Una vez más

Finally decided to acknowledge the fact that I need to brush up on my Spanish, and pulled this review book out of the few high school materials that I saved.

Since using this book senior year in AP Spanish, the only significant grammar work that I have done was Spanish 411- Grammar and Composition, my spring semester of first year of college (2007).

My Spanish has taken leaps and bounds since high school, thanks #1 to my host mother in Spain, #2 to the patient and polite migrant workers that I tutored in English, #3 to the superficial confidence that comes from using Spanish in Dominican, Spanish, Argentinian, and Nicaraguan nightlife, and #4 to Spanish movies (cinema class), radio, and passersby in DC.  These experiences have been incredible for increasing my fluency, especially in comprehension.

However, my Spanish has been ruthlessly corrupted.  For all that I have gained in comprehension, I feel that my ability to speak grammatically correct Spanish has not improve much over the past four/five years.  I've learned a few vocab words, have more informal phrases to use, and definitely have less of an accent, but I still find myself completely at a loss of how to say some seemingly basic things.  I joke with friends who took French as their second language that it is much more difficult to improve your everyday Spanish, because of the different attitudes of French-speakers from Spanish-speakers.  As a vast generalization, the French are known for their pickyness in how foreigners (especially Americans) use and pronounce their language.  But either as part of Latino culture or the fact that Spanish has become so bastardized with English words (probably both), Spanish-speakers seem to have the complete opposite reaction to hearing someone try their language.  Almost every time (with the exception of my host madre) that I have stumbled over something in Spanish and asked someone how I would express that thought correctly, the response is something like, "¡Sí, claro, es perfecto! ¡Qué bien hablas!"  Come on, amigos.  I know what I said was completely wrong, it didn't even make sense in English, so please don't worry about being polite and just help me say this correctly!


Some examples of grammar topics I need to practice:

• Commands (positive and negative, irregulars)
• What follows after "Hace ___ años que..."  -what verb form is used after this phrase? Just regular present?
• Vocab.  Good God, I have no vocabulary.  Volunteer work in Spanish has created some bad habits for me, especially pointing to a lot of things and calling them "eso/este."  The only word I remember learning in volunteer work is trapo (rag).  No chance I will ever remember how to say "spackle."  I also really need to brush up on kitchen/home vocabulary.

Clearly I will learn plenty of new slang and informal phrases when I get to Peru, but hopefully I can erase some of my bad habits before I get there!

Good habits my host mother in Spain instilled in me:

• A reliable farewell greeting is "Que lo pases bien," (loosely, "have a good time") or a slight variation thereof.  Adds to the perception that I am more fluent than I actually am, since it's more colloquial than adios, hasta luego, or ciao.  Only problem is that it might be slightly different in South America, like I think "Que te vayas bien" is used more in Mexico.
• I have a horrible habit in English of using "uuuummm" too much to fill in the empty spaces when I'm talking (I've gotten much better, thanks to a job where I have to bullshit with intimidating consultants on a regular basis).  That habit carried over into Spanish, of course.  My wonderful host mother said that if I'm going to make noises like that, I at least have to do it with Spanish sounds, so whenever I said "uumm" in her house, she literally corrected me until I said "eehhh" or "eeehmmm," like a Spanish-speaker.  Hilarious and extremely useful.
• Learned the word 'brindar," to toast, from her.  Every time we refilled a glass in her house, we had to make a formal toast.  And of course Spain also taught me the toast "¡Arriba, abajo, al centro, adentro!"

Very excited to take on a new set of colloquialisms and accents in Peru.  Hopefully I'll find some Peruvian movies on my Netflix to start getting used to the accents!

Oh, and if any native Spanish speakers are reading, por favor deje un comentario con correciones, consejos, o cualquiera cosa!