Language

We had 0ur first experience in fulltime language study studying the Vietnamese Language in the fall of 1963 in Dalat, Vietnam. Walter and I were the only pupils and the classroom was the small study in our spacious, light, two story house built in this mountain town when the French occupied the country. We were studying hard with our slim Vietnamese teacher back from his garlicky lunch one afternoon, CAI NAY LA GI, CAI BAN, ETC. (translated What is this? A table. etc.) when a cry of anquish came from down the hall. It was Donna, waking from her nap with a broken hip after a nasty fall from our second story front entrance. Our study that day jumped from the office to real life as we called the doctor and went to the hospital. Still it took a year and more before we began to slowly grasp communication with our new countrymen. Three year old Donna's hip healed more quickly, in a cast that fully covered her right leg and half of her left. And she and five year old Deanna also learned Vietnamese more quickly, just by relating to our Vietnamese household help and the little friends they made.