Kylajane37's travel blogs:
|
|
  | |  |
A Word about the Language
Entry 9 of 35 | show all | print this entry |
I want to share a little bit about my progress with Spanish and my classes. This month has had some ups and downs, but overall I am really pleased with CLM (Centro de Lenguas Modernas), my teachers, and the improvement in my Spanish. I have four hours of class every day. Three hours are grammar and one hour is conversation. During the grammar we have plenty opportunity to speak as well. I have one teacher for grammar, Sole, and one for conversation, Encarna. The course started out with a substitute, Inma, who I really liked. She was lively, full of energy, and explained things over and over until we understood. When Sole took over our class, I was a little disappointed. She was nice, but a bit dull and soft-spoken. Over the course of the month I have learned to enjoy her classes and methods a lot.
I was placed into Advanced level A. At first I was a little nervous about this placement, but in the end it turned out perfectly. We reviewed ser and estar, the two Spanish forms of the verb ¨to be¨ and all the different past tenses. We moved into pronouns and finally began the subjunctive, which is, for me, the most difficult thing to grasp. I think the next month will focus on it heavily, which is good because I need a lot of practice. Each of these topics has seemed difficult at first, but at the end of this month I am able to look back at these things and feel as though I really understand them. We had an exam on today and I passed easily. I am moving on to Advanced level B!
Now...I may be understanding the grammar, but that doesn´t mean I am speaking all that well. I am trying to incorporate all I have learned into my speech, but it is difficult. There are days where I still feel tongue-tied. Overall, I feel able to communicate more fluently, but two months just seems like a drop in the bucket.
The hour of conversation with Encarna is supposed to improve this portion learning Spanish and I think it has helped. In this part of class we learn lots of new vocabulary. The class is conducted with classroom wide discussions. There are only ten students in my class so it works well. We´ve talked about all sorts of topics and Encarna runs the show. It is best not to interrupt her and there are days where I think Encarna is getting more practice with conversation than we are. She is extremely helpful and I am learning a lot.
On Fridays, Sole treats us to some Spanish culture in addition to grammar. We have watched two movies, Las Lenguas de las Mariposas, which takes place just prior to the civil war, and Bienvenidos Mr. Marshall, which is a really old movie that takes place in the late 40´s. When we watched Mariposas we learned all about Franco and the Spanish Civil War. Bievenidos tackles the aftermath of the civil war in a pretty funny way and Mr. Marshall refers to the Marshall Plan which did not include Spain. We have also learned about boleros (sad love songs), flamenco, and Spanish cooking.
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by kylajane37, from Spain or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
1 vote 
