The little differences

I had my first two "Spanish for Foreigners" classes this past week. I'm not sure if it will help or hurt my Spanish. First, I have to spend 3 hrs a week listening to other Americans struggle with the language, which just reinforces my own bad habits and pronunciation. But, the teacher has done a good job so far of pointing out common mistakes that foreigners make (wrong verb use, etc.). So now I just need to put these into practice and try to shut my ears during class.

I also bought a bag of apples yesterday at the supermarket. It included a bag of chili powder! There are certain condiments that go on everything here, and the list includes, chili, salsa, lime, salt. Just a bit of cultural difference in something that is also very similar.

Random updates

This last week the Peace Corps coordinator for my program came to visit. He met with the managers and counterparts in my office to try and ferret out real feedback on my service so far. The challenge for most of us is that the local culture is kind of anti-feedback...for example, in the US, I could ask my boss how I was doing and what I could do better at (communication, teamwork, etc). Here, whenever I ask that question, I always get "you're doing everything just great!" Right. No one wants to offend you. So the program coordinators kind of act as a neutral third-party, with the hopes that the counterparts will be more open and honest with them. In reality, I think everything that came out was still sugarcoated (to counterbalance my overly negative point of view) because the people in my office don't want to lose the prestige of having a volunteer. I did, however, get some good tips on things to try that might help me integrate into my office better.

This weekend also started my adventure to find non-work related activities. I took a placement test for a Spanish for Foreigners class at a local university. I did not do so hot on the grammar part, but since I can speak decently, the teacher put me into the Advanced 1 class! I will be starting this week--two nights a week, after work. I also went to find the local Casa de la Cultura, and found out that they will be offering acoustic guitar lessons on Saturday mornings, starting in February. This was enough inspiration that I whipped out the guitar and practiced on Sunday, for the first time in months. Later on Sunday, I took my first salsa class at a dance school. It was tough! My feet just do not seem to stay coordinated with themselves or the rest of my body, even without throwing in the music. Plus, I couldn't quite understand all the Spanish that people were throwing around...

Spanish Placement Test

We received an e-mail yesterday with a written Spanish placement test attached. The entire test was in Spanish, except for a single English instruction "do not use dictionaries, buddies, etc." I'm thankful that I took the class at Instituto Cervantes and have used Rosetta Stone, but it was pretty obvious that I should be in a novice group. I completed about a third of the test and suddenly didn't recognize any of the words. Plus, it looked like they wanted me to conjugate verbs in non-present tense...which, I don't know how to do. Overall, it took me over an hour to complete what I could. They will use this test (plus a phone interview, if needed) to put us into competency groups so that we all learn at the same pace. I don't think I'll be getting a callback for that oral interview.

Rosetta Stone

So, I was lucky and received a 1 year subscription to Level 3, Latin American Spanish from Rosetta Stone, courtesy of PC. I've been playing around with it for a couple of weeks now, and I hope to get through at least Level 2 before I leave (ideally the whole thing!). Hopefully this will put me on par with the others who are in my PC volunteer class. I've heard one couple is already planning a 2-month homestay in Mexico before March so that they can get a jump start on the language...

My experience with Rosetta Stone so far has been positive. I have tried a different online learning program, and there are some things I like more about Rosetta Stone (maybe due to all the hype):

- I've gone through 1.5 units in Level 1 (4 units total in Level 1). I have not seen a single word of English since everything is presented in pictures and Spanish. So, I am not as reliant on a Spanish-English dictionary.
- However, the trade-off is that there aren't any real grammar explanations. While the pictures are pretty good at explaining grammatical concepts (singular vs plural, first person vs third person, some verb conjugations), there are a couple of things that I am just not understanding. I wish the program would provide some type of explanation for these, since they advertise it as "the same as how you learned your first language"--but I'm pretty sure they taught us grammar in school.
- They go back and force you to periodically review modules. This has been good for reinforcing vocabulary and concepts.

The thing I am still unsure about is if Rosetta Stone will get me thinking fast enough to hold a conversation in Spanish. Some of the answers are just coming out of my mouth (yay!), but I had a hard time with the end-of-unit "test", which was more of a conversation. I am hoping / wondering if the higher level units start getting into more conversational practice, so that may help. PC has also given me access to www.scola.org, which streams TV and radio from other countries. This has been a great way to hear Spanish in real-time and try to absorb it at real speeds.

Hablo un poco espanol

So, one thing that everyone asks me after they hear that I am going to Mexico is if I know Spanish. Oddly enough, I know next to nothing. In middle / high school, I took 5 years of Latin, not exactly a widely spoken language. However, Spanish is a Romance language based off of Latin, so the Latin training seems to be helping. I am currently enrolled in a beginner's class at a place called Instituto Cervantes. One of my coworkers recommended it over the local university, and I am really glad he did. I love the class! Our teacher is from Spain, and she is hilarious. The entire class is a riot. I am somewhere in the middle of the pack--I understand the technical stuff (like verb conjugations--thank you, Latin!), but I can't hold a conversation worth anything. I just can't think fast enough to keep up, and that's just for the present tense! I will definitely need a lot more practice before I can even imagine conjugating in all the other tenses. But, at least I understand the fundamentals. Actually studying in my not-so-free time would probably also help, to expand my vocabulary if nothing else.

From the Yahoo PeaceCorps2 group, I had read that PC sometimes will give you access to Rosetta Stone before staging, to help you start learning the language. When I called DC to accept my invitation, I asked about this. The story I got was that it had been a pilot program for the last class of invitees, and PC was going to evaluate effectiveness before deciding whether or not to extend it to my group. Given the current budget issues with PC, continuing resolution for the entire federal budget, etc., I'm not holding out any hope that my Spanish skills will get that added boost.

At work the other day a couple of native Spanish speakers were talking about the local Spanish slang compared to other regional slangs. This quickly turned into one of those hilarious conversations about miscommunication, where people think you're talking about some vulgar body part but you think you're talking about some normal thing, like food. Can't wait until the first time I do that and get funny looks from people. Don't worry, I'll be sure to share.