One of my main goals for my service was to learn Albanian well. This was the main reasoning behind choosing to stay in a host family for the entire two years (I am the only volunteer out of 80 to do this). Staying in a host family was the best decision I made in these last two years and I am grateful for all the wonderful things they’ve done to me and the role they played in my time here. It is largely through their interactions with me that I was able to earn Advanced-Mid on my final Albanian test, which Peace Corps administered during our Close of Service conference. There are just two levels which are higher than my score, and overall this score is roughly equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in the language. Not too shabby.
Going forward, loss of linguistic ability is a concern. Of course I will correspond with my host family and I really intend on keeping the relationship going after I leave. It will take some effort to maintain my language though, and I’m not quite sure how I will go about it just yet.
And finally, something about the nature of Albanian: there is some element of this language that causes almost everyone’s voice to raise whenever they speak it. We’ve discussed this theory amongst friends before, and visitors have simultaneously made fun of and/or mocked me while listening to my “Albanian voice.” Carrie Ann also alleges that native English speakers who speak German as a second language also have a particular way of pronouncing things in Albanian. The verdict is out.
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