Problem: Dependency?

[Conal R Smith]

Before entering my evaluation session today, I realized I had a problem. It has been something that had been bothering me for quite a while but hasn't really come to the forefront until yesterday. I realized that, after spending hours and hours working my Wadia and all the exercises she has helped me with, I still find it difficult to maintain a frame of reference to how the letters, when put together in a whole word, sound correctly. I usually can pronounce certain parts, if not the majority parts of the words correctly, though I still hold a sense of doubt of how I can pronounce the word in script form. Obviously, I am able to pronounce correctly the transliterated forms of the word and sentences but this isn't completely learning the language. For example, if I work on a Friday for an hour and half or so on pronouncing a variety of words and do not look at them again until the following Monday, I have difficulty pronouncing the same words again. The problem, or cheating way, is that I attempt to transliterate the word using English characters but end up mispronouncing the word regardless. This is my dependency. As I posted in my last blog, in which Wadia gave me the trick to speak properly, I believe this issue can be contributed to the fact that the process of learning Farsi, is constant repetition and the memorization of vowels within specific words. As I have not had the constant barrage of listening to someone or audio tape of these words and sentences, I have difficulty retaining exact sounds of words. Just some food for thought after today's session.