One benefit of being on an island out in the middle of the ocean, with a house all to yourself, and a lack of entertainment, is that you really do have a lot of time to do whatever the heck you’d like.
Before you get any sordid ideas, I’ll tell you that sitting down with all the fans on, a beer, and my free Tokpisin Grammar Workbook* has been about as wild as it gets and a total blast. And I say ‘total blast’ because there is something inherently nerdy at my core which loves filling out workbooks. ...I don’t really have any insights on this behaviour except to confirm for you that people are indeed very strange.
At my workbook-party-for-one last night, I started chapter four and became suddenly quite sad. Why? Well, the chapter is set out with a big bit of dialogue in Pidgin, followed by an English translation, which you then do exercises on for the rest of the chapter. Cracked open Chapter 4 and was presented with the dialogue as follows:
Biam bia.
Biam bia hia.
Biam bia long hap.
Biam bia long klab.
Inap yu biam me bia?
Biam bia bilong me, plis.
So I’m a bit upset, because I think this may be the end of my studies. Because once you've got these, what else is there that you’d really need to say?
Buy beer.
Buy beer here.
Buy beer over there.
Buy beer at the club.
Can you buy beer for me?
Buy me beer, please.
*Thanks Peace Corps! Since its free, I advise you to go check out Dana (and tell her to blog more often) who is actually in the Peace Corps and doing amazing things, likely as a result of taking her language classes much more seriously.
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