Today is the last day of Spanish class. The lessons have been one on one, first with Martha for a week and then with Adreana. Martha covered some basics with me and Adreana has built on that, included a lot more conversation, of which she does most of the talking. There\u0092s been homework every night, which is quite helpful, and a review of that the next morning.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend I wrote a couple of pages of notes. It was really just a list of words to learn\/memorize and continue to pronounce. I took it along with me during my site seeing and practiced while waiting for the bus. Every day I learn new \u0093verbos\u0094 and other words and every day I have a little glimmer of recognition of something in the conversation at dinner. Most of the time I can understand the jist of the conversation but asking a question or contributing is really still out of my realm of possibility. <\/p>\n
The teachers are incredibly patient and, I think, do a good job at making the four hours one on one go fast. My criticism is that it is all Spanish all the time and when there\u0092s a difficult concept to explain, it would be more appropriate in English. There are times when I \u0093no comprende\u0094 the concept and repeating it in Spanish doesn\u0092t help. The other thing that would really help is a conversation partner. It would be nice to have someone to practice the day\u0092s lesson, or even last week\u0092s lessons. <\/p>\n
I can tell that it\u0092s sinking in, though. In my head I can complete full sentences. My pronunciation is better and my vocabulary is increasing. I\u0092m guessing I know at least 200 words, judging from the cheat sheet I made over the weekend. I\u0092m having trouble remembering English words. Today it must\u0092ve taken me a full five minutes to remember \u0093iTunes\u0094 while Adreana was using a YouTube video for part of the lesson. I wondered if the group\u0092s music (Jesse y Joy) was available. And, when I bought my plane ticket online, it took me several beats to remember my own phone number. This is exactly one of my goals for this trip \u0096 to have my English suffer and my US life fade. Another mission accomplished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today is the last day of Spanish class. The lessons have been one on one, first with Martha for a week and then with Adreana. Martha covered some basics with me and Adreana has built on that, included a lot more conversation, of which she does most of the talking. There\u0092s been homework every night, which is quite helpful, and<\/p>\n