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Study Abroad in Mexico | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| SirIvalis Newbie United States Joined 4545 days ago 11 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 12 25 August 2012 at 2:51am | IP Logged |
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Today was the last class of the week and shorter than the rest, so I only had about 4 hours of class time today. We continued on the subjunctive material, so again, nothing terribly exciting. However, the rest of my day (and it isn't over yet!) was much more interesting.
Right after class we had a "learn Mexican cooking" type class where the office manager cooks us all a meal and shows us how and describes it in Spanish. This was all pretty fun, except for the part where the kitchen was outside and rather dirty and she was washing things with tap water...all of which made me fear for my stomach. It was a little thrown together and only tasted o.k., so I'll probably skip it in the future along with hoping I don't get sick later. Anyway! During lunch a fellow classmate told me about a gym that she visited and would probably join at this really nice hotel. Apparently they perfectly fine with allowing non-guests to join the gym, probably because it's a good side business and the economy is pretty terrible for upper-scale hotels. I went and checked it out and I was very impressed with the hotel, but not exactly the gym, which was really just a room with a lot of ellipticals and treadmills. So, this little disappointment finally prompted me to take a taxi for the first time to go to this gym I've been hearing about which looked nice in their pictures on the internet, having all the equipment that a gym in the states would have. I didn't speak much to the taxi driver, but when I got to the gym, the receptionist greeted me, I took a tour of the gym and then we launched into a 20-minute conversation all in Spanish! Granted, he was talking about 70 percent of the time, describing the facilities and the membership structure, etc...but I understood almost everything he said and I swear I could feel my brain munching on every word as it came into my ears, ha! So after I felt comfortable enough, I started asking him about himself and it turns out he is perfectly fluent in English, having grown up attending a bilingual school. So I told him that every time I went to the gym, if he were working, he would have to help me with my Spanish and correct me immediately when I make mistakes. It was a great experience and really showcases a facet of language learning. Meaning, when else are you going to be excited to talk to a receptionist at your gym? Certainly not when it's in your own language!...unless it's a very attractive member of whatever gender, I suppose. Anyway! Afterward, I took another cab back and had enough confidence to make small talk with the driver a little bit. When we got back into the center of the city, it was right when a school was letting out an elementary school and there were a flock of kids everywhere. I said something like, "¡Adelante señor! ¡Cinco puntos cada uno!" We both had a good laugh. Hurray for dark senses of humor in any language! I'm looking forward to this weekend. As there will be no classes, I will be able to review everything I've learned, learn the city more, get some good Assimil time in and hit the streets! Apparently the nightlife around here is great and goes until really late so, I want to go find the best spots and drink and speak with the locals. That's it for today! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| SirIvalis Newbie United States Joined 4545 days ago 11 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 10 of 12 29 August 2012 at 9:46pm | IP Logged |
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I need to try to post daily on this log on a daily basis, because I have probably forgotten a bit since my last post, but I'll give it a shot.
I didn't do a whole lot over the weekend, although I did go out Saturday night to this lounge which was full of very good-looking Mexicans all dressed up - pretty intimidating when you don't have a ton of confidence in your ability to chat a girl up in Spanish. Nonetheless, it was fun and I need to get over my hesitation. My classes have good days and bad days, in at least two ways. Like yesterday, I just felt like I wasn't getting anywhere and my brain shutdown, though luckily it was near the end of class. In the other sense, having four other people in the class can really get annoying. Like today, for example, when the teacher was writing an example that really didn't make any sense if directly translated into English, so we were all a little confused. However, instead of letting the teacher work it out, everyone was scrambling out loud to translate it themselves and I couldn't hear myself think much less hear the teacher. I just wanted to scream "shut up" as loudly as I could. On a much more positive note, I did start adding an hour private lesson each day, beginning on Monday. The first lesson we just had a long conversation, even breaching topics like legalization of drugs and American politics. He's someone that give you a good nudge when you start doing the "uhhh, uhhh..." thing which makes for a very productive conversation. After we talked we figured out a little game plan, which basically consists of watching short scenes on a TV and then he pauses, asks me about what I just saw, then we move on. I'm starting to realize that I'm going to have a vocabulary problem on my hands. The grammar comes more and more and I'm satisfied that I will have the opportunity to have the reinforced plenty in my stay here. Vocabulary, on the other hand, is a much larger issue. I think it's really holding my level of communication back and it also seems like a daunting task to effectively accumulate vocabulary. I've been watching Discovery Kids in Spanish because it's fairly slow-paced kiddie cartoons which allow me to follow it along better and I'm trying to read some easier books. I'd prefer to pick up vocabulary that way (I'd guess you'd say passively?) instead of flashcards or even something like Anki, which is a good program but not an approach I like or can stick to. I've been using Assimil in my spare time and I'm starting to wonder if it might be a good idea to go through the lessons quickly, familiarize myself with them and then just consistently review the lessons over time so I can get exposure to more vocabulary sooner, rather than mastering a lesson at a time. I'd be happy to hear opinions on this. I've also gotten some contact information from a fellow student of a private tutor working on her own who only charges $8/hr! This is way cheaper than my school charges. I'm going to try to get some hours in with her over the weekend and if she really works out, I may just shrink my school hours down and do privates with this lady the rest of the time. We'll see! Spanish still doesn't "make sense" to me and I'm just translation grinding to get the thought from my head to my mouth. I'm only halfway through my second week but, I'll be really excited to get over that plateau. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| SirIvalis Newbie United States Joined 4545 days ago 11 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 11 of 12 31 August 2012 at 8:19pm | IP Logged |
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Started the imperfect subjunctive today, which by itself isn't terribly confusing but since I'm far from mastering the present subjunctive it's a little much and I've been feeling a little overloaded in class. So, since there are no classes over the weekend, I'll probably dedicate it to reviewing everything I've learned in the past two weeks and then work on some vocabulary stuff. And, speaking of vocabulary, almost all of the first 1000 words from "A Frequency Dictionary of Spanish" is available on a google books preview. I've looked through the first 800 or so and I'm proud to say I've made less than 50 notecards so far.
My listening ability has also increased quite a bit in these past 12 days. I noticed this when I put in the Spanish Harry Potter audiobook after not having listened to it for some time and it was significantly easier to follow as if the speed of the audio had slowed down. I have decided that my real enemy right now is English, so in an effort to take away its power over me, I will be doing my log in Spanish. I'm certain I will have to look up like every 5th word I right and the grammar will be a little spotty, but I know it will be worth it. This will probably also mean that my entries will be shorter! In the same way, I've stopped using any English while at the school and refuse to let fellow native English speakers to speak to me in English. We'll see how this goes! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| SirIvalis Newbie United States Joined 4545 days ago 11 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 12 10 April 2013 at 5:46am | IP Logged |
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Aaaaand, I'm back several months later. I basically stopped posting on this journal
last year because I was really starting to get involved in the life of the city, had a Mexican social group and kind of started ignoring the computer. It was a lot of fun and I learned a ton of Spanish! I'm returning to this log because I'm actually about to attend a Mexican university for an academic year. I'm very excited about this and I'm hoping that it will be the experience I need to really make Spanish my own. I would also like to pose a question, if I may. I'm currently sitting at around a low B2 level in my Spanish and though it's gotten a bit rusty being back in the U.S., I think it should come back to me fairly quickly once I am immersed again. According to the language test I took for the school, I'm allowed to take regular undergrad courses taught in Spanish. Therefore my question is this: Is my level of Spanish sufficient to where taking non-language courses taught in Spanish will be more like kicking me out of the nest to fly, or should I stick with language courses the first semester and then go for it the second semester? Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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