valerie

About

where am I now? Naryn oblast, Kyrgyzstan

Disclaimer: The views and the opinions presented here are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of any individual, institution, program, or government supporting my travel and programs, including but not limited to the Peace Corps.

Hi, I’m Valerie, an American from Texas. During my university days I studied abroad for a semester in Nanchang, China (江西南昌 at 江西财经大学) and a semester in Hohhot, China (内蒙古呼和浩特 at 内蒙古大学). I speak Mandarin Chinese at a solid intermediate level, good enough to have a casual conversation but nowhere near fluent. These travels sparked my interest in Asia and more specifically Central Asia where I currently live and work.

I’m interested in foreign languages generally, but the ones I am most interested in at the moment are Mandarin Chinese, Russian and Kyrgyz. My significant other is a native speaker of Russian and doesn’t push me to practice it nearly enough. I am currently using Kyrgyz in daily life to communicate with my host family and community members. In the distant future, I would eventually like to learn Spanish as my maternal grandmother was from Mexico and I have several relatives who can speak Spanish, including my mother.

可以用中文跟我沟通 😊 不过语法、词语可能用得不对,这样也可以给我改正一下啦 😁