Language School...An Overview - By Rick

I never was the best "English" student. In grade school, math was more my thing. Still, I did learn English grammar. And now I am learning Spanish grammar! If you love grammar, the overview below may be interesting and mean a lot to you. If grammar isn't your "thing," well, the list below may just be a long list and let you see that I have been busy! Either way, this overview will help you to see and understand more about my studies.

Grade A
Focuses on giving sufficient proficiency in Spanish for basic survival situations such as when greeting, expressing basic needs, attitudes, emotions, exchanging information, socializing, persuading, etc. After completing level "A" students should be able to understand and use simple present, past and future tenses to give the opportunity to initiate conversation and to respond in Spanish.

Personally, all the grammar of Grade A was a review to me. What really challenged me, was all the vocabulary that needed to be learned as well as some of the rules that guided when certain vowels were used. I tested very well, scoring 96% (for those of you who give $ for "A's"...well?!).

Grade B
Focuses on...

• Verbs, regular and irregular. In Spanish, the ending on a verb changes based on who is doing the action. Regular verbs follow a simple pattern. Irregular verbs have to be memorized. In addition, just like English, the verb changes when used in the present, past or future.
  
• "Ser & Estar" Two verbs that mean "to be" but are used in different situations as well as "Haber" which means "there is." It is easy to use the wrong verb, which can sometimes give a different meaning then you intend.
  
• Present & Past Progressives (I am going, I was walking), Interrogative words (Who, what where, etc), Negative and positive words, Negative Prefixes (example in English - "formal" and "informal")
• Negative idiomatic expressions
• Idiomatic expressions with time
• Possessive & Demonstrative Adjectives
• Possessive & Demonstrative Pronouns (yours, mine, his)
  
• Uses and Rules for Omissions of Articles (when to say an or the and when to leave it out)
  

I tested on Grade B on Friday and did very well, scoring 89.5%. Although my teacher was very happy with the results, the test really challenged me - showing me some weak areas. My thinking is that if I struggle to use the correct verb/word on paper, it will be an even greater challenge to speak well. So, I am working hard to get the things that didn't come so easy in my test on Friday.

Grade C
Focuses on...

• Past Imperfect Tense - uses, time expressions, contrast with the past tense, imperfect progressive (When I was little, we were working on it all night)
  
• Uses of Prepositions & Prepositional Pronouns
  
• Imperfect Future Tense
  
• Conditional Tense
  
• Position and agreement of adjectives
  
• Short form of adjectives
• Verbs that conjugate using the Indirect Object Pronoun (like the verb "Gustar") Note: in Spanish you don't like something. Instead the thing is good TO you.
  
• Adverb Formation and Use
  
• Present Participle or Gerunds

My teacher says that Grade C is much easier than grade B. This is good news as I started it today!

Grades D - G... I can tell you more about those books when I get there.

My Biggest Challenge:
Getting my brain to remember words and their correct uses when in conversation. The best way to work on this is to practice! I have found that book work easy to do. The challenge is to use what I am learning on the street. This means, making millions of mistakes and being open to correction. Practicing will help me to grab hold of the language. How do I done this?

Each day in class, my teacher makes me talk in Spanish. At times it a struggle and frustrating. We spend a good part of class taking about everything that happened the day before. Spanish class is probably the only class I have ever been in where I can bring up any subject and talk about it as long as I have "words"...and it is part of my learning. Outside of class, I take walks and look for people to talk with. Today, I had my shoes shined (which costs about 40 cents) and it became an opportunity for me to practice. A week ago, I took a trip to Guatemala City to pick up some things a friend had left for us at a hotel. In the chicken bus, anyone who sat by me became my captive for conversation. I found that sometimes this works and other times, it doesn't. For example, the conversation didn't go so well with the guy who immediately fell asleep next to me.

But practicing is my biggest challenge. CSA (my language school) will continue to test me and those tests will help me to measure what I know and where I need work. But the real test is found on the street in conversation with people.

Thank you for your continued prayer for us. I know many of you are praying specifically for me as I learn Spanish. These last few weeks, my brain hasn't seemed as "sharp" (hold the comments please). We have been told that in language learning it is not uncommon to hit a wall. Possibly this happened to me or maybe I was just tired. But after being in class for 6 weeks I felt like my brain wasn't wanting more information and was trying to process what it had already taken in. We did slow down a little in class which helped tremendously (one of the huge advantages of studying one on one with a tutor). I hope that I have moved passed this. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Adios!