Aprendiendo Espanol – Dia Nueve

Some of this post will be in Spanish. It might not be perfect but now that I’ve been studying Spanish for 9 whole days, I think I’m ready to try to convey my deepest thoughts in my new-found language. I must first apologize to my Mom and Mrs. Taylor, who has lived next door to her for 50 years and was my second Mom as a kid. Ladies, you’ll have to use Google translate, or the like. to decipher the paragraph below to gain all the wisdom of the universe. Yeah, I know that’s a long shot. Well, let’s see.

Ultimamente, por nueve dias he hecho estudies Espanol. Pasado semana mi professor ensenar en una bar cerca en Benimaclet. Gradualmente soy aprender. Actualmente, todos los dias soy en clase en Benicalap con Britanico expats. Hoy ser divertido y mucho informativo.

Pasado semana, he hecho el colapso. Miedo mi nunca aprender Espanol. Una dia yo estar no capaz de Espanol. Como hoy yo se hecho apriender algunos verbo conjugation y numeros desde una a mil.

Estoy en limite de Epanol. Muchas gracias por paciencias.

Whew! Ok, that took everything I had. I don’t have the correct accents and the little Spanish ‘n’ with the wavy thing over it on my laptop keyboard. And I am totally sure it was mostly crap since my present perfect and past v. future-tense is still in a state of continual flux. Not to mention that on a daily basis I forget about 90% of what I learned the day before. But, I’m really trying.

Today, after class the other students were grumbling. Even with my terrible Spanish, the consensus is that I’ll fly past the rest of the students any time now. I asked them why they thought that since mostly I just barely muddle through.

‘Because you actually want to do it. You’re focused, and you study.’

This seemed like a curious indictment. But they are right. I do study alot and I am actively engaged in the class, whether it’s being held in a bar (not as uncommon as you’d think) or in a classroom. Just FYI, the wine helped when the verb conjugation got a little harry. And the ‘arse’ verbs are exactly what they sound like. Every day, after my daily lesson I would head to the bar to pay and the bartender would ask me how my Espanol was. More than once, after a tough session, I wondered why he had to ask since there were times I saw him actively grimace. Sometimes, almost sadly he would give me an encouraging thumbs up. Out of pity.

But I will crack this Tiger Nut. I am the most annoying patron of any bar or restaurant. If the waitress asks me something in Spanish, I repeat what she just said to me and then I answer her back. At first, they seem concerned – like I suffer from some sort of brain anomaly – but then they realize I’m trying to learn the language and they help by correcting me and sometimes going out of their way to provide other opportunities to learn new words.

Mostly, I just shake off the shame of looking like a fool. Tonight, I’m transcribing my notes and building some new tables to help me better remember from one lesson to another. Later, I’m going to treat myself to a Spanish movie. I guess my fellow students are right – I will do this. No existe nada que pueda parame!