steady progress

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This was a good, if pretty typical, week. I was able to reach my goal of 80 points and even managed to do that while hosting visitors not once but TWICE over the course of the week. I am continuously working to improve my skills in planning and in carving out time, and this week that practice paid off!

I've continued to focus on getting through a couple of chapters from the grammar book each week. I am really enjoying the process, and each time I do some of the activities from the book, I am able to notice patterns in my mistakes. For example, I frequently mix up the locative suffixes - my use of them is not particularly precise. Knowing this has prompted me to do some additional activities to work out the kinks (similar to my experience with relative/family words last week).

As I'd hoped to do, I printed out my ISP and now am using it more frequently to ensure that I'm on track. It's funny how something as simple as having a hard document has helped me feel more attached to a particular goal! It also helps keep my Omuzannyo point list close at hand so I can keep the most accurate count of my weekly points.

Since the beginning of the semester, I've had my weekly lesson with my friend Kevin twice, and they are continuing to prove their value. Today, for example, Kevin and I were taking turns translating a newspaper article. I kept forgetting what the word okukakasa meant. As we went on, Kevin started to draw attention to its use whenever he would translate one of his passages, helping me remember it better. When I still had trouble remembering its definition, he explained to me that he uses it a lot in a playful way: "Okakasa?!" Which means "are you sure?!" and is an extraordinarily common way for Ugandans to tease you in English. As soon as he explained his usage, it all clicked for me. Linking okukakasa to "Are you sure?!" makes it much more memorable for me, and I think I won't struggle with it nearly as much in the future. Examples like this show the potential for group-learning experiences and how learners can help teach each other.

I'm feeling good about putting in the work; I'm hopeful that my approach this semester will actually deliver results in terms of me meeting my goals!

Finally, here is the rundown of my activities for the week:
Monday: Lesson with Simon & Kevin, 50 Quizlet words
Tuesday: 1 hour lesson work (Chapter 3), 50 Quizlet words
Wednesday: 15 minutes close listening, 5 minutes watching a video, 150 Quizlet words, 30 minutes music
Thursday: 1 hour lesson work, 50 Quizlet words, 10 minutes video
Friday: 1 hour with Simon, 100 Quizlet words, 90 minutes radio
Saturday: 30 minutes lesson work, 5 minutes of video
Sunday: 150 Quizlet words, read 1 Bukedde article

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