Can you roll your Rs??

Amidst hours of procrastination, and minutes of actual effort put into school work, I have started the language lessons provided by the Peace Corps. I downloaded the Tswana and Sepedi lessons to my iPod and have started listening to them, in hopes of getting used to the sound of the language.

To my surprise, and dismay, both language have a rolled R. While this is not the most alien of sounds in the languages, it is by far the most troubling for me. When the instructor said "the sound you make when you hock a loogie" for the letter G, I could only laugh and make the sound, but when the R sound game up, all the instructor says is "roll the R."

Now for some, this might be no big deal. My younger sister can roll her R's for days, but when it came to my first attempt, there was spit on my chin and the sound that came out of my mouth sounded more like I had Novocain shot in my mouth than the eloquent voice on the recording.

But still, rolled Rs or not, it is amazing to know that I will be given the chance to learn a new language and develop it for two years of my life.