Frozen Digits and Other Holiday Delights
December 13, 2013
More than a Little Off The Top
January 10, 2014
Todays published essay is a follow-up to an earlier posting. Once again I find myself fighting the never ending battle of the linguistically challenged. I’m gaining ground, but progress is slow.
Word Count: 792
Linguistically Challenged
Part II
This essay is a follow-up to an earlier set of ramblings I published on the 3/2/12 Blog posting. That one dealt with my inability to speak another language besides English. Most Americans (particularly the ones who’ve never set foot beyond these borders) can’t and won’t speak any other lingua franca other than the American version of the Queen’s tongue.
Although I’ve traveled and lived in a number of different locations, I’m still stumbling along. My inability to carry out a proper verbal exchange in an eloquent manner other than ours continues to persist. Whoever said the only constant in life is “change” was partially wrong. Unfortunately certain individuals always seem to have trouble altering their past difficulties. I seem to be one of them.
In a long-term attempt to try and improve my Spanish speaking skills I recently signed up for a language course in Mexico. Specifically a three-week immersion class in the central Mexican town of Guanajato. At first one of my sisters figured I’d signed up for a Nigerian Ponsi scheme as she put it, and chastised me once again for willingly roping myself into another scam. I’ve developed a bad habit of doing these sorts of things over the years and its often difficult getting a tiger to change its stripes as they say. I assured her that the institute was indeed legitimate, as they’ve got branches in a number of different locations through out Latin America. The main facility being in Madrid, Spain and basically the epicenter of all things Spanish. My own desire to speak the Mexican form of the language being analogous to English spoken in Australia vs. the Mother Tongue in Scotland. Theoretically not much of a difference unless we’re talking extreme cases of regional slang, right? Sort of I guess.
Now some people might be asking themselves why I’m so obsessed with wanting to become bi-lingual? One eccentric reason stems from a joke one of my uncles made some years back. In short he put it this way: “If you want to speak to soldiers, you talk to them in German. Speaking to a chef, you converse with him or her in French. A horse, talk to it in English, diplomats, Russian. You can’t go wrong with talking philosophical subjects to someone from China. So what’s the crowning achievement in linguistic mastery? When you talk to God its always a positive action on your part if you speak to the Almighty in Spanish.” With that in mind I want to carry on a running conversation with God one-day. Talking to him in the proper lingua franca is always a plus.
I’m bound and determined to reach my goal of slightly above minimal proficiency. Besides signing up for the language school sometime in the new year, I’m practicing in other odd and quirky little ways. How about counting the receipts at my summer restaurant job en Espanol, then in English just to meke sure I’m getting the figures right. Directions? Digging out the Atlas, randomly picking a route between points A & B, then taking a piece of paper and writing en Espanol what I assume to be the correct way to get between the two.
Is it working? Hopefully yes because if I’m getting the directions thing wrong what could this mean? Me giving the wrong directions to someone aimlessly wandering down the street might result in lots of people also walking around with clueless looks painted all over their faces. Then again I like having company when I’m stuck in a foreign environment so maybe I’ll deliberately dish out some incorrect directions once I get south of the border.
Finally (and because I’m totally unafraid of looking like a blundering idiot when I’m doing it), I only talk to the maid at the hotel I manage in Spanish. Lets be brutally honest about this one shall we. Do I make much sense when I talk to her in this way? Probably not, but I figure that’s one of the only ways I’m going to get better. Keep making mistakes and continue to try and correct my mistakes. Granted I do look like an idiot at times, but guilt alone will force me to get better.
It’s taking longer than some folks trying to learn another language, but I’m getting there. Got plans to do a lot of traveling in other countries where the native tongue is Espanol.
Probably just a pie-in=the-sky aspiration also, but I keep telling people I want to write a short story in Spanish one day. May never happen and if it does the fable will probably be extremely short and sweet. Then again that’s a noble thing to hope for one day, and who says milagros no suceder?
