Pivoting As Needed: Learning Burmese, Weeks 5-6

Over the past two weeks of studying Burmese, I’ve made a deliberate effort to increase my study time. A slump in week five made me realize the importance of establishing a more consistent and intentional study routine.

One of the biggest challenges during full-time, professional language study is time: both carving time out of busy schedules, and using time efficiently.

Some students choose to stay at FSI for a couple of hours after class and do their homework, either because of personal circadian rhythms or because their home setup is less conducive to quiet study. I’m simply not terribly productive after five hours of class, and that’s generally my window to exercise or catch up on errands and naps. But language class marches on assuming you have done at least two hours of independent daily work. If you don’t, eventually you hit a wall.

It became evident to me during the middle of week five that I was hitting that wall. As difficulty increased, a commensurate increase in time and effort was due from me. Momentum was building as we moved out of simpler reading and speaking exercises with consonants and vowels to more complex sentence structures.

I was willing to try harder. But in order to more thoroughly consolidate the new material I was learning and complete my daily assignments, I would have to create more quality time – by shifting my morning schedule.

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Also around this time, I’d hit peak irritation with my morning commute. As the fall schedule settled in, the morning rush hour had caused my commute to tick up from 45 minutes to nearly an hour and 15 minutes. This was exasperating, as we only live 30 minutes from FSI.

Unrelatedly, I saw the aftermath of a fatal pedestrian hit-and-run accident near my home one morning on the way to work. The decedent was laying in the street covered with a bloody sheet. It was so shocking and graphic I couldn’t stop thinking of it for days. As far as I know, no one has yet been arrested in connection with the incident.

So instead of studying in the morning at home and crossing my fingers I’d make it to class on time through the rat race, I began getting up and leaving much earlier in the morning. Heading out while it was still dark cut my morning commute to between 30 and 40 minutes. Importantly, it also created a distraction-free hour and a half to study in a quiet FSI space before class began.

I also decided to be more intentional about using my lunch breaks to not just stare vacantly into space, but also to alternate catching up with colleagues, take long and varied campus walks, and do personal admin. Ramping up general effectiveness became more important as week five also launched our four-month Southeast Asia regional area studies program; area studies will replace every other Thursday of Burmese class through February.

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During week six, the study time before class felt like it was paying off. My mind felt more clear and I made progress in putting compound sentences together without much preparation. The weather was nice and I went for walks at lunch every day. Doing so helped me get through the two remaining hours of afternoon class.

Also in week six, one of our teachers caught what was likely a contagious virus. I knew it was only a matter of time before one of us came down with something. Our classroom is the size of a small office, and entering and exiting it akin to fitting yourself into a row of airplane seats. So passing an illness that would take us all out for a week or longer isn’t hard to imagine.

As we know from life before the pandemic, when faced with the mounting consequences of missing work to recuperate from illness, most people choose to “tough it out” by bringing their germs to the office. Our class wasn’t happy with this option, but fortunately, we were able to avoid catching the bug.

Onward…