Bisaya lesson 21

My Bisaya lesson last week went well. My teacher is Bebe and she lives in Davao, Philippines. I learned in this lesson that Bisaya has a way to verbalize a noun. Mag computer ako, which translates to I will use the computer. Another example is: Kevin will cook adobo–Mag-adobe si Kevin. The main part of the lesson was to show that nag, mag, and pag are used to show action over a longer period of time. They use the same structure as the Mo-factor which makes it easier to do. While this lesson was not so difficult, the vocabulary was a bit of a challenge as there were many new words. I’ve got most of them down, but it’s getting harder to keep reviewing all the older words.

To help retain the new vocabulary, I’ve separated the older vocabulary words into two piles. One is the words that I know easily, and the other pile is the words that are a little harder to remember. This way I just carry the smaller pile of harder words around to review. Another problem is that I don’t get to hear these words very much. My wife speaks the language, but other than that, nobody else does around here. My challenge is to keep learning more of the language, and at the same time not to lose what I’ve already got down.

To help my listening skills, I’m going to implement a Bisaya spearing only in our house. This way, my wife can help me more. I think I’ll start this next Sunday. Salamat.