First Week of Class
Above: All the books it takes for one beginner Spanish student.
Well we’ve finally started our first full trimester at the Spanish Language Institute in San Jose, Costa Rica. We’ve been here for a while studying Spanish, but that was all child’s play compared to the next four months. Lindsey and I have taken our placement test and been placed in good classes, we both have people on our level or a little higher who will push us to learn even faster. Here is a glimpse of our day at ILE (Instituto de Lengua Espanola):
First Hour: Conversation/Language. In this class we simple talk Spanish, a lot! We talk about ourselves, our family, our life, and anything else the teacher wants to ask us. We even pray in Spanish! Talk, talk, talk, and at 7:30 in the morning no less.
Second Hour: Phonetics. Here is where we take the words we’ve learned and try to say them so that actual Spanish-speakers can understand us. It is amazing the difference between knowing the words you want to say and actually saying them correctly.
Third Hour: Grammar. Nouns. Adjectives. Verbs. Remember those English classes you had as a kid? Like that, but in Spanish.
Fourth Hour: Grammar. More nouns, adjectives, and verbs.
By the end of the day, we are beat. But it is amazing to see what we can learn in just one day, and then to multiply that by 4 months truly is encouraging. We may actually learn Spanish after all!
