The more you know, the harder it gets.
That’s how I feel about learning Spanish.
The reason that I was MIA last week is because I started my Spanish course. I didn’t want to take an intensive course knowing that my brain shuts down after an hour of learning, but I ended up joining a group already in session that meets three times a week (pretty intense if you ask me). The good thing is the teacher calibrated my level pretty well after a brief conversation, so I think I will be learning a lot. And that’s also part of the problem. Learning a lot for 2 hours, 3 times a week wreaked havoc on my energy level.
I don’t know if it’s because it was the first week, or the gloomy weather we’ve been experiencing, but it’s been a tough week. I went in very excited about increasing my ability to speak Spanish, but apparently I am now at the plateau stage of language development. So, after what I feel was a grueling first week, I now have a harder time expressing myself than before 
. I guess there lies the advantage of learning a languages of a child – ignorance is bliss.
I think what makes officially learning Spanish difficult is because during the course of the day, I spend at least an hour speaking French and Haitian Creole in addition to English (hence, my crazy two year-old. So, even though I have great opportunities to practice Spanish, sometimes my brain just hurts too much.
My goal for taking this course is to (within 3 months) be able to speak without translating from English in my head first, while also being grammatically correct. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
Tags: Caracas, Cultural Adaptation, Cultural Assimilation, Expatriates, Learning a Foreign Language, Learning Spanish
