Spanish Progress Report #1

One of the things this weekend marked was a SIGNIFICANT amount of conversation in Spanish. I sat in the front of the bus near the chaperones and the foreign Erasmus students. Wow foreigners have such a higher level than us Americans! Makes me a little ashamed truthfully… I spent a lot of time talking comparative countries (what else do you talk about?) with various people from Italy, France, and of course Spain. I pushed back sleep, reading, and journal writing SO MUCH for socializing – something I would never do in the US. But here, speaking is the best practice I can get. Plus, I guess being social can be more fun than being a hermit… At any rate, my Spanish is really getting better. For listening, I’ve started listening to a bunch of Spanish podcasts (mostly from Radio Nacional de España, the Iberian NPR), which is definitely helping. When someone is talking directly to me, I can understand everyone execpt my host mom, my ‘Spain Today’ teacher, and all cashiers in Spain – they’re so hard! For speaking, I’m getting to the point where I don’t realized I’m speaking in a foreign language at times, and I can NEVER remember if I heard or read something in one language or the other – it all just gets processed as “thought,” not “thought in any particular language.” A bit strange, and hard to explain. Present tense has come effortlessly for a while now, and past tense is starting to get that way. Subjunctive… well, let’s not talk about that. At least I recognize after I say somehthing I knew needed it (perhaps the speaking will come later). I got a wonderful compliment this weekend: a native told me that I had an Extremaduran accent, which is exactly how I want to sound. Just make all your c’s and z’s sound like ‘th’ and take out all s’s in speech. I was so happy to hear that! The Spanish is also having adverse effects on my English: in my journal I’m beginning to use more Spanish words (or start to use them and cross them out), because they come more naturally. Plus, today I got very confused for about three seconds which to, too, two I should write – yikes! I still speak a fair amount in English, but writing is hardly ever. When I do speak, I find myself using broken Spanish constructions like “I have 20 years” instead of “I’m 20 years old.” It’s pretty entertaining really. I’m determined to keep getting better every day, and so far it’s paying off. Well, that’s a long enough post now – hope to hear from you all soon!