Starting School

On Monday, school began with a bang – first an assessment test. We told them we were beginners but they wanted to know for sure. It was quite thorough – we convinced them! We have an excellent teacher and the rule is no English. We are her only students at this time. She gave directions and explained introductory conversation in a language we do not know. We learned personal presentations for 3 hours and then went to another class to introduce and tell about ourselves in Spanish. These adults have had 4 years of speaking experience and are at CIS for more skill development. They asked us questions (in Spanish) and then introduced themselves. It was an intense experience. Back to our room to begin learning personal pronouns.

Done at noon – lunch break – the next class began at 1:30 to study culture, personal health and safety, communication guidelines, and our hopes for this class. Usually this class is done in Spanish, but it is only us two beginners so we converse in English with Spanish where important for cultural understanding. We took trips this week via city buses to two ngo’s and a botanical garden, learning our way around the city.

This first week of learning has been intense emotionally and mentally. The pace is consistent, the expectation high and the method difficult. It is very difficult to learn to communicate when you do not know the vocabulary or the grammatical structure. We think of it as sitting our 4 year old grandson down, speaking to him in Spanish and expecting him to obey and respond. It can’t happen. Therefore there is much self study and nightly review of class work. The pronunciation and remembering are the biggest challenges. There is not enough time in the evening to process the day’s lesson.

But the good news is that we survived the first week and are preparing for week two. It can only get better!