Daily Schedule

Every day brings something new when it comes to learning a language. I try to practice and study whenever I can but I have also made a schedule that helps keep me on track.

9:00 Walk into town-buy things needed for the day-talk to as many people as possible

10:00 Practice vocabulary
11:00 Practice sentences, reading
12:00 Lunch break
2:00 Practice in town - record any new sounds or words or readings
4:00 Record new material/readings with helpers (see pictures from 7/4/07)
5:00 Review recordings/download to computer
6:00 Dinner, etc

I've been following the schedule this week and it really has helped to be organized and work more diligently on some of the exercises that aren't as much fun.

I am able to record what people say, or ask them to read something to be recorded, on my digital voice recorder. It has many hours of memory. Once the information is downloaded to my computer I can rearrange this into subject matter or certain sounds that need atttention, etc.

Most people are quite happy to help. I try to go to the same places every day. Hopefully I will soon know as much about them as they know about me! Right now I'm doing most of the speaking - or else they start to speak and I'm lost. There is one very difficult sound for me to make (OK, maybe more than one!) and I'm glad I can laugh at myself when trying to work on it.

One thing I want to do pretty soon is to tell my story in church (in Latvian) about how I met Jesus and why I came here. That's going to take some work. :) There are often times when one is asked to say something in a church service, especially if you are a guest, and I would like to be able to say something meaningful.

Well, more next week...