So, I have two things to talk about today: Vietnamese lessons and mosquito netting
Vietnamese lessons: I have been using Rosetta Stone to help me learn the Vietnamese language. If any of you have every used this program, you know that it doesn't tell you what you are saying. Everything is in Vietnamese from the beginning. The whole time you are speaking in complete sentences, but you are having to figure out what you are saying by looking at the pictures. So, I have learned some really cool words like: banh mi (bread), com (rice), sua (milk), gai (girl), tre (boy), ba (woman), ong (man), etc..... But besides the words I have figured out, I don't really know what else the sentence is saying. I think I am doing pretty good because I can match the sentences with the pictures, and I can pronounce the sentences correctly. I go to take my first Unit 1, Section 1 test. They put me in a story situation, where I am one of the characters. They other characters speak to me, and I am to speak back to them. Guess what?? They expect me to answer the other people in complete sentences with no support from the computer. WHAT? You want complete sentences. Needless to say, I made a 50 on that test. Maybe I should pay a little more attention to the whole sentence when I am studying.
Mosquito Netting: Mitchell and his dad have been talking about where we are going to stay while in Vietnam. Choice one: Mitchell's grandmother's house where there is no air conditioning, the windows will be open, and there will be a mosquito net around your bed to keep the mosquitos at bay. Choice two: Stay a few mile away at one of Mitchell's aunts' houses where there is air conditioning and no mosquito netting require. What do you think? I don't know, they always make mosquito netted beds look so romantic on the movies. Hmmmmm...... Sweat and mosquitos or cool and no mosquitos?
