language learning tools

It´s been two months now of living in this little olive town and I´m as content as ever.  But more importantly, I am certain I would do just fine if someone blind folded me and dropped me off in the middle of a Spanish speaking country.  I am sure of this because my fear to speak, knowing that it is likely to be full of mistakes, is almost entirely gone.  It comes back at times when I'm sitting in big groups because I can't really hang out in Spanish yet.  It's kind of funny because there is a big delay in my brain which is by the time I have heard what was said, translated it in my head, and tried to think of something to add and translate that into Spanish, the conversation topic has changed.  It's a bit frustrating and I often feel muted while sitting in a large group and saying close to nothing.  However, that's just how it is.  Like a curious three year old that knows what you're saying, listens, but can only mumble nonsense or change the topic by making a request, "Pásame el pan, por favor", or asking a question "¿Quieres más cerveza?".  Okay, it's not that bad and three year olds don't talk about beer but perhaps you get my point.  I hope by April I can hang especially to the point of understanding the jokes.  I miss laughing about nonsense.

Anyway, because it's the holiday season I'm in the mood to give.  In my quest to learn a new language, I have encountered some great, fun, and effective online language learning tools.  They are all free.  I'm not going to preach why learning a new language is important (in this post) but I will say that I'm sorry I didn't start sooner.

So here you go:

http://www.spanishdict.com/learn
Videos on grammar, exercises with vocabulary and chances to write and speak.  A great place to start especially if you want to understand the structure of the language.

http://www.duolingo.com/
You get a base line assessment and then you go from there.  You can choose from many different languages not just Spanish. 

and my newest favorite.....

http://www.lyricstraining.com/
Watch a youtube video of a song in another language.  Watch it again and try to type in the missing lyrics.  The song will stop if you don't manage to type the lyrics in time.

Enjoy!

I went to Germany to meet Andreas at his grandmother's 90th birthday.  He took this photo and I love it.  It makes me think; seize the moment: to take a photo, go for a paddle in an ice cold river, catch the sunset, be curious about wildlife, or learn a new language perhaps.  This has been the year of  now or never decision making for me.
No regrets! 

más y más español

So another two weeks has gone by and there is of course so much more to share about life in Spain.  One thing is I thought that I would have struggled more with the language but in fact, the hardest part has been adjusting to a different way of spending time.  Sometimes I feel so-not-Spanish in my way of thinking about work and how my work life is my life.  For my teacher friends, you would be as surprised as I am to see lights out and doors locked very soon after dismissal.  In fact, by 3:00, the school building is dark and empty because everyone has gone home to enjoy a delicious meal with their friends and family and possibly a little nap (siesta).  Here I notice that people are more than their work life even during the week and I had a difficult time adjusting to that at first.  But after a few reminders to chill out, I am embracing it more and more.  In fact on Wednesday this week, I cancelled my private tutoring classes at the last minute just to go out with some friends to harvest olives.  I felt terrible at first but the parents of my students assured me that it would not be a problem and that the experience is worth it.  This way of thinking has certainly shined a light on another way to live; one filled with a healthier work/life balance.  I would love to say that I am a changed person but I know that when I'm back in the rat race in NYC, I will save my pleasure seeking activities for the weekend only as usual. 

Don't get me wrong though; work is getting done here.  I support five bilingual English teachers (three teach English, one teaches biology, one teaches social studies) and about 180 students over two weeks time.  Each class goes for an hour and my job is to speak as much English as possible with the students.  The youngest are 12 and the oldest are 18 so depending on their level I play a bigger or smaller role in the lessons.  And of course at first most of the students were too shy to speak much English with me but over time it has gotten much better.  It also helps that I can speak more Spanish now so we meet in the middle and find a way to understand each other.  It's challenging at times but really fun!  I also really like that the students call us by our first name instead of Mr/Mrs.  Or sometimes it's just "maestra" (teacher) especially with the younger ones.  I like that too.

Well I'll finish up with a little photo gallery of what I've been up to in my free time.  ¡Qué una buena vida! 

from a visit to the Alhambra in Grenada just before entering the beautiful palace of mosaics

the Alhambra was built by the last Arabs in Spain in the 9th century....definitely worth a google search!

this tree in the Alhambra gardens was totally staring at me (in a friendly way)

estoy cogiendo aceitunas para comer....FUN!

fresh green olives.  they look delicious but they are inedible like this.  there is a long process to make these taste good including a step that involves a toxic chemical called sosa which is used to remove the natural bitter flavor.

the people here go nuts for these mushrooms (setas in español).  this saturday i went on a mushroom hike with about 60 other people and altogether we collected nearly 200 different types of mushrooms from the hillsides.  in the evening the mushrooms were identified by experts who informed us on which were poisonous and which were edible.  most were poisonous and it was so hard to tell the difference.  my host family has their favorites and we often eat wild mushrooms sauteed in oil with a sprinkle of salt.  yum!