Fluency is on the Horizon
It's been three years since I my first Spanish class and I am making progress. Sometimes it's hard to tell - there have been plenty of times in class that I have experienced complete brain freeze, it doesn't help that classes are in the evening after 8 plus hours at work and a fairly long commute.
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area does help - there are numerous opportunities to speak Spanish if I make the effort and I find that native speakers are pleasantly surprised when I blurt out "Que tenga un buen dia" after buying strawberries at the farmer's market.
I also find that just listening or reading for 10 to 20 minutes day helps keep me connected with the process and builds vocabulary. I usually visit the about.com Spanish guide a couple times a month. A great learning tool that can be accessed anytime, anywhere - from my laptop at a boring work meeting, por exemplo.
I aspire to at least two weeks in Mexico at an immersion school - living with an local family and being forced to do all my communication in Spanish should push me to the next level - to start thinking in Spanish. I've actually found myself dreaming in Spanish on more than a couple of occasions, and I realize that often when I over hear conversations that I've understood some or most of it without actual makingthe mental translation. I know what the words mean. Quite satisfying.
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area does help - there are numerous opportunities to speak Spanish if I make the effort and I find that native speakers are pleasantly surprised when I blurt out "Que tenga un buen dia" after buying strawberries at the farmer's market.
I also find that just listening or reading for 10 to 20 minutes day helps keep me connected with the process and builds vocabulary. I usually visit the about.com Spanish guide a couple times a month. A great learning tool that can be accessed anytime, anywhere - from my laptop at a boring work meeting, por exemplo.
I aspire to at least two weeks in Mexico at an immersion school - living with an local family and being forced to do all my communication in Spanish should push me to the next level - to start thinking in Spanish. I've actually found myself dreaming in Spanish on more than a couple of occasions, and I realize that often when I over hear conversations that I've understood some or most of it without actual makingthe mental translation. I know what the words mean. Quite satisfying.
posted by Chasmo at
9:11 PM
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