xandreaxIn Peru
I´ve been in Peru living with my boyfriend over the past 7 months. I have a much easier time listening to people, understanding colloquial words and phrases, watching movies, understanding songs, etc. I still don´t speak enough but I have trouble doing that in my native language too. I think I write more than I speak.
While I´ve been here, I´ve visited different places, read books in Spanish (most by Peruvian authors – these books actually do help me with understanding Peruvian slang and vocabulary in general), I´ve read a book called The Peru Reader as well to learn more about the country (ok, well I´ve read most of it. The plan is to finish it in the near future).
I still have to ask some people to please slow down or explain something more clearly when they talk because it seems I´ve had to get used to each person´s voice individually. I can understand 99.9% of what my boyfriend says whether it´s said quickly, slowly, loudly, quietly – just because I´m used to him.
I speak with relative ease in Spanish and my boyfriend has commented that ¨I can tell it´s way easier for you to speak in Spanish than it is for me to speak in English – you speak at a normal pace with few errors. You can say what you want.¨
Right now I´m focusing on trying to help him learn more English because now the plan is for him to try to find work in Canada with my help. He´s right though about our skills – I would say my Spanish is at ¨basic fluency¨ and his English is intermediate. Well, everything´s a process.
I think I´ll wait a bit longer til I say I´ve completed this goal… just because. 2 months ago
