Learning Spanish (part 1)

I took Latin in high school AND college, O-K. Seriously in the late 80's who knew that I would need Spanish in, not only, my own country, but to travel to all the awesome places on my list - that, by the way, as I travel more, becomes longer, not shorter (but that's another blog post). So I learned Latin. I don't speak Latin, but I do make use of root words every day teaching science - so not a totally wasted skill.

A few years ago I lived in Denver and taught in the "inner city", where 85% of my students learned Spanish as their first language. Sure I learned a bit, a bit of swearing, and bit of slang (I won't embarrass myself with my Spanish potty mouth - right now, anyway).

Then I decide to move to Bolivia. I had no idea how little English would be spoken here. Having never taken a formal Spanish class in my life I didn't know about regular verbs, never mind the slew of irregular verbs. I had no idea about conjugation or how much I truly love the universal YOU in English.

I have been in Bolivia for 4 months. I am sad to report that I still talk like a preschooler - barely. I've been taking a Spanish "class" offered after school two days a week and although I now know about this conjugation thing I still have a hard time using it. I do have to say I am able to understand more and more each day, but the speaking part has got me stumped. I figured out why when someone pointed out to me how much I annunciate my English words. I found that teaching science to second language learners required me to be very clear in the way I speak. I have perfected annunciating words. Well, now that has become my biggest problem. I am a master at English sounds, but because of the way I have trained my mouth to move, I can't seem to quite get the Spanish accent. It's quite annoying, actually. Some of the sound required are just not sounds my 37 year old, very trained mouth can make.

Some days I just want to give up. It's absolutely infuriating when people constantly correct me, when, seriously people, I sound a whole hell of a lot better speaking Spanish then you do speaking English. Do you hear me laughing at the way you pronounce a word, nope, I'm just listening closely and trying to figure out what you are saying. I would appreciate it if you could do the same for me. It has gotten to the point where I don't even want to speak in front of certain people.

The hope is that in a few months, I'll return to my blog and post how wonderfully I'm speaking. How I can get around and everyone understands and compliments me on my perfect accent. So stay tuned, for that blog post... In the meantime - (insert foul word here)

hasta luego