Chad learns a little Español

One of the main reasons we decided to travel to Spanish speaking countries was so that I (Chad) could become fluent in Spanish. At the moment I´ve got a LONG way to go. I´ve taken 2 semesters of Spanish class at TriCounty Tech and I studied for 2 weeks in Costa Rica a year ago, but that´s just been enough to do things like order food, take a taxi, and convey basic ideas.

I saw the following video and thought it was hilarious. I hope I´m a little better than this right now, but you can consider it my theme song and imagine me as the singer and Kari as the patiently waiting woman.

Becoming Fluent in Foreign Languages Quickly: From my experience and from what I´ve read about learning languages, immersion in a place that speaks the foreign language is the only way to really learn to speak proficiently and eventually fluently. I took German for 4 years in high school, but it wasn´t until I stayed with a family for 2 weeks in Germany my freshman year of college that I really learned how to speak German.

Many people say that it´s impossible to become fluent in a language as an adult. I tend to believe this is a myth (and I hope to prove it´s not true). It may be true that many older people have trouble learning a language, but the causes of this difficulty may not be inherently because of age. It makes sense, for example, that many adults are so busy and distracted with work, family, etc that they can´t create the focus required to really learn a language.

A blog I like to read by Tim Ferris has some interesting articles about foreign language learning as an adult. Tim has managed to travel around the world and has learned over 7 languages, at last count. If you´re interested in how to learn any foreign lanuage in 1-3 months, click here. Or read here about Why Language Classes Don’t Work: How to Cut Classes and Double Your Learning Rate

Home Stay with Spanish Family: These first two weeks in Kari and I have lived with a native Spaniard here in Salamanca. Her name is Ángela, and she has been wonderful. Ángela is a medical doctor and a professor, and she specializes in the microbiological side of medicine. She has two grown sons in their late 20´s, so she decided to have students in her house as a way to stay busy and meet new people.

Setting aside the fact that staying with a family is a much better value than staying in hotels, we love the fact that we are forced to spend our meal times and relaxing times in the home of someone who actually lives in Spain, lives the culture, and speaks the language. I have to admit that my head hurts by the end of the day because there are so many words I don´t understand. You wouldn´t believe how much focus and energy it requires to really listen intently in order to understand even a little bit of what a native speaker is saying.

Language School: We are also taking classes at a language school here in Salamanca. The school is called Letra Hispanica.

Street in front of our language school

From Spain Trip - Week 2 - Salamanca

Front Door of Our School

Each day Kari and I take 2 hours of grammar/conversation classes, and then 2 hours of culture/literature classes. Honestly Kari is more advanced than they´re used to having in school, but she´s picked up new vocabulary, local expressions, and idioms (phrases that mean something different than the actual words. Ex: The cat has my tongue ... i.e. I can´t speak.).

The first week we had small classes, with only 2-3 people in a class. Disappointingly, this 2nd week we´ve had 9-10 per class, all from a group of students from Denmark. Overall we´ve also been a little disappointed with the teaching methods and content of the school. For example, they´ve spent some time focusing on grammar that´s not immediately practical for speaking. Although I like literature, I have not gotten anything out of the these classes because they are over my head. In general, next time in Peru we´re going to look for a school that has more levels of classes, has smaller class sizes guaranteed, and that teaches with the methods/content we prefer.

Kari and I have also had a game each day. The game says that we can only speak Spanish until 11pm at night. After 11pm we can speak English if we like without being penalized. Come to think of it we haven´t created a penalty, but it´s been very useful to be able to speak with Kari in Spanish all day. I think we´ve both gotten a little frustrated with each other - her because it takes me so long and she constantly has to correct me ... - me because I can´t always express what I want to say. We also have bought Spanish newspapers, and we´ve read the articles together. It lets us know more about the country, and we both learn a lot of new vocabulary.

We´ll post another article soon about some of our other fun times in Salamanca. We´ll also include more pictures next time.