Learning Dari

Learning a new language is not an easy feat.  It takes time to memorize the words not to mention the different sentence structure. Lucky for me I have a wonderful translator Mariam, who is willing to help me learn.  So every day after lunch we sit down and pull out a bunch of flash cards that I made and work on dari.  I have found that I am learning, slowly if nothing else.  I am able to put together simple sentences and recognize words.  The two words that I use most often are fulcalata (fantastic) and buinar (smelly).  My sentences frequently are SoandSo is smelly (____ buinar ast), or SoandSo is fantastic (______ fulcalata ast).  Today I learned to say SoandSo is not fantastic/smelly (________fulcalata naest).  So my students got a kick out of me saying some people were or were not fantastic/smelly.  However. Mariam and my favorite sentence that I have concocted is "Men are snakes" (Mard mar ast.)  I can't help it, it cracks me up.

It seems the biggest chanllege I have is prounciation, ast being the hardest thing for me so far...it should be pronunced like mast, but without the M, only I am always saying Ace-t, or est...I blame my spanish days.  but I continue to see improvment everyday.  I am not able to put together longer more complicated sentences madAr tu fulcalata ast (your mother is fantastic), _______ shumA kar fulcalata ast (____ your work is fantastic)...I use fantastic ALL the time, but it is fun and I am learning.  I don't know if I will every truly be fluent, but I definately think that after 6 months I should be well on my way to atleast being able to understand what is being said around me if nothing else.