Hunkering Down: Learning the Indonesian Language Week 1

So after this realization, I decided to dedicate 1 month to each goal.

This doesn’t mean that everything must be wrapped up and neatly tied with a bow by the end of the month. This is just to make sure I give each about 20+ weekdays of undiluted attention during which I put all my other goals on hold.

If a goal resonates, and I decide I want to spend more time with it, I will for as long as I need to. If a goal doesn’t resonate, then I will feel no guilt putting it away by month’s end knowing that I gave it a fair shot.

Let’s do this! 💪

I decided to dedicate July to goal #1, learn the Indonesian language. Here’s an overview of how the 1st week went:

Day 1

After weeks of neglect, I resumed with lesson 46. Focusing is difficult because I have ideas about my other goals and I have to exert willpower to bring my mind back to the day’s lesson.

Day 2

Moved on to lesson 47. Started to ask myself how else I could reinforce my learning. Dusted off an old edition elementary school workbook that I found on bargain a long, long time ago and proceeded to werk.

After 2 pages, looked for and found a podcast about language learning on which I heard Benny Lewis say that he didn’t need to speak the new language perfectly, he just needed to be able to communicate in it (or something like that).

Perfect! That’s what I want too.

What is coach surfing? 🤔

Enrolled in Benny Lewis’ 1 week email course : “Speak in a Week”.

Day 3

Woke up at 6AM with the intention to do some reading in my target language while everyone else was still asleep.

I worked on my new diamond painting project instead, and I wasn’t even aware that I made the switch! 😫

Plodded through lesson 48, midway, I was typing in my credit card details with 4 items for check-out in my online shopping cart. 😫😫

Day 4

I decided that if something was driving me to shop online when I had no need to, then I needed to take a step back from this and re-group.

Found a local TV program about arts & crafts, enjoyed it so much, and wrote down some new vocabulary.  Finally. Score! 😃

Day 5

I sat down for the day’s lesson but found myself watching a YouTube video about the 10 people who hate Megan Markle instead  😲😲

Good Lord, I have never sunk so low!

Decided to redeem my dignity by watching the local arts & crafts program again with notebook and pen in hand. Hmmm … decoupage looks like something I could get into. 🤩Noted!

😵😵😵

Week 1 Conclusion:

I’m really struggling with this. Maybe the language classes I bought is no longer engaging because at this level, I’m bombarded with words that are not common to everyday conversation. Then there’s grammar … 🤢

The local TV program helped because it was interesting and it’s training my ears to how Indonesian is actually spoken. I am happy when I am able to make out words, even those that I don’t know the meaning of 😀 I then write these down and note their meanings.

The old schoolbook also helps. Somewhat.

Here’s hoping week 2 will go much better.

So What Happened to Those Goals?

I don’t know if you even remember but I had 3 goals for June which I shared with you in this blogpost.

Did I slay them?

Weeeeell ….

1.  Complete Introductory & Phase 1 Beginner of my Indonesian language lessons.

I made progress. (Promise, I did! 😇) I finished all Introductory lessons and a good chunk of Phase 1 Beginner lessons. My vocabulary has increased, and my grasp of sentence construction has improved.

But!

Midway through, my brain just left the building (or my skull for that matter!) 😯 It just went “oh-kay, that’s enough!” and NO amount of prodding could revive the interest. So no, I did not hit this goal 😐😐

2.  Knit my first sweater.

I also started real strong on this one. Take a look:

And then I just went AWOL on her! Because I discovered something profound: I DON’T LIKE TO SEAM 😕 😕 😕

Good heavens! 😱

I LOVE knitting. As a matter of fact, I’m almost done knitting the back portion of another sweater.

But I just don’t enjoy seaming! 😣 😖 😫

3.  Learn to make meatballs.

We still have not found the kind of meat quality we really like. And when my daughter gave the thumbs up after my second try, I left it at that and stopped production 😔

Adventurous cooking is difficult when ingredients are hard to find and … I might have allowed myself to get a bit discouraged there. (sniffle, sniffle)

Heart to heart conclusion:

I’ve procrastinated for 13 days on this post because I didn’t earn my gold stars. (Did I ever tell you I’m a type A?😵😵) And I’m gonna be honest with you – I did not enjoy June that much. When I look back it just feels like too much work and not enough fun. On some days it even felt like I was being chased by a mad dog! 😱 😱 (I’m exaggerating here for dramatic effect).

I’ve always enjoyed setting goals though and this time, I guess there were just some un-anticipated obstacles. But I did make progress and, for lack of anything else to say, don’t worry about the sweater. I got A PLAN! 😀 😀

July is looking much better though 💖 💖 (Yay!) Pilates, books, knitting and … NO pressure (body roll!! 😂 🤣)

Thank You For “Melting Down” With Me + What I Did To Acknowledge Your Kindness

Dearest friends, welcome back into my living room ❤ If you want, I have some leftover Mother’s Day cake in the fridge, just let me know 🙂 I’m brewing coffee I bought from Melbourne too so, we should all be set.

(Cold drinks are in the fridge, feel free to help yourself you know you’re very welcome to do so!) ❤

This is a gratitude post for all your kind support, encouragement and ❤ to my meltdown post.  Every single one of your comments has lifted me up that I am walking around with swag and lightness 😀 😀

I do still intend to explore my ‘boredom’ further in upcoming posts. Right now though I feel a huge ‘thank you‘ is in order for reminding me that boredom happens, and that it is not a problem but rather a cosmic prodding. It is not a condition, it’s an opportunity.

THANK YOU! ❤ ❤ ❤

To acknowledge your kindness, I went out on a dinner date with my daughter 🙂 Just the two of us, without my husband to translate.

Let me explain how this is a victory & celebration of sorts:

1. The lay-out of this city necessitates a car of your own. My husband took ours to work so I had to choose public transport by way of a city bus or a taxi.  We preferred a taxi because city buses have certain routes I am not familiar with and I suspect nobody would understand a word coming out of my mouth. Taxi drivers would at least have some basic English under their belts.
2. We still had to walk to someplace I was only half sure would have taxis. Luckily the sun was not as fierce anymore and we found a few available taxis right away.
3. My daughter was worried about communicating and being understood. But I was cocky my pidgin Indonesian would suffice. And it did (somehow!) – I even managed to make the taxi driver laugh so hard (twice!) I thought he was going to have an asthma attack! XD XD

At the restaurant I was able to order, and order the right items. (In my experience so far it’s almost never a straightforward, point-to-a menu-item affair. The waitress will always have something to say whether it be the dish’ or a main ingredient’s unavailability, or how we want our drink or something about something — and stated in Indonesian that’s so fast I loll my tongue out and just pretend I’m dead) In any case …

My daughter’s fears were assuaged ❤

I assure you I ate with such gusto! This was a huge bowl and I wiped it clean XD For extra attitude I dunked all the tongue-numbing green chili they gave into the soup so nobody can ever accuse me of not knowing how to celebrate small victories 😉 😉

Score! XD XD

And that is all for today 🙂 Hugs!