Tagalog 101

Brother Brian Buckner, our main tutor, and Marcia

 Today we started our "immersion" experience at the MTC. We woke up early and were picked up by our oldest son, Josh. He drove us to the MTC and dropped us off at Building 1M. We checked in and sat down in the foyer with two other couples to wait for our orientation instructor. (As a side note-Marcia and I soon noticed, as far as "senior" missionary couples go, that we are on the rather young side. This was confirmed during the course of the day as we joined other couples at lunch and dinner in the cafeteria.) One couple from Las Vegas, Elder and Sister Wood, are here to study Mongolian as they will serve in Mongolia. The other couple from Southern California, Elder and Sister Bohan, are here to learn Russian. They will be leaving in August for a CES (Church Education System) mission in the Ukraine.

Sister Anderson, from the Senior Missionary Language Department, soon came by to pick us up. Marcia and I needed to get an ID badge so she directed us to where we needed to be. We met up with her shortly after that to finish our orientation.

Marcia using the TALL program to learn Tagalog

Marcia vs. TALL- who will win?

Then the fun began. First of all our schedule in a nutshell. During the course of the day we will have two 1-hour sessions with a native speaker. Marcia and I will self direct this time for areas we need work on. We then will have two 2-hour sessions with a Tagalog tutor. During those sessions the tutor will primarily be speaking Tagalog. Interspersed during the day are three 2-hour self study time that Marcia and I use to work on the computer program named TALL or working on assignments that our tutors have given us. The total day is a 12 hour day.

We have found with the tutor that we are picking the language up quicker than we had expected. It is intense but the spirit is strong here. One of the unique things that we did this afternoon was sing a couple of hymns in Tagalog. Even though the hymns were in Tagalog we were able to feel the spirit as we sang.

Marcia and I have truly been blessed. We hope to be able to share some of those blessings with those who follow this blog over the next few years.
Our excitement to serve the Lord in the Philippines continues to burn strong in our hearts!

jsf