Mi clase de espanol

My classmates.  Joelle (Canada), Hanne (Belgium)
 and Martin (Austria)

I started Spanish class last Tuesday, and so far it is going really well.  It has been a really long time since I've taken a class taught completely in Spanish, and it does take a bit of getting used to!  It has actually really made me think about my own students and my teaching practices.  It is really hard to learn new concepts when you don't understand quite a lot of the words that the teacher is saying!!  When I am teaching my own students, I sort of expect them to remember the definition of a word that we just talked about 10 minutes ago, but in my Spanish class, I am shocked at how often that happens to me!  The word sounds familiar, and I know we just talked about it 10 minutes ago, but I just can't remember what the stupid word means!!!!!  I will certainly be more patient with my students next year when teaching new vocabulary and concepts!

I am getting the hang of it though, and I can already tell that my Spanish is getting better.  Although I still can't imagine what it will be like when I can actually think in Spanish and do not have to translate constantly in my head.  If I am at that point at the end of my 12 weeks of study, I will be very very happy.

Dinner at Senor Frogs

Not only are my four hours a day of Spanish class keeping my busy, by my classmates and I are keeping busy outside of class as well.  There are school sponsored activities every day of the week (board games on Mondays, movies on Tuesdays, Cafe Social at a local bar on Wednesdays, cooking class on Thursdays, and salsa lessons on Fridays, and I usually sign up for two or three of those.  In addition, my new friends and I come up with our own fun afternoon and evening activities as well.  We've tried many different restaurants for lunch and dinner and of course a few bars as well for drinks and salsa dancing! 

Cafe Social with our teacher Edgar, Hanne, Joelle, and Diane