Learning Spanish as an Adult . . . Again

in #spanish5 years ago (edited)

Yesterday, I attended the Intermediate Spanish class that I am enrolled in at the senior center. The class is fairly small and had only five students in attendance yesterday. My teacher is a native speaker from Bogata, Columbia. The first thirty minutes to an hour in the class is spent with the students speaking Spanish only as we attempt to ask questions of each other to get to know one another.

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Required workbook for the class

This is really challenging because we do not have the necessary vocabulary to say the things that we would like to say in our answers. In addition, if we use incorrect grammar as we are talking, then the teacher corrects us which makes me loose my train of thought most of the time. One thing that I can honestly say about her methods is, if she corrects me over and over because I keep saying para instead of por then I do learn not to say that word inappropriately the next time. Another thing that I tend to do in conversation, is use the present tense of a verb even when I want to express the past tense.

The class is challenging, but it is also very informative and sometimes fun. Yesterday, after the students completed introductions and familiarization with one another, the teacher told us a story. We all listened attentively, and I tried to gather as much meaning as I could with my limited vocabulary. Suffice it to say that I got the big picture of her story with about 60% of the details.

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My own resource book that I already owned

My other classmates on the other hand appeared to fully understand her dialog. After class, I asked the other students to fill me in on the details of her conversation. I explained to them that I had only gotten about 60% of the details, and I proceeded to explain what I heard her say.

Lo and behold, one of the other students asked me why I thought that he got more than I did. I told him "You were nodding your head in agreement and understanding throughout her conversation." He said "Whenever you saw me nodding my head, that meant that I understood a 'word'". I broke out laughing and the teacher came over to the table to find out what we were talking about that was so funny.

I told her that we were off the clock since class was over and that I was trying to fill in the gaps in her story. I repeated to her what I understood her to say and the parts that I was confused about as well. She added a little detail to my understanding, but also explained that I just needed to continue to listen so that I develop an ear for phrases and not words.

Surprisingly, I got more than I realized from her conversation. Learning Spanish as a second language requires patience, diligence and some practice. When I was taught Spanish in middle and high school, it was all about learning vocabulary, reading and writing with very little emphasis placed on conversation.

Therefore, I became fluent reading and writing in Spanish, but I could not really have a conversation with anyone. I was too busy translating the words to English in my head and by the time I had finished translating one sentence, the person was way down the road in their conversation and I had missed out on the message.

Language with small children is always in the form of a conversation. Children don't learn to read or write until they are advanced in some years, but for some reason, foreign languages are taught differently.

Thank goodness, the schools are becoming more adept at teaching second languages today, but the emphasis in America in the lower grades is still on reading and writing fluency. That doesn't help you very much if you need to engage a native speaker while traveling in Mexico or Spain.

I have homework in this class in a workbook that was a required purchase. I am going to do it, and also go back to review what the teacher taught the other students who attended her class last quarter.

One of my lifelong goals is to become fluent in Spanish. This class is helping me to accomplish that goal. I feel good about the courses that I chose this quarter.

Tengas un buen dia! (Have a good day) 😉

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I am glad that you can do it, it seems to me that it is very difficult to learn other languages. Living in Kazakhstan for 20 years I have not learned their language perfectly.

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