Part of the reason I haven't been around is because of the Spanish thing. I am working my tail off to be somewhat fluent by the end of the summer (verano). Now, there are many dynamics to this action of mine. Most prevelant is the need to be able to speak it. Coaching soccer in this town, one really needs to know Spanish in order to communicate with the parents, not the kids; the parents.
I have spent a good chunk of my life in this part of the country and have grown up hearing Spanish everywhere around me. I am disgusted with myself that I haven't picked up more of it. When you're standing in line at the grocery store (mercado) and hear a 5 year-old kid translating for his mom, you kind of hate yourself for not trying harder. I mean when a 5 year-old can speak two languages, and you, an adult, can only speak one, well; then you suck.
So, I'm spending all of my spare time, and my not-so-spare time drenching myself in Spanish. I am driving my husband crazy, my kids crazy; I respond to everything in Spanish. Now, I'm still in the infantile stage, but I made it through Disc 1 in four days. So I figure if I stick with this in a few months I'll be light-years ahead of where I am right now. Trying to dump all of my preconceived notions of what Spanish should be is hard, so I look for help in all kinds of places. Enter . . . . Shakira. I love her English music so I knew digging into her Spanish music would be enjoyable. Here is the latest song I'm memorizing. I'm so proud of myself though. When I printed out the lyrics I knew what the majority of the words were.
Enjoy:
Now, for those of you who nothing about Shakira, she's biracial. Her mother is Columbian and her father is Lebenese. It's evident in much of her music and this one really shows her arabic side. There are actually Arabic lyrics in it, but I'm not worried about those; I'm learning Spanish, not Arabic. And Shakira? She speaks THREE languages fluently. I really suck.
Posted by Stacy at June 14, 2006 02:43 PM | TrackBackIt is widely known that learning a language is MUCH easier as a child than as an adult. The pathways in the brain "solidify" (as it were) through the years, making the language you grew up with much more ingrained--and therefore harder to move outside of.
Posted by: Jeff H at June 14, 2006 03:36 PMWell, Stacy, I suck too. I only recall a little French, and was never great at it. Moreover, the obnoxious attitude I encountered in Paris made me disinclined to try any harder.
I applaud your efforts, but I sincerely hope you're not learning Spanish simply to be able to converse with illegal aliens whose kids are in soccer.
As my wife and step-daughter are both from mainland China, my own efforts, weak though they may be, are in Chinese. I do ok with some simple stuff, but Chinese is a tonal language, and when I wncounter the more difficult sounds, my tongue simply gives up.
As for the written language, I doubt I will ever recognize more than a handful of the many thousands of symbols you must know for basic competence.
But then, I'm old.... ;)
Posted by: Bill at June 14, 2006 04:12 PMJeff - yea, I knew that; completely stinks. Oh well.
Bill - Chinese is a hard one. Really Spanish is not that far away from English. My BIL is 2nd generation Chinese. He's very fluent in it and I know he and my SIL are teaching their boys both languages. My SIL has tried to learn as much as possible, but like you said, it's almost physically impossible to pronounce some of it if you haven't been raised with it.
Posted by: Stacy at June 14, 2006 07:42 PMHey, I think it's great that you're doing it! I took 3 years of French in HS, still know a little bit of it. I'm amazed by my youngest who took first year Latin this year, and won a gold medal for a National competition. Brain cells work much better when they're younger. . .
Posted by: Valerie at June 14, 2006 09:46 PMOh Valerie, I'm so happy to see you (figuratively). I went to your page and saw that you were having some difficulties. Prayers and blessings for you and yours.
I remember you saying something about her taking Latin. Bueno! I did not take a foreign language in high school and I'm wishing I did. I've worked at jobs that required knowing a little and I always picked up enough to get me by. My middle boy took Spanish last year and hated it. I made him take Spanish, he didn't want to, to basically that year was a wash for him. He has switched to German for his last two years. I also purchased him a CD & book set to get him started. He's excited about it.
Posted by: Stacy at June 14, 2006 10:37 PMWay to go. I'm biracial too, my dad is Mexican. His mother was born in Arizona (that's how he obtained US citizenship). Can you believe he never taught me to speak spanish, argh!!!!!!!
Posted by: Paula at June 16, 2006 09:06 AMNaughty daddy!!
Posted by: Stacy at June 16, 2006 10:32 AM