Espanol y mi

Yo quierro decir que tuve un buen tiempo cuando fui en Costa Rica. No esparo tener asi mucho divertida. Yo me gusta aprender espanol, y yo quierro regressar a Costa Rica pronto. Mi tiempo en Costa Rica fue un experienca mejor de mi vida.

I can't begin to explain how much fun it was to learn Spanish. When I went there, my main goal was to just try to recapture some of the Spanish I sort of learned in high school. One day last week, we were studying verbs in the past tense, and it all seemed kind of familiar. I realized it was the same stuff we did in 9th grade, but back then, it all seemed so difficult. Maybe it was because I was spending most of my time passing notes to David Tanner. This time, it seemed like a mystery I could really solve.

I had so much fun using my brain in a new way. I love the idea of having a whole new set of words, language, ways of expression, communication tools, just sitting there available for me to discover and use.

At first, it just seemed like it was a matter of memorizing facts or words. But after constant exposure, things begin to change.

We heard Spanish all day long. We heard it on the street, in class, on the TV, when the kids were fussing in the living room. Even blasting from a loud speaker mounted on the roof of a pick up truck that trolled around town advertising this and that. Hola, hola, hola Heredia ! Venga! Veinte y dos de julio!

After all this constant and subconcious exposure , I started to really pick up the rythym. Spanish is a very melodic language that sounds like someone speaking while they gently roll a piece of candy between their lips. The words are round and soft. It's seductive. Pretty soon, you can kind of tell when you have said something in the wrong order.

And let me tell you, Spanish is very backwards from English.

My teacher kept saying "don't translate literally."

And for this very literal thinker, it's hard. If it translates as "I give you my arm " when they mean they like you a lot, I"ll be worried that someone is really about to give me a body part.

It was funny to see everyone start to garble their English about week three. Me no like that . No wait, that's not right. No me gusta.

This experience of learning was the most fun I've had in a long time. . So very amazing that at some point in human history, every one got together and agreed that when they made certain sounds with their mouths, everyone else would know what they meant. How did they ever dream it all up?

All I can say, in any language, is wow. Bring it on.