Қазақ телін кішкіне киен болды

What can I say? Well, it’s now comfortable to read Kazakh, even monstrous words and my pronunciation is good. I can’t spell worth anything though! Some things never change! The issue is I can say words but can’t figure out which of the 1,000 vowels and vowel combinations they have make the sounds in my head! My dictionary is my close friend.

The good news is that I did make a breakthrough this month. At some point, I was suddenly okay with using my Kazakh and explaining things. Whew! I’ve been waiting for this breakthrough for a long time.

The hardest bit now is questions! I still can’t for the life of me figure out questions. People have to repeat them twice and then I have to sit and think it through and sometimes still get it wrong! Agh!

Still my opportunities to speak Kazakh aren’t as frequent as I like. With my Mom working evenings and my host brother in the village, my Kazakh only speakers are limited. Hopefully this will change when school starts September 1st. I try to make the most of time with my coworkers but most of the time English is so much easier! I just need to keep working!

Right now we are taking a break from grammar (HALLELUIAH!) to focus on some children’s rhymes. I’m thankful as there’s a backup of grammar in my brain!

I’ve also cut back from two lessons to one which will hopefully give me time to digest the increasingly complex grammar before learning more!

I've also moved on to Kazakh music and have some recorded songs and words that I'll be trying to figure out guitar chords too. I've also met a bunch of musicians locally who have said they'd love to get together and trade music we me!