Taking Spanish

[Pinnacle-Project]

Once the kids are grown, my wife and I would like to move south to a better climate. We have an interest in either Costa Rica or Puerto Rico. With this in mind, I decided it is time to start to learn Spanish. I have never taken any foreign language before.

Over the years when I have taught classes, I have told people to not be shy about asking questions. If they do not understand something, most likely others do not understand the same thing. Students rarely believe this. They assume everybody else knows everything and only they are confused.

My Spanish class started tonight. The instructor jumped right in and 80% of the class was in Spanish already. Generally, I had no idea what was going on. However, the rest of the class seemed to be following right along. When she told us to do something, people did it. Thankfully, I am in a group with a former student of mine who seems to understand what is going on. He said he had Spanish in high school plus two semesters at community college before transferring to this school. So tonight, I am quite certain, everyone knew what was going on but me. I am convinced everyone else in the room had Spanish in high school.

For example, at one point the instructor had everyone count out loud to 30. Huh???? I can only count to five in Spanish. I found the numbers in the book but I did not know how to pronounce them. I will work double-hard to get caught up but I definitely feel like I am starting from a negative position.

The positive side of the instructor talking in Spanish so much is that it will be more like an immersion experience. In the long run, I will probably be better off. In the short term though, I am clueless. Thankfully, my wife had four years in high school and four years in college. People understand her when she speaks Spanish so she must still have a decent knowledge of it.