75 + 30 points
Foreign Language Day by Heatherlynn
January 5th, 2008 12:59 AM
Well, I have no language outside of English that I'm even conversational in, let alone fluent. I have, however, been trying to learn Spanish for several years.
My husband's family is from Mexico. They often speak Spanish around me, knowing that I have no idea what they're saying, and I occasionally hear my name. It's difficult to be around that, but even more difficult to learn the language. So for this task I chose Spanish.
Being in Los Angeles, there are many opportunities to speak Spanish where no one questions it, and often are more comfortable speaking it. Consequently, I had to be careful who I spoke to for fear that they would start trying to have a conversation with me and I would not even have a way to tell them that I couldn't understand what they were saying.
One of the most difficult things for me was not knowing enough words to even be able to ask about something I didn't know. It took a lot of charades and a very patient husband. But I did learn some very useful phrases.
I tried to make the world that I was living in as Spanish-speaking as I possibly could. I couldn't change anything on my computer except my Gmail, which became this:
The only person who IM'd me, thankfully, was my husband. The chat looked something like this:
C.M. Gonzalez
mostrar detalles
15:20 (9 horas antes)
14:41 Yo: hola
como estas
si?
Gonzalez: hi love
Yo: hola, mi amor
14:42 Gonzalez: interested in keeping this up until we get to my mom's house?
Yo: si
Gonzalez: neat!
how's your day been?
Yo: bueno
14:46 Gonzalez: you're doing fine, babe
Yo: gracias
como se dise(?) b-a-d
14:47 Gonzalez: what kind of bad?
feeling ill?
or badly done?
14:48 Yo: dos
Gonzalez: malo
Yo: Chewbacca es malo
Gonzalez: he was bad?
Yo: si
Gonzalez: oh
se porto mal
And so on.
Overall, my biggest frustration was that in trying to find out what certain words were, the entirety of the conversation was lost. I would try and learn a phrase, not understand a part, forget the words that I could use to ask questions, try and ask about what those words were, and then by the time I got those, I couldn't remember enough of the original words to ask what I was asking about. Whew. Trabajo dificil.
My husband's family is from Mexico. They often speak Spanish around me, knowing that I have no idea what they're saying, and I occasionally hear my name. It's difficult to be around that, but even more difficult to learn the language. So for this task I chose Spanish.
Being in Los Angeles, there are many opportunities to speak Spanish where no one questions it, and often are more comfortable speaking it. Consequently, I had to be careful who I spoke to for fear that they would start trying to have a conversation with me and I would not even have a way to tell them that I couldn't understand what they were saying.
One of the most difficult things for me was not knowing enough words to even be able to ask about something I didn't know. It took a lot of charades and a very patient husband. But I did learn some very useful phrases.
I tried to make the world that I was living in as Spanish-speaking as I possibly could. I couldn't change anything on my computer except my Gmail, which became this:
The only person who IM'd me, thankfully, was my husband. The chat looked something like this:
C.M. Gonzalez
mostrar detalles
15:20 (9 horas antes)
14:41 Yo: hola
como estas
si?
Gonzalez: hi love
Yo: hola, mi amor
14:42 Gonzalez: interested in keeping this up until we get to my mom's house?
Yo: si
Gonzalez: neat!
how's your day been?
Yo: bueno
14:46 Gonzalez: you're doing fine, babe
Yo: gracias
como se dise(?) b-a-d
14:47 Gonzalez: what kind of bad?
feeling ill?
or badly done?
14:48 Yo: dos
Gonzalez: malo
Yo: Chewbacca es malo
Gonzalez: he was bad?
Yo: si
Gonzalez: oh
se porto mal
And so on.
Overall, my biggest frustration was that in trying to find out what certain words were, the entirety of the conversation was lost. I would try and learn a phrase, not understand a part, forget the words that I could use to ask questions, try and ask about what those words were, and then by the time I got those, I couldn't remember enough of the original words to ask what I was asking about. Whew. Trabajo dificil.
Heather at 7-Eleven
One of the places that don't notice if you speak Spanish.
7-Eleven
I said Gracias and no one noticed.
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posted by susy derkins on January 5th, 2008 1:53 AM
¿Chewbacca es el gato? Me reí muchísimo.
posted by Heatherlynn on January 5th, 2008 2:00 AM
Chewbacca es el gato. No idea what "me rei muchisimo" means, but my husband says it means you laughed a lot. I'm glad. It was a fun task.
Bravo!
I want to do this, but I have too many people I have to speak English to every day. And my Spanish is much better than yours. But way way short of fluent. Good going!