become fluent in spanish

i got a compliment yesterday from two of my latino students on the semester at sea trip. someone asked me if i knew spanish and i replied in spanish ” a little, but i still need to study more” and they were like “damn, that’s pretty good” but i know that i have gotten good at saying that particular phrase. but it did confirm for me that i want to go back and continue my pursuit of spanish fluency.

totally was rusty my first couple of days in Puerto Rico, but it felt sooooo good to start to “flow” and I’ll admit it was ego-boosting to see how impressed some of the other tourists were. Brazil was tougher, they understood about 1/2 of my spanish (they speak portugese) but i understood about 10% of what they were saying to me, still though, people were impressed and I like that i tried.

I think I’ve found a local woman to tutor me in Spanish starting this week. She’s supposedly really great her name is Inmaculada so that makes me feel very cosmopolitan!

i am looking forward to getting back to Mexico. I don’t want to lose ground. I did have a funny conversation w/ a mexican dude 2 weeks ago. Entirely in spanish. I think he asked me out to eat! Too funny.

Then I got an e-mail from Andrea and it was in spanish and I understood it all!

yay!

okay, i’ve been having more fun than studying, but i’m going to do the flashcard and review thing this week/weekend. i promise!

5 hours a day 3 or 4 times a week is alot! I am tired at the end of the day! But I am getting better!

started spanish school here in Guanajuato on Saturday. GTO isn’t really an english speaking town so its a great place to chill and learn w/o other english speakers serving as a safety net!

8 days in mexico have us all fooled that we know what we are doing with the language, but i love trying and i love the native speakers for putting up with my efforts. sometimes i surprise myself with the phrases i know and have been complimented on my accent!

I have some flashcards and my spanish/english dictionary to take with me on the road to start brushing up as I make my way across the country.

Made my reservation for first week of spanish school in antigua guatemala starting April 8th, 2006!