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August 01, 2005

Learning Languages

Well, today marks the end of my first ten months here. I have had a few crazy experiences, loads of fun and have watched as my Spanish has slowly improved.

But, learning a language is fucking hard. And at least Spanish and English have the same alphabet. I canīt wait to try and learn Japanese and Vietnamese. That should be a real interesting experience. After watching my students struggle through classes and myself stumble through Spanish I have a newfound respect for those that speak multiple languages...except you crazy people that speak like 5 or 6. Get out a bit more and stop studying grammar all day long.

My Spanish is slowly (key words) improving. But I recently had to fill out more student evaluations and I hate answering the recommendations section. There are only a few ways to practice a language and they are pretty obvious.

#1 - Read. Anything. Books, magazines, internet and/or newspapers.

#2 - Watch TV / movies and listen to music in English. Use the subtitles too!

#3 - Study grammar and do exercises. This is probably the least effective and most utterly boring way to improve your language abilities.

#4 - Speak with others. This is the best way but can also be the most difficult. As I can now attest, itīs frustrating when you canīt really verbally communicate exactly what you want to say. I now know how the President feels when he is spitting out sentence fragments and feeling the cold stares in his direction.

#5 - Speak but add a secret ingredient...alcohol. As we all know, it lowers inhibitions, whether they are inhibiting you from dancing on the bar, meeting an Eastern European hooker or making a mistake in a new language is not important because after alcohol they are all gone. I have been practicing this method with Spanish people recently and it seems to be helping. Many people are afraid of making mistakes, including me. I have heard that being wrong is not always fun. Myself never having been, I wouldnīt know firsthand, but regardless...After you add some beer or sangria to the mix, you are a little less concerned with being wrong and a little more concerned with making the girl across from you understand that yes, in fact, you do love her (te quiero). After that, the international language takes over...

And not to rub it in, but itīs been like paradise here for almost a week. Weīve had a reprieve from the 100-105 degree sun (40-43) and itīs been a picturesque 85 or so every day. I think I saw a cloud on Friday, but Iīm not sure. Other than that, itīs clear blue skies every day. Not half bad!

Posted by KDuffy on August 1, 2005 07:25 AM
Category: Life In Spain
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