We spent the weekend in Mar del Plata to visit the boy’s family. We had home-cooked food, spent time by the sea and generally relaxed for three days. But my oh my, what three days of pure frustration they were for me.
After 8 classes of Español para Extranjeros, I was feeling fantastic leaving Buenos Aires armed with what I thought was a battalion of new verbs and tenses with which to communicate. I was WRONG. Speaking in class and understanding the teacher is VERY different from speaking in real life and understanding people in real life. Real life doesn’t speak as slowly or as clearly as my professors do. Verbs don’t conjugate themselves as quickly or as easily in my head during real life. And nobody is writing me simple tense letters in real life. Real life español has been a real shock. I am sad. =(
I don’t know who I was kidding when I thought I could jump into a school and learn Castellano via osmosis. If I just sleep on the verb book, won’t it all just soak into my brain at night?! And doesn’t eating Argentinian food – cooking it even! – doesn’t that count for some form of mercy from the language gods?!
Oh the pure frustration of hearing bits and pieces of a conversation and not being able to conjugate quickly enough to contribute! So incredibly annoying! I know I should look at it as more exciting, and new and fun, but really, I’m tired of not being able to contribute a normal sentence in a very normal conversation!!!
I need a new strategy and I need it fast. Any advice on how I can learn more quickly? As in, lightning fast quickly?!
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If you don't already, which I'm pretty sure you don't. You should speak to Ger in Spanish. I know it'll feel weird, but really it's the best way. You'll be speaking in no time.
We try to do "Spanish hour" but it's hard. I think he should just refuse to speak to me unless I speak to him in Spanish! I saw Toto this weekend and he speaks better Castellano than I do! THAT was depressing!
I agree with Ra. Also, watch only Spanish TV shows. You may even want to watch children's show where they teach basic words and sentences.
My 2 cents…
BIG HUG!
Mama
Go shopping. Eat out. Force yourself to interact with locals. And yes, watch TV
Guapa, paciencia!! aprender un idioma es muy dificil y tienes que estar muy orgullosa de ti! Vas despacio pero vas segura! PS: 3 years ago I tried the "one hour spanish" with Andy and we are yet to achieve spending more than ten minutes. Love partners are these selfish human beings that want to enjoy every minute of your personality which made us fall in love to start with, so it is extremely hard to spend one hour listening to our better half saying three words per minute as well as absorbing their frustation at their slowliness. Even though I agree if you and the boy speak in spanish you will get better faster, I have to say be nice to him if he does not manage to do it, because I failed miserably!
I used to learn every single song in the MTV when I was twelve and ta-da! Buy yourself some nice cd´s in spanish and learn every single line singing all day long!!
So happy to see you do this, you go girl!
Muchos besos
xxx
Viv – The problem with going out is that enough people speak English here that instead of patiently listening to my broken Spanish, they eagerly answer in English because they want to practice with me!
It's sweet but obviously counter productive. The TV idea works. We watch movies that are subtitled, and that helps. Though I think Spanish movies subtitled in Spanish will help best.
Dré – Muchas gracias por tu dulzura
I will cut the boy some slack – you're right! And honestly, it's feels different speaking to him in another language. It's just not as intimate. I will definitely try the CDs!!! Te extraño mucho mucho mucho.
Yeppers! Spanish TV is also good. What I used to do when I was learning English here was grab a song and write down the lyrics, then I'd check if what I had written was right. You should definitely try it. Pick up some Bersuit and try to write it down. He speaks very clearly (I think) and has a lot of words in his songs. You should try with "Murguita del Sur" "Sencillamente" "Un Pacto" "Mi Caramelo" "El Astronauta y la Bruja". You'll also be listening to good music!
Good luck. If you tried it let me know how it went!
Reading this is like deja vu for me! I lived in Japan for more than 10 years and spent the first 6 months in language school. After 6 months, I thought I was ready to conquer the Japanese world but nope, it was sooo different. Classroom Japanese language and "outside world, real life" Japanese is entirely different!
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