Adventures in language learning

Tomorrow I have an exam in DNA class, so of course I feel the need to procrastinate from studying by doing things like updating my blog. (I got a lot more cleaning done during exam time in grad school!) Since my exam tomorrow will be in Turkish, it seemed appropriate to blog about my experience I had in language learning this week. I read an article once about acquiring a second language, and it said that when you are learning a new language, the language you are speaking is not really the language you are trying to learn (for example, Turkish), but instead a language you invent based on the building blocks of language you have learned. Eventually, when you become fluent, you will really be speaking that other language (such as Turkish).

So on Saturday I went to my friend's house for dinner and had a lovely time chatting with her and her family for a long time even after dinner. She made a TON of food for us, I think I counted 9 different dishes. Lentil soup, beans and rice, fried cauliflower, stuffed grape leaves, salad, potato salad...you get the idea. And of course she insisted I eat a considerable amount of EVERYTHING. After dinner, we had tea, as is the custom. After I had finished my tea, they asked if I wanted dessert. I said I didn't want it just yet because I was full. My friend asked, "how could you still be full, it's been a while since we've eaten." I replied by gesturing towards my empty mug of tea and saying literally, "yes, but I'm continually filling." The meaning I was hoping to convey was "I'm full because you keep giving me more to put in my stomach!" But in Turkish, the object (for ex, "stomach") is not always necessary like in English, which is convenient for a lazy language learner like me who prefers to stick to simple sentence that can be formed quickly. Well, when I formed this sentence from the building blocks I had acquired, my friend's family started laughing. I didn't ask why (I never do), so my friend offered an explanation. "In Turkish when a baby eats a lot and there's stuff in it's diaper, we say 'the baby is filling...'" So apparently I was implying not that I was stuffing my stomach, but that I was wearing a diaper and it needed to be changed. Ah, the joys of language acquisition.