Learning English a big hurdle for Tsegi
Mongolia prompts visions of nomads, Genghis Khan and vast grassy steppes.
So when Erdenetseg (Tsegi) Batsuuri and her family came to Glenfield they naturally felt like fish out of water.
Tsegi, 37, who spoke not a word of English, travelled half way around the world to join the Weber Bros Circus as an aerial performer with her husband Gantulga in 2004.
"It was very hard. We couldn't understand people and couldn't explain what we wanted," Tsegi says.
"The circus performers are all international."
Tsegi is one of 750 learners taught by English Language Partners (ELP) North Shore.
Volunteer tutors spend hours in homes of non-English speaking immigrants, teaching Kiwi-English to speakers of 56 different languages.
Watching movies and testing herself in conversation helped her to pick up English, Tsegi says.
Tsegi is already semi-fluent in Russian and says English was much harder to learn.
"I had no choice but to learn it. It is much harder than Russian," she says.
"I learnt Russian when I was young and now I am older trying to learn English and it's not easy."
The fulltime mum gave birth to a little girl only a year ago and is intent on ensuring both her children, including a 10-year-old son, maintain their "mother tongue".
"We speak Mongolian in our house. We never forget where we come from and our own language," she says.
"My son speaks Mongolian like my English but we tell him not to forget," Tsegi says.
ELP manager Birgit Grafarend-Watungwa says it is important to maintain mother languages as there is so much culture and identity that goes with it.
Heritage is kept alive in the Batsuuri household with Tsegi playing the morin khuur, a traditional violin, and cooking buuz dumplings.
"Within the family that is a given. Parents and grandparents think it's very important," Ms Grafarend-Watungwa says. "Children often learn English very easily and it gets to the point where some don't even speak their mother tongue any more.
"That's really hard for the grandparents that find they can't even speak to their own grandchildren."
She says many learners come to them trying desperately to keep the lines of communication open with their young ones.
International Mother Languages Day on February 21 is a celebration of linguistic and cultural diversity.
Observed since 2000, it aims to encourage the preservation of language and heritage.
So when Erdenetseg (Tsegi) Batsuuri and her family came to Glenfield they naturally felt like fish out of water.
Tsegi, 37, who spoke not a word of English, travelled half way around the world to join the Weber Bros Circus as an aerial performer with her husband Gantulga in 2004.
"It was very hard. We couldn't understand people and couldn't explain what we wanted," Tsegi says.
"The circus performers are all international."
Tsegi is one of 750 learners taught by English Language Partners (ELP) North Shore.
Volunteer tutors spend hours in homes of non-English speaking immigrants, teaching Kiwi-English to speakers of 56 different languages.
Watching movies and testing herself in conversation helped her to pick up English, Tsegi says.
Tsegi is already semi-fluent in Russian and says English was much harder to learn.
"I had no choice but to learn it. It is much harder than Russian," she says.
"I learnt Russian when I was young and now I am older trying to learn English and it's not easy."
The fulltime mum gave birth to a little girl only a year ago and is intent on ensuring both her children, including a 10-year-old son, maintain their "mother tongue".
"We speak Mongolian in our house. We never forget where we come from and our own language," she says.
"My son speaks Mongolian like my English but we tell him not to forget," Tsegi says.
ELP manager Birgit Grafarend-Watungwa says it is important to maintain mother languages as there is so much culture and identity that goes with it.
Heritage is kept alive in the Batsuuri household with Tsegi playing the morin khuur, a traditional violin, and cooking buuz dumplings.
"Within the family that is a given. Parents and grandparents think it's very important," Ms Grafarend-Watungwa says. "Children often learn English very easily and it gets to the point where some don't even speak their mother tongue any more.
"That's really hard for the grandparents that find they can't even speak to their own grandchildren."
She says many learners come to them trying desperately to keep the lines of communication open with their young ones.
International Mother Languages Day on February 21 is a celebration of linguistic and cultural diversity.
Observed since 2000, it aims to encourage the preservation of language and heritage.
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