"Monglish" Crew

We have internet in our apartment! Right now, we have an Ethernet cable running outside from our neighbor's in through the window, but we have a wireless router on the way. That will free us up to use it all over the apartment and allow us to use it at the same time as our neighbor. Right now, we share an ADSL modem.

Since moving into our new place, it’s been a real adjustment period being without all the safety nets of training. Our co-workers are very nice and look out for us, and we’ve been introduced to a lot of people, but the five of us volunteers in town have stuck together pretty tight, mostly due to language barrier. Thankfully, we all get along really well – so far.

Our one new friend we especially hang with a lot started as a piano performance major in college and ended up getting a degree in German and humanities. Nathan started as a vocal performance major and ended up getting a degree in international studies and also knows German. Though our new buddy is about 7 years younger than us, he’s well rounded and mature for being so young. His supervisor also speaks English well and is a lady who gets things done, so we’ve enjoyed our sycophantic proximity to her too.

Somewhat surprisingly, though most people don’t know a lot of English around here, many people know at least some. A lot of times, we’re able to put some Mongolian words and English words together to get our point across in what we call “Monglish.” That’s good because, though we can tell about our basic needs and wants and can stumble through about a half hour of conversation about ourselves and families, we’re not yet equipped with a lot of language past pleasantries yet.

Plus, Mongolian in the classroom is much slower and more deliberate, as you might imagine. If a defining characteristic of English is that we use our jaws and lips to speak with long, open vowels, it can be said of Mongolians that they generally talk inside their mouths, with a bucket full of consonants. Many vowel sounds exists at the beginnings of words, then quickly close down inside the mouth where the tongue does most of the work. Though words are written with vowels, unless there are two back-to-back, they’re generally just dropped when spoken. It kind of sounds like Polish looks.

So, when we travel in packs, we’re able to stumble, mumble and Monglish our way around as one unit. Right now, we are a lot like college freshman huddled together for our first semester – on our own for the first time, but constantly together.

Coming up soon:
Pics of our new place
wish list of items we could use if you wanna send us something
more things

Special Shout Out:
Congratulations to Stephen and Lisa on their marriage last weekend. Welcome to the family, Lisa and Ethan. We wish we could have been there to celebrate with you. We thought about you constantly.