Our first day of school, by now, is our first three days of school, and for me it’s been a strange experience, since I haven’t said,”Sorry, I can’t go. I have homework” in about 40 years. They start you with a test to see what level of Spanish you are. Sherry is high intermediate. I’m a beginner. That comes as no surprise to me, even though I can say a few things, and can figure out a lot of written things. But I don’t know any grammar. I don’t even know that much ENGLISH grammar, and I don’t know ANY Spanish grammar. My Spanish has come from Pimsleur, which, although very good at what it is, is listen and repeat, listen and repeat. So beginner it is.
Now, there is beginner and there is beginner. One would think that a beginner beginner class would be for people who know absolutely no Spanish. Nada. My class started with 6 other people and myself. One of them had NO Spanish. Not even counting to ten. One of them seemed to have way too much Spanish to be a beginner. I think he must have had a situation like (and I have no idea what his situation was), maybe he had Spanish as a child, but hadn’t spoken in years (he looked a little Spanish — good looking guy), or something like that. Just guessing. He was only there for the first day, so I’m assuming our teacher (El Professor) had him moved up. The rest are mostly like me: they know some words, maybe know another language, something like that. By the way, my other languages are a “just a little”. A little French, a little German, even less Italian. Enough to ask a question and not understand the answer. I think one other person is from the U. S. (not sure), one is from Finland, and three from England. My favorite is Clare (English). Very bright, funny and open. Seems like a genuinely nice person. She’s here for 4 months and says she’ll stay longer if she’s happy with the experience, which I assume means if she’s learning at an expected rate (and can stand the heat — no small thing come January). When a person her age (guessing around 23) talks to a person my age (60) like they’re just another person, they get major points in my book. I am, after all, the same person I was at 23 (only better I think). But inside still the very same person. I count it as a blessing that at home my friends run the gamut of ages. Thank you so much. (By the way, the others don’t seem to look down on me or anything, but I only feel as if I’ve made a connection with Clare).
The class is great. El professor, Joaquin, is really good at what must be a very frustrating job. He’s funny, patient, smart. I thought (worried) that the class might be all Spanish (immersion, remember), but that would be fairly difficult with a beginner group. The first day it was about ½ and ½, but it seems to be becoming more Spanish each day. We’re starting with present indicative (be honest now, do you even know what present indicative is).
Quick aside: right now I’m sitting a the small kitchen table, our new Canadian friends are on the living room couch, there is a dove’s newly laid egg on the windowsill, and we are listening to some little kids (chicos) below playing some sort of game that requires them to say “Hola” (hello) a lot. Sweet.
Anyway, back to the class: On most days, it starts at 9, we have a 20 minute break after about 2 hours, then we go til 1:00. The first part is mostly conjugating verbs. Time flies, actually. You wouldn’t think it would, actually, conjugating verbs and all, but it really does. The second period is more of actually using what we’ve learned. We might try to answer questions, write short paragraphs, or play some sort of word game. “Hangman” is really difficult when the word is in Spanish. At first I felt pretty lost, but it seemed like I wasn’t alone in feeling lost and of course that made me feel better. I still feel lost fairly often, but it’s getting better, and I can see that I’m learning a lot. The one student that hadn’t had ANY Spanish is having a difficult time. She’s sweet, and seems bright, but she started with a disadvantage. I think she must have been the only person they tested this week that had NO Spanish, and that this was the least advanced class they could have put her in. I feel sorry for her. The rest of us don’t know much, but we know some. Poor thing.
Anyway, to make a long story short (too late for that), I LOVE IT. I didn’t know if I would, but I do. Now if I can take that motivation home with me. It will be difficult to do while I’m still working. You come home from 9 hours at work (sometimes a hard 9 hours) and have to fit in a half hour of Spanish AND a half hour of music. It’s hard. I still want you have a life, don’t you know? And a half hour of Spanish isn’t much. Sherry does two or more and has been studying a year and a half, and although she ‘s doing GREAT, she’s not fluent. How long will it take me? We’ll see, I guess. There is one bit of encouraging news on this front. I asked Joaquin (el profesor) how long…. if you took a full load at an immersion school AND while in the host country took a vow to only speak Spanish and nothing else, then how long would it take to become, if not fluent then at least conversant, and he said four months. Depending on the student’s ability, motivation, etc. Four months. Maybe if and when I retire that’s what I’ll do. We’ll see. Next Post: Recoleta Cemetery.
Bill
I’m sure everyone is anxious to hear about Buenos Aires, the Paris of South America, and there is plenty to tell, since we’ve been doing some exploring. But I’m going to try to do this in some sort of chronological order, even though the poor internet connection (almost everywhere) has thrown a bit of a wrench into our communication plans.
Tags: Argentina · Buenos Aires · Immersion school · Immersion Schools · Learn Spanish · Learning Spanish · SpanishNo Comments
Hope you enjoy your stay in BA. How long will you be there? I studied Spanish in Buenos Aires twice and really enjoyed it.
So, where did you stay? Where did you go to school? What do you recommend doing? What were your favorite things? Observations? Details, please.