical for sanity and success. Since this semester's been so busy, especially over weekends, I really have had very little time to disconnect. I used this break as my opportunity to do just that! My one goal for the week was to be sure to touch some of my Luganda work every day. I let myself off the hook for earning 80 Omuzannyo points, but I didn't want to take a day without engaging with Luganda in some way. My success this week, then, was threefold: 1) I successfully took a step back from things and rested; 2) I successfully studied a bit of Luganda every day; 3) These successes lead me to feel energized and excited to be back at work this week. Most important to me is that third piece, especially since the burnout was pretty imminent last week. Now I feel ...

Though this week was not my best week for studying, it was one in which Luganda came in handy multiple times, in multiple circumstances. It was a great reminder of the reason why I am studying Luganda and the sometimes surprising degree to which it is useful to me, even here in Madison. First, our Africa at Noon speaker, Dr. Aaron Mushengyezi, focused his presentation on the various meanings of songs in Uganda. He works in several different languages, but his presentation contained mostly Luganda songs. It was so much fun to be able to read the Luganda lyrics and get meaning (without relying on the translation); I felt like I had a real advantage as an audience member because I could understand so much -- including words with multiple meanings! Not only did my Luganda skills come in handy during the presentation, they also offered me a nice connection to the speaker. He even referred to me in his presentation, as the Muganda in the room who could understand the songs! Second, I spe...

I thought this week I would spend a little time reflecting on my experience with group mentorship. My fellow learner, Kevin, and I have now met for a handful of weeks, and I have some more experience to draw on to think about how it's working for me. Here are some of the benefits, as I see them, of our group mentorship. - Practicing conversational listening - It's been great to have the chance to listen in to Simon and Kevin as they speak to one another. Because they speak more slowly and use mostly words that I know, I find that I am able to follow these conversations in such a way that I am building my listening skills. Rather than getting lost or just catching a word or phrase here and there, I'm able to understand most of what is said. It's really nice! Additionally, the poor acoustic conditions that sometimes occur over Skype, while often frustrating, help me practice listening when the sound conditions are tough. - Using "Mu" ("You" plural)...

I reached my Omuzannyo goal again this past week, with 81 points total! As exciting as this is, I realized this past week that my ability to reach my goal as many weeks as I have is not because I'm super on top of my stuff (though it was nice living under that illusion for a while!). Rather it is that I am choosing Luganda over  my other work. In other words, I think I've set up a learning environment for myself in which I'm highly motivated to put in time. Which is a good thing! But it's also more motivating for me than my other work, which means, when given the choice, I've been doing Luganda instead of other stuff. This is partly due to the nature of the other courses I'm taking, which is a whole other story. They happen to be the kind of classes where my 100% is not strictly necessary every week. It's also due to the fact that I've increased by point goal in Omuzannyo this year. I made that change in order to push myself even harder in my Lu...