Ready For The LPI

Ewe is almost at a close for now. As far as our little class has gone, we are all catching on at just the right time, right before the test. No better time to peak in your studies than eight minutes prior to taking the exam. We will not be entering a written test though, we will be speaking with a native speaker in our target language and must fill in the time of twenty or so minutes with dialogue. No small task, but I think we will manage.

Each day for the past three weeks we have been a group of four volunteers struggling to pronounce and memorize phrases and words, conjugations and inflections, and put it all together for the LPI. That acronym is for Language Proficiency Interrogation. That does not sound right. It may mean Language Proficiency Interview. Yes, that does sound better though I am sure it will feel a bit more like an interrogation as the questions come in another tongue and you have to sit there and figure out what the interviewer wants to know. We have a bit of a script or dialog worked out so everything should run smoothly, but you never know when a turn of phrase can throw you off a bit.

I am typing this post on the front porch of the town library, a library that heretofore had been locked up because it would appear that the town doesn't quite have the resources to staff or maintain a daily facility. Some of our fellow volunteers found the key and got it open, but it most likely will close up when all of us leave. It does provide us a nice quiet place to do our practicing and that is what I am about to do in a few minutes.

I remember not liking the idea that I had to learn a new language when I received my assignment. I wanted to be able to talk to my family in Twi and get better at it but that was not the case. I can still make some progress on Twi in my spare time, but for the last few weeks it has been only Ewe entering the great hard drive in my mind and I think it has worked out well. I think I will enjoy being immersed in the language when I end up at Hohoe and hope to continue my study of it through the use of a tutor, but my secondary goal is to sneak in a Twi book with me and practice it so I can make my home-stay mom proud by proclaiming her cooking the best in all of Ghana, said in perfect Twi.

I should probably stick to just passing this LPI though as my first mission. “Miado go emegbe!” (meeyahDO go emeBEH) We shall meet later!