Learning Spanish

Any kind of studying requires discipline.  I have a natural curiosity about the world and the many wonders it contains.  I had home-schooled our oldest son and loved the fact that as he was learning, I was RE-learning. Unfortunately, my curiosity and passion for acquiring knowledge is specific to things only I am interested in at the moment.

 "Como esta indo su Espagnol?"  My husband would occasionally check up on me.  He and I were supposed to practice Spanish for an hour every week.  We would schedule an hour to sit somewhere and begin our conversation class...I found that although I spoke more than one language, I was not a willing participant in engaging conversation in an new language...after a while, my head would ache from the strain of thinking too much in Spanish and would say so to my husband; he would patiently sigh and tell me, "Es muy importante de practicarlo"...Yes, yes, I know...

"You have an ear for languages, yet you are lazy to use it", he would add as encouragement of sorts...once again I countered that speaking Spanish required too much mental effort on my part. I observed that there are two types of language learners, the first -- unencumbered by the fear of uttering a mistake when speaking, just takes the dive and goes for it.  And then there is the second type, the category of language learners who 'though armed with the knowledge of proper conjugations, grammatical sentence structures and vocabulary words are hesitant to take the leap...I have membership in the second group.

It seems odd, but I somehow find it easier to practice speaking in places where that language is the dominantly spoken language...this is what I loved about being in Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries.  Surround-sound Spanish and maybe a smidgen of English and other "foreign" tongues is all there is.  But given that I am in a country where English is mostly spoken, I continue to search for ways to enhance my language acquisition and comprehension.

Pundits for self-improvement advise to "turn your car into a classroom" -- not a wasted moment in this society, every minute turned into an opportunity.  Chauffeuring my kids to school or a trip to the grocery finds me listening to "Living Language" CD..."Lesson 11":

"Yo soy
Tu eres
El  es
Nosotros somos
Vosotros sois
Ellos son"

"De donde es usted?"  ... So I repeat like a dutiful child...Rosetta Stone in Spanish, I also have.

Sometimes, I would just opt to listen to Spanish radio while driving short spurts around town.   Rapid fire Spanish would assault my ears like bullets.  Hit and miss.  I'm happy to say I understand probably 70% of what I hear.  My kids get subjected to listening as well, as they would be captive audiences in my car.  "Mom, can we change the station?"

At home, I would watch the tele-novella series of "DESTINOS" on the internet.  I was quickly captivated by this program.  A brilliantly orchestrated way to teach Spanish by following the adventures of a certain woman investigator named Raquel.  Hers was the quest to find the missing son of a dying rich patriarch; her search leading her to the many different Spanish speaking countries around the world, The story line also manages to weave romance and drama into the picture.  Each episode takes the viewer to different vocabulary or grammar focus while engaging them in its labyrinthian plot.  The viewer gets a glimpse of Argentina, Spain, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Unites States etc., receiving well-rounded exposure to certain idiomatic differences in the language and culture.

So you might ask...with all these resources at my fingertips you would think I would be roaring to go right?  Si, Si...claro que si.