Our Spanish Hibernation 3:0

My journey with Spanish as a language continues. Since we have been hunkering down for the winter in Malaga, I have had two lessons a week with Toni. These have all been one on one and, much as he tells my pronunciation has improved, I still feel I am a long way from having any sort of an ear for the language.

Alongside the lessons and the following homework (deberes), I have kept up with my Duolingo. On occasion, Toni will correct me as some of the words used in the Spanish on Duolingo are particular to Mexico. Relearning a few nouns is not proving too problematic.

Part of my issue seems to be my inability to just let the words come. The moment someone speaks to me in Spanish, I tense up and start searching for the words in a blind panic. It’s a confidence thing I hope – I have learnt a lot of words (palabras) and learning new ones all the time and seem to be doing ok translating the written word.

This week we have been going over the critical verbs and also had a fun session on numbers, involving Monopoly money. Talking about myself and answering questions using the verbs(mainly in the present tense) is my focus for the coming weeks. Practice, practice, practice.

In the meantime, I find myself having to use a dodgy Spanglish with all sorts of new pals!! The street we live in, Calle Pinosol is not a tourist zone and we must be the only foreigners in our apartment block! I had a dialogue with Pascal, who lives nextdoor – he was apologising (I think) for the noise his floor sanding made the previous night. Hopefully the “de nada” reached his ears, but he looked otherwise baffled by the collection of words I came out with. It’s all good practice!!