Yo hablo Espanol

We’re midway through our third week in Central America, and I’m happy to say our Spanish is finally getting somewhere! It’s amazing what can happen when you have one-on-one classes for 4 hours every morning, followed by conversations with our Nica family over mealtimes and passings. The instruction at Casa Xalteva has been top-notch quality, as they’ve clearly identified our individual levels and picked up instruction based on our areas of need and desire to learn. Travis and I actually took the first 1-½ weeks of class together with our teacher Maria, but after several frustrating moments, we came to discover that we learn quite differently. Travis’s strength is in mastering the new grammar rules we learn and thinking before he speaks. Thus, he takes longer to compose his sentences in his mind before opening his mouth, but once he speaks he does so with very few mistakes. I on the other hand am the opposite. I am excited about the new grammar we’re learning (such as mastering the past tense) and the opportunities it presents to have more meaningful conversations with people. So, instead of memorizing and practicing before I speak, I just jump right in and attempt conversations, not worrying about the mistakes that I make (and there are many). I just wait to be corrected- I seem to learn best by practicing first through speaking, rather than by studying.

Trav’s and my listening comprehension levels are at different speeds as well. Again, Travis pays close attention to the speaker’s grammar and vocabulary to figure out how to respond, and I just listen in for what is familiar to me and take a “guess.” Usually it works, because the conversation continues and flows, although I’m sure more than once the Nicas I’m talking to think I’m an absolute horrible listener or just super crazy. There’s no way I’ve responded to everything correctly… I know many things get lost in translation! You wouldn’t believe how many times though we’ve shook our heads and said “Si, Si” to people when we have no idea what they’ve said. Many times we’ll ask someone for directions or some other question, not understand a word of their rapid answer, and then just kindly shake our heads and say “si, si, gracias.” Then we’ll walk away and I’ll say, “Trav, did you get that?” He’ll respond with, “Not a word.” It’s classic… I think we’ve pulled off some pretty convincing responses with our “Si’s” and smiles in gratitude. What actors we are. Oh well, at least we’ve tried! But, back to classes, we are now in separate classes and each have our own teacher for one-on-one instruction. It’s great because our teachers get to know us well, and therefore can identify our frequent mistakes (especially with pronunciation) and instruct us accordingly. I’m getting to the point where I now anticipate my teacher’s correction the minute I’ve said something wrong. It really keeps me on my toes and the learning curve grows faster. We also have homework each night that we actually enjoy; it too really supplements the learning process. The best is when we’re asked to write up sentences and stories in Spanish. Travis is hilariously creative in how he uses the new vocabulary we’ve recently learned. A sample sentence of his would be: “Pancho, el hombre viego, murio tan pronto como Andres dijo un broma mala sobre su burro.” Translation: “Pancho, the old man, died as soon as Andre told a bad joke about Pancho’s donkey.” Travis knows how to keep me laughing!