Euskal Kazeta will be following Isabel Zialcita regularly on her challenging journey to learn the language of her ancestors.

Isabel, a Basque Filipina living in Los Angeles, is plugging along in her efforts to learn Euskera. She works mostly on her own, online.

She is using the Basque government’s BOGA method. This method is great for most people in the U.S. who want to learn Euskera, but don’t live in a location where Basque classes are offered. Learners can sign up for the BOGA method, which anyone can use online, for a fee of $50.

First Isabel tried CDs that were sent to her, but the program eventually stopped working. Earlier this year, the BOGA program was established online, and that is the program Isabel uses. She explains the pros and cons of the program in a blogpost on Oct. 11.

On Oct. 8, Isabel wrote a blogpost in which she gave a rundown of all the methods available for learning Euskera. She commented that she wished a comprehensive explanation like the one she offers would have been available to her when she was researching ways to learn Euskera.

Isabel is learning grammar and vocabulary. She stated: “I am also studying Euskara through a book called Bakarka I: Método de aprendizaje individual del euskera by J.A. Letamendia. This teaches Euskara through the medium of the Spanish language. I find that whenever there is any concept or grammatical rule that I cannot quite understand when explained in English, I need only read it in Spanish and it suddenly becomes clear.”

Her latest post is about the unique characteristics of Euskera that she’s learned while she was completing the first phase. She learned that Euskera, unlike Spanish, does not attach genders to nouns. In addition, she is learning some of the many suffixes used in the language, such as the letter a, which means “the” when it’s attached to the end of a Basque word.

To read Euskal Kazeta’s first article on Isabel Zialcita’s background and her decision to learn Euskera, click here