Its Only 365 Days
297/366: THE LANGUAGES I SPEAK
23 OCT 12
This was yet another night of insomnia. I didn't sleep at all. I tried to close my eyes and they just popped open and open and open so I resorted to using my brain for something even in the wee hours. So at 3am, I started trying to resume my quest to learn Italian.
English is my first language and French was my second. I actually attended a bilingual school, English, and French until I was seven. Unfortunately, here, the emphasis is all about learning Spanish, so as soon as I went to elementary, they enrolled me in the only language classes they had which was Spanish and I soon lost the ability to speak French fluently as only my brother and I spoke it, and my dad knew just a little bit of it. I did however get a chance to get back at it in the third grade when my parents enrolled me in the super Olympics of Summer Schools. We had French lessons, Chess lessons, Drum and Jazz classes, Dance, Swimming lessons, Arts and Crafts, History adn Culture, Singing lessons, and Sign Language. It felt as though we were in school, but all the classes were composed of electives. We ended up being sent back for 3 Summers in a row which was pretty cool. I excelled in French there, but again, got back to school, no one spoke or taught French, so it was back to learning Spanish and away my French went. Sign language was frustrating to me. We had a hearing teacher and a deaf teacher. I think she expected us to just pick up with the language, and so she would rarely actually speak to us once she'd taught us basics. The deaf teacher was much nicer and made a point to sign much slower so we could try to grasp the words and concepts unlike her lightening speed. I didn't really appreciate the language as much until I got a little older and I did try and take it in college but the basic classes were full up and I couldn't get in.
Along the way Spanish has been my constant companion. My besty's first language is Spanish so she sometimes speaks to me in half/half. My real test came when I started working in an after school program for the Y with bilingual students. I was there to tutor them in English, Math, and Science. I had to learn quickly how to translate. They wanted us to speak mostly English to them, but most were so young they were barely enrolled in ESL so I had to translate or the alternative would have been to spend my hours having them stare at me blankly.
And now, on my bucket list, is a dream of mine, to go to Italy. I don't want to do the whole tourisy ruins and art museums...I just want to go to a small country side village, eat as the locals do, enjoy the sunsets on some large land overlooking the countryside and eat, pray, love. I did say that I wouldn't go until I had some grasp of the basics of communication in the language. I don't want to go some place and have to rely totally on someone translating for me, because that gets old really quickly and it kind of puts people off as they have to struggle to say even the simplest things to you through someone else. I figured, a while back, because I know a little Spanish, learning Italian should be easier as the languages are very similar....um...that's actually the problem...the languages are very similar. There are subtle deviations between vowel sounds and pronunciations that have made this a confusing slog as I literally revert back to Spanish when trying to speak Italian. Counting is funny because I can easily recall Spanish numbers, so I say the numbers half in Spanish and Half in Italian. I'm at the beginning stages of the language, but it might as well be Spanish in a lot of respects. I think I might look for a tutor the more serious I get about learning it, but I want to at least learn the basics on my own, so I have plenty of books, audio, and of course as pictured, the lovely youtube.
In other news...I can almost cross this item off my bucket list because I have said for a while I am going to start growing my own herbs. That's legal herbs that is, LOL! Not that herbs at my local market are terribly expensive, I just want to start growing edible foods in my garden again. When I first moved in, I had corn and tomatoes, and apples and grapes, but most are now long dead and gone but its time to Secret Garden that b*tch, and make some food grow. So I'm starting with two items, one is basil, and one is carrots. Of course this being the worst time of year as the weather is about to turn, but I have hope that the basil will make it, and if not, I can transfer them and grow them inside if the outdoors fails. The one thing I will have to watch for in the garden is the freakin' squirrels. They constantly eat and destroy my apples because in the yard there is a giant pecan tree and when they get tired of those, the jump on my apples. Jerks! They are particularly active now with winter approaching, so I'm hoping they don't dig through the pots or chew through the basil as it begins to grow.
297/366: THE LANGUAGES I SPEAK
23 OCT 12
This was yet another night of insomnia. I didn't sleep at all. I tried to close my eyes and they just popped open and open and open so I resorted to using my brain for something even in the wee hours. So at 3am, I started trying to resume my quest to learn Italian.
English is my first language and French was my second. I actually attended a bilingual school, English, and French until I was seven. Unfortunately, here, the emphasis is all about learning Spanish, so as soon as I went to elementary, they enrolled me in the only language classes they had which was Spanish and I soon lost the ability to speak French fluently as only my brother and I spoke it, and my dad knew just a little bit of it. I did however get a chance to get back at it in the third grade when my parents enrolled me in the super Olympics of Summer Schools. We had French lessons, Chess lessons, Drum and Jazz classes, Dance, Swimming lessons, Arts and Crafts, History adn Culture, Singing lessons, and Sign Language. It felt as though we were in school, but all the classes were composed of electives. We ended up being sent back for 3 Summers in a row which was pretty cool. I excelled in French there, but again, got back to school, no one spoke or taught French, so it was back to learning Spanish and away my French went. Sign language was frustrating to me. We had a hearing teacher and a deaf teacher. I think she expected us to just pick up with the language, and so she would rarely actually speak to us once she'd taught us basics. The deaf teacher was much nicer and made a point to sign much slower so we could try to grasp the words and concepts unlike her lightening speed. I didn't really appreciate the language as much until I got a little older and I did try and take it in college but the basic classes were full up and I couldn't get in.
Along the way Spanish has been my constant companion. My besty's first language is Spanish so she sometimes speaks to me in half/half. My real test came when I started working in an after school program for the Y with bilingual students. I was there to tutor them in English, Math, and Science. I had to learn quickly how to translate. They wanted us to speak mostly English to them, but most were so young they were barely enrolled in ESL so I had to translate or the alternative would have been to spend my hours having them stare at me blankly.
And now, on my bucket list, is a dream of mine, to go to Italy. I don't want to do the whole tourisy ruins and art museums...I just want to go to a small country side village, eat as the locals do, enjoy the sunsets on some large land overlooking the countryside and eat, pray, love. I did say that I wouldn't go until I had some grasp of the basics of communication in the language. I don't want to go some place and have to rely totally on someone translating for me, because that gets old really quickly and it kind of puts people off as they have to struggle to say even the simplest things to you through someone else. I figured, a while back, because I know a little Spanish, learning Italian should be easier as the languages are very similar....um...that's actually the problem...the languages are very similar. There are subtle deviations between vowel sounds and pronunciations that have made this a confusing slog as I literally revert back to Spanish when trying to speak Italian. Counting is funny because I can easily recall Spanish numbers, so I say the numbers half in Spanish and Half in Italian. I'm at the beginning stages of the language, but it might as well be Spanish in a lot of respects. I think I might look for a tutor the more serious I get about learning it, but I want to at least learn the basics on my own, so I have plenty of books, audio, and of course as pictured, the lovely youtube.
In other news...I can almost cross this item off my bucket list because I have said for a while I am going to start growing my own herbs. That's legal herbs that is, LOL! Not that herbs at my local market are terribly expensive, I just want to start growing edible foods in my garden again. When I first moved in, I had corn and tomatoes, and apples and grapes, but most are now long dead and gone but its time to Secret Garden that b*tch, and make some food grow. So I'm starting with two items, one is basil, and one is carrots. Of course this being the worst time of year as the weather is about to turn, but I have hope that the basil will make it, and if not, I can transfer them and grow them inside if the outdoors fails. The one thing I will have to watch for in the garden is the freakin' squirrels. They constantly eat and destroy my apples because in the yard there is a giant pecan tree and when they get tired of those, the jump on my apples. Jerks! They are particularly active now with winter approaching, so I'm hoping they don't dig through the pots or chew through the basil as it begins to grow.