Ja' jbi Jordana...

Likemun tal ta Washington.

Nakelun ta Varyo El Cerrillo.

Chi-abtej ta BMPV.

Ja' jchanubtasvanejun.

Chichanvunaj ta Escuela de lenguas.

Ta jchan bats'i'kop.

Oyun ta sba semestre.

Chik'opoj ta inglés ta kaxlankop jutuk alemán xchi´uk jutuk bats´ik´op.

Oy lajuneb xcha´vinik ja´vilal.

Ja´ noóx, kolavalik.

That was about the extent of my knowledge of Tsotsil at the end of week one, but I was pretty proud of myself. Jchanubtasvanejun = teacher. Lajuneb xcha´vinik = 30. These are not easy words to learn!! (And it is somewhat embarrassing to keep asking how to say the number thirty when everyone else in the class is about 19 years old.)

And speaking of the class... Today was our twelfth day, and there has yet to be a day when the class has been made up of the same students as any other day. The first day it was just me and one other student until a third showed up 45 minutes through the one hour class. I thought, "This will be great! So much individualized instruction!" The following day, only one of the two others showed up, but three different students were there - native speakers of Tsotsil! Now we are a group of 12... I think. The professor himself is not sure. The second week, I was nominated as the class communication liaison because I was the only person who had been to every class.

So far, I´m enjoying the class. It´s been a nice way to meet people and learn about Mayan culture. It has also taught me a few new words in Spanish. Yesterday, they were trying to explain what a borrego was (chij in Tstotsil), and some were calling it a fuzzy cabra (goat), but one of the students from Mexico City who has lived in the states was sure it was a sheep (which it is). From that, we started discussing the difference between a cabra and a chivo (tot tentsun in Tsotsil) and finally determined that a cabra is a female goat and a chivo is a male goat.

MORAL OF THE DAY´S LESSON:

You can have queso de cabra, but you cannot have queso de chivo.