I don't speak Spanish.

Published on January 5, 2005 By Jamie Burnside In Home & Family

In my life I have studied a few languages. My wife and I use Japanese at home sometimes, and I use Russian daily at work. (I am an elementary school ESL teacher.)

My exposure to Spanish comes from a year in Junior High School, and then some TV shows like "Sabado Gigante" and some lucha libre shows.

Like most Americans I have a very rudimentary grasp of Spanish. I know some vocabulary words, I am familiar with which articles may go with certain words, and I can kind of conjugate present-tense verbs. It doesn't really get me far if I need it. (-maybe I can't follow much if there aren't bikini dancers or wrestling involved.)

Today I got some new students. They're a pair of twins from Mexico. They've been in the US for about three days. Both cute as buttons and ready to go, but its going to take a while before we can use English. They try really hard to tell me stuff in Spanish, and eventually I can get the gist of what they're saying, but it is awfully difficult!

(My speaking is really funny too. When I was trying to explain which bathroom they need to use, I said "Hombres y Senoras." I also tried "Caballeros y Muchachas." Oh my goodness!)

Maybe I'll go down to the library right now to see if they have a video. Adios!

Comments

new-age nomad

on Jan 05, 2005

God bless you for trying!

My plan for after college is to move to Mexico for a while and teach English. I reckon I'll need to learn spanish first! That's my plan for college.

I think what you do is very admirable, and much more noble than what most Americans do.

Trinitie

BlueDev

on Jan 05, 2005

Best of luck Jamie. I love Spanish, makes so much more sense than English. And if you know other languages I bet Spanish comes like a snap for you.

dena

on Jan 06, 2005

Hey Jamie! Well I wish you the best of luck, I'd love to help, but the distance is kind of a problem. What I have been trying to get my hands on is one of those electronc translators, they really expidite the looking up process. Next time, for bathroom, try chicos y chicas

. Buena suerte hermano.

Dena

Shulamite

on Jan 07, 2005

Buenos Suerte, Jamie. My pair of "brothers" students who've just been here a semester are now making some of my HIGHEST grades in the class. In fact on of them made THE highest grade on the semester exam out of ALL my 9th grade students -- the exam was in all English. His brother made the second highest by only one point lower. They study like crazy. They have unparalelled devotion to education and studying. They are not overwhelmed with sports or teenage life in general in our culture. (Not hate mail on the sports, my daughter will be at softball tryouts this spring. Love the sports -- just noting the time it takes up!)

I had a BASIC knowlege of spanish from high school and the 12 hours required for my college degree (ironically in English). I sucked. Thought I wouldn't get out of college because of that class. I'm a whole to part learner and they just don't teach language that way. I've learned all my Spanish this year from my kids and think I'm about intermediate level. I saturate myself in Spanish -- reading a novel right now (Como Agua Para Chocolate is an excellent read and has a movie to go with it! I also recommend Bendiceme, Ultima which is printed also as Bless Me, Ultima) and listen to Spanish music constantly (Favorites are Juanes and Julieta Venegas). Maybe some of these strategies will help you pick some of the idioms up.

Spanish is beautiful. It's very plain and simple when compared with the complexities of a single English vocabulary word. (All our words carry so much connotation and we struggle for "just the right word." In Spanish one word covers a whole range of words we'd use in English.) I sometimes find myself wanting to use Spanish to express my thoughts because it is simpler. It comes out easily. Triggered by all sorts of things. I adore it.

I admire your abilities in other languages; I can't imagine speaking Russian and Japanese. The alphabets are so incredibly different. I'll see what kind of article I can post to help you out. Buenos suerte le de Dios, y estoy orando para ti y tu estudiantes.

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