Speaking the Language

I'm immersed in Rosetta Stone Spanish for Spain.  I studied Spanish for 7 years starting when I was 12.  You'd think I'd be passably fluent, but it's been a really long time since I've used it beyond a very superficial level.

I was in Spain on business about four years ago.  During that trip I spent an hour in a taxi with a driver who spoke no English.  We spent the hour in conversation... in Spanish.  At the end of the hour, the cab driver told me I did really well.  I said, like a 2-year-old.  He said, no, 5.  Trust me, he was being extremely kind.  After completing Level 1 (of 5) of Rosetta Stone, I feel like I now speak and comprehend Spanish like an at times slow and at times gifted 2-year-old.

I look forward to fluency.  I'm not very patient.  I'm no perfectionist.  I'm quite good at slapping something together and saying, "That'll do."  But I don't like not being able to do something perfectly immediately.  The big difference between me and a perfectionist--in those situations when I can't immediately do something perfectly--is that I might just throw in the towel.

But I love languages and I do pick them up quickly (I hear them as music in my head).  So, although I'll get frustrated with my lack of fluency I won't stop working at it.

Jerry speaks Russian.  We don't expect that to come in very handy in Spain.  So, he's counting on me to be translator (everything is relative) when we visit Andalucia in January.  Jerry's sister and her husband rented an apartment in Nerja on the Costa del Sol last summer.  One day when they were out for their regular morning stroll, they were greeted by the owner of the local grocery.  As they walked by, she waved and said, "Buenos dias!"  Our brother-in-law waved back and said, "Aloha!"  I don't think he's going to be of much help.


Once we move in May, we'll both immediately enroll in language immersion programs.

In the meantime, we are also trying to understand everything (well, a lot) about Spanish history and culture.  Jerry is the academic in this household.  He can get himself lost in any, dry, non-fiction tome.  And he can then quote information and statistics for years after.  I barely got through one academic hard-cover on Spain and I returned two others to Jerry after the first chapter.

I keep hoping to find a historical novel to give me all I need to know in a format like Michener's "Hawaii."  Michener did actually produce one book on Spain. Unfortunately, it was a work of NON-fiction.  In the meantime, I'm reading every travel guide and have just found a book "The New Spaniards" that holds my attention.  Surfing the web provides an endless source of info in as small or as large a bite as I'm interested in at any given time.

So, now it's off to Peet's for a newspaper and a cup of coffee.