Learning Guaraní

Mba'eichapa! I'm doing an intensive 3 week course of Guaraní at the moment. It is the first language of the majority of Paraguayans and is known as their "heart" language. It's the language of poetry and humour and, if you want to get to know Paraguay well, it's a great insight into the culture.

Learning Guarani is great for me as a Level 1 English teacher here at FEISA, the teacher training college. It gives me a real understanding of how it feels to be beginning a new language. It's so long since I was a beginner in a language that I'd really forgotten how frustrated you can feel and what a long process it is. It also seems to me a bit of a mystery how you go from translating every word, which I'm having to do in Guarani, to thinking in the other language (as I do in Spanish).

It's good to be exposed to a different teaching strategy too; our teacher's method is very different from the one I use teaching English at FEISA, and from how I learnt Spanish at university. It's probably most similar to Middle School French; lots of grammar exercises, not a lot of speaking or listening practice. However, the big difference is in the fact that as soon as we finish class, I can find opportunities to use the language in real life. Most people at college speak Guarani and so I've been trying out odd phrases here and there. Mostly my attempts generate great amusement! It takes me a long time to formulate a sentence and even longer to break down any reply so that I can understand it!

I'm also fascinated by the structure and sounds of the language; it's quite different from French and Spanish. There are 33 letter sounds in the alphabet, about half of which are nasal sounds and there's one sound in particular which I find very hard to produce.

I'm really enjoying learning a new language and hope to be able to have lessons with Sam next year, maybe once a week rather than an intensive course like this one, which is exhausting!