My One Goal
I've been taking Spanish for as long as I can remember.
Literally.
Except for one year in 5th grade when I took Latin I have spent every single year of my life in school, from Pre-K to Senior year, taking Spanish in some sort of academic capacity.
To be honest, I hadn't found my Spanish education to be satisfactory and if you're looking at my AP score as the only official way to measure my ability in Spanish, I did fine, but not great.
While looking at Gap Year programs the only thing my parents asked of me was that I spend some time in a Spanish speaking country. I saw no harm in this and took it upon myself to in fact come out of this experience speaking and understanding Spanish a million times better than I had before.
After two months of living in South/Latin America, living with homestays, working in the communities, taking classes in Spanish, and breathing in the language as a part of my daily life, I can proudly and honestly say that I have achieved this.
If I'm not fluent now, I'm pretty darn close.
I've got three stories to prove this to you:
1. I sleep talk. I used to do it a lot more as a kid, so it's actually kind of a rare event now. One of our last nights in Ecuador my roomate couldn't fall asleep so she decided to journal before going to bed. I on the other hand was konked out.
They say that once you've dreamed in another language, you've mastered it. She says I sat straight up, eyes wide open, looked her directly in the eyes, and said "A is for Alto. Which means stop." This is true, all the stop signs in Guatemala have "Alto" written on them.
That one isn't the most impressive, but it was the freakiest. She says that I had two more incidents that night; both of which were in rapid-fire Spanish.
2. Just yesterday we took a boatride around Lake Atitlan. While stopped in an area to swim we met a couple relaxing in a natural hot spring. The man started up a conversation with about 5 of us, in almost immpeccable English. When asked what we were doing in Guate I explained in what was probably a very long and needlessly winded explanation of a what a Gap Year is and specifically TBB. I said this all, kind of unwittingly, in Spanish.
He pauses. Looks at me with wide eyes and says, "Damn! She can speak Spanish!" to which I replied "Well, you never asked!"
3. This afternoon I was relaxing in a coffee shop. There was a group of Basque doctors having lunch next to me. All in Spanish they asked if I could take a picture of them. I said yes. Afterwards, we had a conversation. When they got up to leave they complimented my Spanish and told me that it was very good.
The least impressive of these three stories, it nevertheless made me happy to know that I had to some capactity achieved my goal: I can interact with people in almost perfect Spanish.
Literally.
Except for one year in 5th grade when I took Latin I have spent every single year of my life in school, from Pre-K to Senior year, taking Spanish in some sort of academic capacity.
To be honest, I hadn't found my Spanish education to be satisfactory and if you're looking at my AP score as the only official way to measure my ability in Spanish, I did fine, but not great.
While looking at Gap Year programs the only thing my parents asked of me was that I spend some time in a Spanish speaking country. I saw no harm in this and took it upon myself to in fact come out of this experience speaking and understanding Spanish a million times better than I had before.
After two months of living in South/Latin America, living with homestays, working in the communities, taking classes in Spanish, and breathing in the language as a part of my daily life, I can proudly and honestly say that I have achieved this.
If I'm not fluent now, I'm pretty darn close.
I've got three stories to prove this to you:
1. I sleep talk. I used to do it a lot more as a kid, so it's actually kind of a rare event now. One of our last nights in Ecuador my roomate couldn't fall asleep so she decided to journal before going to bed. I on the other hand was konked out.
They say that once you've dreamed in another language, you've mastered it. She says I sat straight up, eyes wide open, looked her directly in the eyes, and said "A is for Alto. Which means stop." This is true, all the stop signs in Guatemala have "Alto" written on them.
That one isn't the most impressive, but it was the freakiest. She says that I had two more incidents that night; both of which were in rapid-fire Spanish.
2. Just yesterday we took a boatride around Lake Atitlan. While stopped in an area to swim we met a couple relaxing in a natural hot spring. The man started up a conversation with about 5 of us, in almost immpeccable English. When asked what we were doing in Guate I explained in what was probably a very long and needlessly winded explanation of a what a Gap Year is and specifically TBB. I said this all, kind of unwittingly, in Spanish.
He pauses. Looks at me with wide eyes and says, "Damn! She can speak Spanish!" to which I replied "Well, you never asked!"
3. This afternoon I was relaxing in a coffee shop. There was a group of Basque doctors having lunch next to me. All in Spanish they asked if I could take a picture of them. I said yes. Afterwards, we had a conversation. When they got up to leave they complimented my Spanish and told me that it was very good.
The least impressive of these three stories, it nevertheless made me happy to know that I had to some capactity achieved my goal: I can interact with people in almost perfect Spanish.
Good for YOU! maybe you could come with me to Cuba as my translator haha. Or just give me some quick lessons...Are you coming home for Thanksgiving? I am not good at following blogs but i just looked at your last two entries.
ReplyDeleteOXOXO
Sabrina