We spent the weekend in Mar del Plata to visit the boy’s family. We had home-cooked food, spent time by the sea and generally relaxed for three days. But my oh my, what three days of pure frustration they were for me.
After 8 classes of Español para Extranjeros, I was feeling fantastic leaving Buenos Aires armed with what I thought was a battalion of new verbs and tenses with which to communicate. I was WRONG. Speaking in class and understanding the teacher is VERY different from speaking in real life and understanding people in real life. Real life doesn’t speak as slowly or as clearly as my professors do. Verbs don’t conjugate themselves as quickly or as easily in my head during real life. And nobody is writing me simple tense letters in real life. Real life español has been a real shock. I am sad. =(
I don’t know who I was kidding when I thought I could jump into a school and learn Castellano via osmosis. If I just sleep on the verb book, won’t it all just soak into my brain at night?! And doesn’t eating Argentinian food – cooking it even! – doesn’t that count for some form of mercy from the language gods?!
Oh the pure frustration of hearing bits and pieces of a conversation and not being able to conjugate quickly enough to contribute! So incredibly annoying! I know I should look at it as more exciting, and new and fun, but really, I’m tired of not being able to contribute a normal sentence in a very normal conversation!!!
I need a new strategy and I need it fast. Any advice on how I can learn more quickly? As in, lightning fast quickly?!
