Hola Amigos

Chilean bread, called Hallullas. Yummy!

My first experience with learning another language was when I was in high school. For some reason I decided to take German in Grade 10. I think I was somewhat influenced by the Grade 9 tour when the German teacher pointed out that once a semester they made German chocolate cake during class! Yes, I was easily swayed in my youth but I am so much wiser now. Ahem

To say that German was not my favorite class would be a slight understatement. Putting aside the fact that my German teacher was somewhat crazy (no, seriously) I hated every.single.class. Why? Well probably because learning languages does NOT come naturally to me. Most school subjects did but not German. Oh how I struggled, I hated this class and wanted to drop out in the worst way but I persevered (because my parents made me) and in the end got a decent grade (whether I earned it or the teacher just didn't care enough to fail me is debatable.) However by the end of the semester I had learned one very important thing... I never wanted to try to learn another language again. Ever.

Now those of you who know me are laughing because you know that despite my aversion to acquiring language skills other than in English, I went and married a Chilean, who speaks *gasp* Spanish. English is in fact, his primary language, but he is fluent in Spanish and his entire family speaks Spanish as well.

I married Claudio while I was in University and because I was madly, head-over-heels in love (and obviously not thinking clearly) I decided that I would take a Spanish course as one of my electives. The first semester went okay, I had a really good teacher and although I found it difficult it was not impossible. The second semester was another story. I hated that class. I felt physically sick every time I entered the classroom. After the midterm I went to see the professor. After I explained to her that I was having a hard time and was deciding if I should continue on or drop out, her response was "I think you should drop out". After that honest assessment, she then went on to discuss that she knew my in-laws, they were such nice people, etc. I don't remember much of that conversation because the "you should drop out" was still ringing in my ears.

Oh

This particular piece of advice was hard for me to process because I was always good at school. It came easily to me and even in University I did not have to study too much or too often to do well, which is not the case when learning a language.

There were other things that gave me a negative taste for continuing my Spanish education but that is the one that stands out the most.

I promptly forgot everything that I learned in my first Spanish course and developed a strong distaste for anything relating to the language. Claudio learned quickly not to bring up the subject and anytime someone would mention learning Spanish, or try to talk to me in Spanish, I would go icy and withdraw from that conversation as quickly as possible.

I'm not proud of my attitude. I was immature and inconsiderate and this, understandably, caused some strife in my marriage.

Now I have boys, two of them if ya didn't know, and they love their grandparents. All three sets. Two of those sets of grandparents speak Spanish as their first language and I want my boys to at least be able to understand when Appy or Abuelo speak to them in Spanish. Occasionally they already do so and Lemon Boy gets a little uptight about this. "Mommy, I don't understand what they're saying!" Oh my son, please don't be like your mother in this way! So Lemon Boy is enrolled in Spanish bilingual kindergarten. Amazingly, this school is quite close to where we live and he'll be able to continue in the Spanish program at this school until Grade 6. My hope is that he is young enough that he'll be able to pick the language up fairly easily and actually enjoy it.

So where does this leave me? *sigh* I know I need to work on changing my attitude and pick up my Spanish lessons again. Yet my hackles still rise immediately whenever someone inquires as to my Spanish abilities. I have learned the few words that the boys have picked up so my hope is to progress along with them. So I guess that means in September I'll be starting kindergarten again. In Spanish. yikes