5% Fluent

After 15 weeks of language school I would like to share with you a brief look at what some of my time has been like. I have two classes every day, practical class is one on one with an instructor and grammar class is in a group of 3-5.

Practical class is mostly conversation, which at first was a little difficult. My instructor Juan Carlos doesn’t speak English. The first week went like this: Juan Carlos would ask me a question in Spanish, I responded “No entiendo”, he responded “busquelo” which means look it up. I would then look in the dictionary.  After a few weeks of class he took me to buy a new one because he didn't think mine had enough words in it!  In an hour and a half of classes we might have completed 4-5 sentences. Every night I had homework, writing sentences using verbs he assigned. But evidently I didn’t understand how to use the verbs correctly, so the next day I would read my homework and Juan Carlos would look at me and say “no, no puede,” meaning you can not use it like that. Everyday, every sentence was wrong and he always responded with “no puede.” Now I am not a violent man and have never punch someone in my life but for some reason I had an irresistible urge to punch my instructor every day. I spent the majority of class with my nose in the dictionary and getting corrected every time I opened my mouth. What fun!

After practical I would go to grammar class. I have the sweetest old Peruvian lady named Abby. She teaches all the fun stuff of Spanish; parts of speech, sentence structure, and of course VERB CONJUGATION. This is in bold because it is the most important part of Spanish. They say there are 14 ways to conjugate a verb but they are wrong, it is closer to 114. Each verb has 1^st person singular and plural, 2^nd person singular, and 3^rd person singular and plural. But that is only in present tense. There are five forms of the verb in all four past tenses, three future tenses, commands and don’t forget subjuntivo. This is a form of the verb that I don’t even know if it exists in English. It is used if you have doubt but only in certain situations and is used all the time in Spanish. It creates a soft way of speaking instead of direct and rude communication. And since I don’t know how to use it well, (yet) that makes me a rude American. Then you can change the verb to make it a noun, adjective or adverb. Grammar was my least favorite subject in grade school and so I now think I officially I know more about Spanish grammar than I know about English grammar. But that’s not saying much. My brain hurts everyday after class but at least I don’t want to punch Abby in the face. 

But 15 weeks later things have changed. I can carry on a conversation in practical class. Juan Carlos and I discuss politics, economics, and culture. We often read the bible together and pray together. Many times my homework is to read the bible and write a commentary on it. Some days we just solve the worlds problems. Other times we take field trips around the city to investigate the culture. I have been to lumber yards, home improvement stores, furniture stores, pharmacies, and insurance agencies. I’ll never forget the day he taught me how to hail a taxi and negotiate the price. I had to stand on the corner and stop 10 different taxis and ask the price to a certain location then say “no gracias” every time. After ten I figured out a fair price and stopped the next one and negotiated.  Everything is negotiable here. One day we road the combi, it is like a bus except three times the number of people as capacity and half the size of a real bus and it cost 25 cents. Standing room only on bumpy streets, in stop and go traffic, with people yelling in Spanish.  It is a real cultural experience. 

This is a combi I saw that ran into a house!

I still get corrected every sentence and look up a lot of words but I am much quicker due to all the practice I have had. In grammar I can (slowly) spit out most verb conjugations and form sentences in the correct order. Although this is very difficult with direct and indirect pronouns, I am making progress. 

My biggest frustration is how much I feel I don’t know. I assumed after a few months of language school I would be fluent.  They say that it takes 7 years to become fluent which is 364 weeks, so after 15 weeks I should be 4% fluent. That makes me feel better about myself because I am at least 5% fluent. But why didn’t God call me to study math?