Always Learning Languages - Multilingual Adventures

 Hello, it's been a while since I wrote. I have been studying Turkish for the past year on my own using duolingo app every day. I am also at a year of consecutive days of lessons. I have also been taking online classes with a Turkish teacher and one other student. Her husband is also Turkish. We have been learning vocabulary and grammar, and we have had classes every Saturday. Recently, we stopped classes for a bit because our Turkish teacher just had a baby! Exciting news: my husband and I will travel to Turkey this August. I will stay two weeks and he will stay almost a month. I am excited to see Istanbul and visit the beaches of Mu ğ la. We will stay with his mother and brother in Istanbul and then we will stay along the coast maybe in a hotel for a week. Wish me good luck with my Turkish learning! Iyi  ş anslar! 

Merhaba, arkadaşlarım. Hello, my friends. It has been awhile since I last wrote. Recently, I began taking classes at a local Turkish Sunday school. All of the families bring their children for culture and language classes. We share a breakfast and smalltalk before lessons begin. I am in the adult beginner class. My three classmates, all men, have Turkish wives and children so they are hoping to improve their language skills. I also hope to learn more vocabulary and grammar through a structured class. So far so good. I will keep learning. Saygılarımla / Sincerely yours, Lena

English.Learn with Lena www.englishlearnwithlena.com Email:  mdawnalleva@gmail.com or Instagram account: @mdawnalleva and https://www.instagram.com/mdawnalleva/ Marlena Alleva /  Facebook   <3   LinkedIn   Based in Somerville, Massachusetts 02145 See you soon! Online and in-person lessons at:  Arlington, Cambridge, & Boston public libraries!!! Now enrolling for ongoing small group classes online! ($5 for one hour; $10 for two hours)        

"So, Lena? What actually happened?" said no one ever. No one ever asked me for the real story, truth. Yes, I fell in love a few years ago. With a man, but also with his language. Now, this lovely boy is buried under the earth in his native land, Serbia. His memorial was in New Hampshire. I was in Texas at the time, so I missed the crash, I missed his coma, I missed his dying breath, I missed his memorial service, I missed the newspaper reporters and their articles in the paper, I missed his fianceé's tears. I did not, however, forget his language. Volim te, duša moja. I will love you forever, my soul. <3 I did not forget to smoke his favorite cigarette, three of the long tobacco kisses that tasted like him. These were my very first cigarettes ever smoked in my life, but I remembered their smell from Erol. These were my very last cigarettes for a long time. I smoked one on the day that I heard of his passing. I smoked the second on the day of his m...

Dear friends, As you may have gathered, this is my first day with Always Learning Languages. I am writing my first post as we speak. In case you are wondering about the title, "first day" is written in different world languages in the chronological order in which I first began to learn or study each language. For everyday life, I am focusing on my big five languages: native speaker in English, daily fluent in Spanish, pretending in Portuguese, everyday beginner in Turkish, and distant lover of Serbo-Croatian. As a child, I studied biblical Hebrew for my bat mitzvah and again for one semester in college. Italian poetry was my favorite to read and to translate in comparative literature class. I loved the musical rhythms and vivid imagery, especially of Cesare Pavese. I don't speak Italian, but I would like to learn. Today, I work in a multilingual public school with high school students from all over the world. My students and their families come to the United State...