Language Immersion

In order to speed up our language learning, Peace Corps Niger incorporates a two-week language immersion trip into volunteer training. I traveled to a small village in the eastern region of Maradi with five other trainees and two language trainers to immerse myself in Hausa.

It was certainly a learning experience. The idea of language immersion was not at all foreign to me. Between 1999-2001 I lived in Malaga, Spain with my family while my dad directed a study abroad program for Dickinson College students who wanted to learn Spanish. While in Malaga I saw three years of college students come in with almost no Spanish and leave communicating easily.

Perhaps because I had already seen the results of being completely immersed in a language, I went into the immersion with the intention of speaking absolutely no English and trying my best to communicate only in Hausa.

In reality, it is very difficult to communicate in a language you’ve only been learning for a month and a half. It is even more difficult to try and communicate in said language with people who speak your mother tongue fluently. These setbacks were very frustrating, but I did end the two weeks with a better understanding of Hausa, life in a rural village in Niger, and also my stage-mates!

My favorite part of language immersion was definitely the host family we stayed with. Esta, my five-year-old host sister, is probably the cutest child I have ever seen. During my free time, I taught Esta and her brother Jacob how to sing heads-shoulders-knees-and-toes. One evening, after a particularly frustrating language-learning day, I took my iPod and twirled Esta around to Frank Sinatra’s “Just the Way You Look Tonight”.  This quickly led to a large dance party of Nigerien children and American Peace Corps Trainees moving around to Lady Gaga and the Cupid Shuffle. It was amazing.

Overall, I left language immersion with less confidence in my Hausa speaking skills than I had hoped, but certainly more confident in my ability to live in a rural village on my own. All’s well that ends well J.