Trying to see how much Georgian I can swallow in a few weeks...

[zalmoxis]

Hi everyone, this is my first post ever. I'm going to visit Georgia for a couple of weeks with some friends, and I'm trying to see how much of the language I can pick up in these previous weeks. So far I've used a booklet about the alphabet (to learn some basic vocabulary as well), and now I'm using a very easy, sparse, self study book (Elementary Georgian by Ani Mdivani-Morrow).
Encouragement welcome

[Expugnator]

Best of luck! Hope you will enjoy your trip and that will motivate you to continue with the language.

Elementary Georgian is one of the few Georgian textbooks I haven't got my eyes on, but it seems it does its job. Feel free to share any doubts you might have, I'll try to help as I can.

[zalmoxis]

Thanks.
The beauty of Elementary georgian is that it contains only one or two important new points each page...this way it gives you the feeling of progressing fast

[tarvos]

I have so many indecent thoughts when it comes to your log title that I might have considered changing it, if I were you

[MorkTheFiddle]

And another musician from Georgia:

[zalmoxis]

Here I am,
flying to Georgia tomorrow. I can read, more or less stumbling, a text (understanding very little), I know around 100 basic words, and I'm getting a hang of the basics of the grammar).

I feel I have a mental bug that is slowing me down, though. We'll be there for only a couple of weeks, and then I'm sure I won't pick it up again for quite a long time: in the next 6 months I have already planned I'll concentrate on Portuguese and German..and maybe I won't touch Georgian for a couple of years. (I don't improve more than 1, max 2 languages at a time because I have many other interests.) So, the idea that I won't use it again for a long time is keeping me behind. Any mental hoops you could suggest to brush away that feeling and make the most of the next 2 weeks?

[zalmoxis]

I have so many indecent thoughts when it comes to your log title that I might have considered changing it, if I were you

I've learnt that you mustn't care about what people think..

[zalmoxis]

Here I am, back from Georgia. Beautiful places, especially the Greater Caucasus.

A few random thoughts:

- being there with friends who speak my native language and are not interested in Georgian, of course made things much more difficult: I didn't feel all that need to plunge into conversations with natives. Another time I shouldn't mix things: either a trip with friends, or a linguistic trip;

- I was hindered by the knowledge that after the trip, I wouldn't be likely to use the language for a few years, and so my brain was not willing to make a big effort to store that soon-to-evaporate information: it was, instead, already running to future projects..;

- I found getting used to the alphabet harder than I expected: I can decipher the letters but, even at the end of the trip, I was still SLOWLY reading word after word;

- even if I was saying simple things, I managed to make myself understood by the natives, so that little bit of Georgian was, at least correct and / or understandable. I even learnt a few words of the Svan language.

Conclusion: I don't plan to go on with Georgian RIGHT NOW, because I have other more important and easy to implement projects to carry out. But I don't want to say goodbye to the language either, so see you again in a couple of years...