Mongolian Language (Mongol Khel)

My Mongolian tutor finally convinced me I need to learn the Cyrillic alphabet in order to improve my Mongolian language skills. So here I am, 43 years old, trying to memorize the 35 letters, how to write each one, and what each one sounds like. As I started in on it, I realized the reason I had been resisting: Sounding out words and tracing alphabet letters is just like being in preschool again (but without the luxury of an afternoon nap). In fact, as I pore over my study sheets and practice the alphabet drills, I have flashbacks to preschool. Sometimes I even think I detect the once-familiar aromas of finger paint, paste and sour milk. Don't get me wrong--preschool is great when you're 5, but it's embarrassing when you're almost 45.

What I really hate is when Mongolians tell me, “It’s easy!” It may be easy for them (many study Russian and English in grade school and high school). But my brain is old and ossified, and my lips are set in their ways. My days of memorizing a new word after one repetition are, sadly, long gone.

So today I was walking to work the way I’ve done probably 60 times since I’ve been here, and I passed by a building that I assumed to be a bank. I think it’s a bank because it’s tall and modern, and also because the Mongolian word for bank is the same as the English, and the Mongolian letters happen to be similar to the English letters ( úàíê ).

But today, for the first time, I learned that the bank located in that building is not just any bank; it is in fact the Ulaanbaatar City Bank ( Óëààíáààòàð õîòûí áàíê ). This mini-breakthrough I accomplished at some risk of physical and psychic injury, since I was looking up at the sign instead of where I was going, and I was audibly sounding out the letters like an idiot. Several of my fellow pedestrians shot me disapproving looks. That’s okay: It feels good not to be illiterate anymore.