The Spanish Wave
After a long time, a holiday. Not that I am working a serious job, but things were busy at the restaurant and I went on a holiday to the mainland. So the highlight of my existance these days - a spanish class. Thursdays 11:30 to 1:30. Ours is a class of 20 (formerly 30, many dropped out!). The oldest person in the class is 85, the youngest is me. Most of them are marginally older than my granma.
Do you remember the way you learned how to speak the English language? I mean the structural construction of a language? I dont remember the beginnings, but I sure did have a beginning. This Spanish course is on the discovery track. The aim is to discover at what exact point you learn how to speak (communicate) in a language. The method, unfortunately, devised by my dearest Spanish teacher Encarnita is not what I intended to experiment with. The curriculum is tourist - real estate agent friendly and the pace is excruciatingly slow. But then, it is all in good spirit, so why not?
The first class - I am confident that I will manage it well. I arrive 20 minutes early in the beginners enthu (My dad used to call this characteristic feature of mine 'Aarambha Shooratham'). I walk in into a class of 12 people and am greeted with reverence. Puzzled, yet not shaken, I take a seat near the board (ever the diligent student... ahem... owing to the fact that I am partially blind) and wait for classes to begin. After 10 minutes, somebody walks in in search of the teacher and 24 eyes turn towards me. Hahha big mistake - I cant speak Spanish, I am Indian (Pattiche!!!). We are asked to move as the class is in some other room. After 3 moves, we reach the right class at 12 45. We begin lessons. First lesson - como se llama? Me llamo Gitanjali. Second lesson - como se deletrea su nombre? (Who named me Gitanjali?) ge-e-te-aa-enne-hota-aa-elle-e. (People are staring at me at this point).
After a month, we have learned to spell our address, tell our date of birth, marital status (Estoy solo), say cheers (Salud!), introduce another person, ask for a drink (cerveja, vino, gintonic) and ask for the bill (la cuenta por favor). I love the way its progressing.
After a long time, a holiday. Not that I am working a serious job, but things were busy at the restaurant and I went on a holiday to the mainland. So the highlight of my existance these days - a spanish class. Thursdays 11:30 to 1:30. Ours is a class of 20 (formerly 30, many dropped out!). The oldest person in the class is 85, the youngest is me. Most of them are marginally older than my granma.
Do you remember the way you learned how to speak the English language? I mean the structural construction of a language? I dont remember the beginnings, but I sure did have a beginning. This Spanish course is on the discovery track. The aim is to discover at what exact point you learn how to speak (communicate) in a language. The method, unfortunately, devised by my dearest Spanish teacher Encarnita is not what I intended to experiment with. The curriculum is tourist - real estate agent friendly and the pace is excruciatingly slow. But then, it is all in good spirit, so why not?
The first class - I am confident that I will manage it well. I arrive 20 minutes early in the beginners enthu (My dad used to call this characteristic feature of mine 'Aarambha Shooratham'). I walk in into a class of 12 people and am greeted with reverence. Puzzled, yet not shaken, I take a seat near the board (ever the diligent student... ahem... owing to the fact that I am partially blind) and wait for classes to begin. After 10 minutes, somebody walks in in search of the teacher and 24 eyes turn towards me. Hahha big mistake - I cant speak Spanish, I am Indian (Pattiche!!!). We are asked to move as the class is in some other room. After 3 moves, we reach the right class at 12 45. We begin lessons. First lesson - como se llama? Me llamo Gitanjali. Second lesson - como se deletrea su nombre? (Who named me Gitanjali?) ge-e-te-aa-enne-hota-aa-elle-e. (People are staring at me at this point).
After a month, we have learned to spell our address, tell our date of birth, marital status (Estoy solo), say cheers (Salud!), introduce another person, ask for a drink (cerveja, vino, gintonic) and ask for the bill (la cuenta por favor). I love the way its progressing.
posted by Ammu @ 7:04 AM
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