UW-Madison graduate Andrew Kline (Linguistics and Middle East Studies ’23) arrived in Timor-Leste in October 2023 to begin his Peace Corps service as an education volunteer. While at UW-Madison, Andy received a Foreign Language and Areas Studies (FLAS) Fellowship from IRIS NRC to study Arabic, which allowed him to study abroad in Amman, Jordan. Since arriving in Timor-Leste as a Peace Corps Volunteer, Andy has been blogging about his experiences on his website, which you can view here. Andy’s most recent update covers the linguistic diversity of Andy’s current community in Venilale!
Here’s a short excerpt from Andy’s most recent blog:
“The main town of Venilale itself is located in suku Uato Haco, near the intersection with suku Fatulia and Uailaha. Though I live in Fatulia, a Midiki speaking area, the school where I teach draws students from all across the administrative post and even from across the district border in Viqueque. The school environment, therefore, is a treat for me as someone who loves linguistics. Midiki-speaking students will be chatting to each other in their language and switch to Tetun to communicate with students from Makasae areas, and vice versa. Even teachers will often speak to students in any of the three languages depending on where they are from. It’s not uncommon to find people in Venilale who can effortlessly switch between Midiki, Tetun, Makasae, and Waima’a..”
Read on about Andy’s adventures during his time in Timor-Leste here.