First a few disclaimers:
1. I know I am not the first person in the world to learn a new language. I realize that people do this every day, and that some people have managed to learn 5 languages throughout their lifetime.
2. When I say that things can be difficult or bizarre, I don't mean to complain at all. I am throroughly enjoying the process and the daily marathon brain workout.
3. These are purely MY observations, based soley on my opinion and how I feel... not scientific fact.
Now...
I have been in Chile for right at a month, dropped in a close-to sink or swim situation. Having a person legally bound to you that is fluent in both English and Spanish definitely helps with complete overload, but in the past month I have definitely had to get used to a few things that come with not knowing the language.
Anyone who knows me at all knows that I rarely (with the exception of stupid teacher inservice) sit in a room without contributing to the conversation. Even if it is a topic that I know very little about, I will offer the occaisional encouragement or affirmation to those speaking. September 2012 was a very quiet month for me. Somedays I sat in rooms full of conversation for hours without saying more than 3 or 4 sentences. At every moment, I am listening so intently, hoping that context clues will help me commit more vocabulary words to memory, and crossing my fingers that I didn't miss the keyword that makes the concept being discussed the exact opposite of what I thought they meant. Chileans speak, forgive me, but FREAKING FAST. This causes me to be about 3 sentences behind at all times when trying to understand them, which in turn causes me to look like a deer in headlights when they ask me a question and I am still deciphering the what I assume to be "sentence" that they said 20 seconds ago, but sounded to me like one giant word. Then, OBVIO, I have to ask them to repeat it, and they assume I understood nothing--which isn't the case-- Rinse and Repeat.
Somedays I can understand everything and the very next day, I catch about half. Just like anything, I know you can't just add water, but that would be SO awesome.
I am enrolled in intensive Spanish classes which is awesome for learning so much grammar that it explodes out of your ears. My classes are taught entirely in Spanish, which is definitely something those of us that grew up in the states have never had to experience. Honestly, this class would be far less effective if they were explaing Spanish to me in English (which seems bizarre), but it gives me hours a day where I hear CORRECT Spanish. I also feel that I am getting a better handle on language concepts in general. The hard part is, taking the correct Spanish outside of the classroom and trying to understand slang. For your entertainment... a few things the average Chilean does to make Spanish impossible to understand (at first).
Take the word: Gracias, for example. They don't pronounce the S as much as they let it aspirate, and they do this with all words ending in s.
Take the word: Cansado (tired)... That d is only there for looks in Chile-- Cansao (ow)
adding "ito" to the end of everything. It isn't a plato.. it is a platito. Your name isn't Francisco, but Francisquito.
There are so many more, but I'll spare you. Yet another disclaimer: I know that we are just as bad (especially in the South) at making up pronunciations and words in English.
Pronunciation can be challenging, because there are just some sounds that don't exist to my brain, but I am proud to say that I have now been told multiple times that I don't have an American accent... that I sound more like a French person--- so #Winning. Spanish with a Texas accent is ridiculous, so I'm glad I can fool everyone so far.
Now for a small rant. No one else in my class is from an English speaking country, YET they all have at least a working knowledge (enough to converse) in English. Seriously!! I am the silly American that knows only one langauge... and that is unfortunate. We should do a better job of langauge education. (I will try in my future years as a band director to encourage foreign language RIGHT UNDER music :).
I purchased the first Harry Potter in Spanish and have been reading it very slowly for the last couple of weeks. I have learned quite a few phrases and vocabulary words, some more useful than others. (I don't know that the word for owl, wand, and "he who must not be named" are street useful, but the word for muggle is muggle... so there ya go).
This is just the beginning and I am sure there will be many followups to this blog (a series if you will) as I continue to grow in Spanish. Until then, Hasta luego.
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