400+ Hours

The title of this post refers to the more than 400 hours we have spent in Spanish class over the past 10 months. On Friday we finished our 35th week of school and now embark on a four month break before we return in October. It is going to be strange not having the structure of daily classes, but given how crazy the school had already gotten with new students in the first two weeks of June, we definitely made the right decision to take the summer off. Just this week the school welcomed over 60 juniors (i.e., high-school students) from the US. In contrast, there were times during the winter when there were fewer than 20 students in the entire school!

When we started back in August, we were at the A2 level. For our last two weeks of school, we were  moved into a higher level class (C1) due to a lack of students at our level (B2). Although the class was not completely beyond our ability, we definitely struggled somewhat, especially with the speed of the class. We suspect when we return it will be at a high-B2 level, but we will see.

So, what did we discover through the process of studying Spanish? We discovered that learning to  speak a language properly is hard. I know that seems obvious, but I mean it is really hard. One of our teachers suggested that it is easier to learn a new language if you are younger, already speak more than one language and are motivated. So, we were basically 1-for-3.

I am sure each language is different, but for Spanish, there are two things that are particularly difficult: (1) vocabulary and (2) grammar.

Right now, our vocabulary is probably at the level of a smart 14-year-old. We can express many of the ideas that we want to, but we tend to use general or simple words, because we don't know the more specific or complex words that would express those ideas better. Building vocabulary is just a matter of time and experience, and we hope that reading the local newspaper over our break will help with that. Knowing a word and being able to recall it at the right time are also two different skills.

Spanish grammar is nothing short of crazy. Just as one example, here are the verb tenses that we have learned:

1. Present
2. Preterit Perfect
3. Imperfect
4. Indefintite
5. Pluscuamperfect
(2, 3, 4 and 5 are all past tenses and one of our biggest issues is knowing when to use each past tense)
6. Future
7. Future Perfect
8. Conditional
9. Conditional Perfect
10. Imperative
(a form of command that is used much more in Spanish than English. For example, rather than saying "hello", many people in Spain answer the phone "dime" (dee-meh), which literally means "tell me")
11. Present Subjunctive
12. Preterit Perfect Subjunctive
13. Imperfect Subjunctive
(just to add unnecessary confusion, there are two forms of the imperfect subjunctive, which are completely identical in meaning, but you have to learn both because people use the two interchangeably)
14 . Pluscuamperfect Subjunctive
(the subjunctives are not literally tenses, but rather a "mood"; basically, there is nothing at all like it in English)

Frankly, looking at this list makes me wonder how we have managed to get as far as we have. Probably all of that motivation.

For now, we are looking forward to a summer of travel and seeing friends and family. We will, of course, have more posts about our adventures as they come, so stay tuned.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana