¿Se ha acabado?/It's Over?

Officially, the contest is over. Which, I suppose, means the summer project is over.
I don't want it to be over so I am going to keep going! When it comes down to it, I won the contest... by a landslide! Now, I wish I would have studied more some weeks but we did "ok". Over the 10 weeks I studied for a total of 91.61 hours.

Overall, I know that I understand and can speak Spanish better than I ever have before. I still have so much work to do but I'm happy I've had such a nice springboard into the language. It's depressing when I turn on the radio or the television and still have such a hard time catching what is being said. BUT, I know I'll get nowhere if I give up... so I won't give up!

I took a test from the local community college continuing education department. According to the test I can sign up to take intermediate Spanish II or Conversational Spanish II. That's cool, huh? I'm going to try to take one of those classes this semester and try to take a "for credit" class next semester. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I think I'll try to keep up the blog... better than I have been :) It helps me remember to study/practice when I feel like "someone" is watching.

Con mezcló emociónes.../With Mixed Emotions

The day finally arrived. Today I finished Rosetta Stone's Level Three of Latin American Spanish. I was so ready to be done! It's a fine program but I used it so much in the last nine weeks that I just couldn't take it anymore! (¡No puedo más!) I was very happy to finish. However, those moments of happiness were soon followed by a little bit of frustration, followed by a little bit of sadness.

A little review of Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish, Levels 1-3:
I think it was very helpful; introduced new vocabulary; got me comfortable speaking the language. It did start out really slow, only to introduce too much too fast at the end. There is a lot that I did in the lessons in the last sections of Level 3that I still don't feel comfortable with using in "real life". I think that it probably got me into maybe a college-level Spanish 3 class (but then, I never took Spanish 2 so what do I know?... and I did take Spanish 1 like, 15 years ago).
Let's face it there is not one program on the planet that will get you from basically knowing nothing to speaking conversationally all on its own. I think Rosetta Stone did what it was supposed to do: gave me a good introduction. I could go to Mexico now and get by alright. I could travel, ask for directions, shop, etc. But I couldn't hold a conversation.

That's where the sadness comes in. I've studied A LOT over the last nine weeks and I still feel pretty stupid. Don't get me wrong. I'm willing to feel that way because I want to improve (wink, wink). I had just hoped that the difference between then and now would have been greater.

And here's where the additional bit of sadness came in:
We went to a Mexican Restaurant to celebrate. Of course, the waiter was a native Spanish-speaker (or whatever the PC term is now). The Husband spoke up (in Spanish) first. I then added a little bit in Spanish. The waiter took a step back, sized me up said something like, "¿Tú hablas en español?" I replied, "Un poco" and smiled. He then said, "But you look more latin than him!" Ugh. He had no reason to believe that I didn't speak Spanish until I opened my mouth.

Clearly, I have much more work to do.

Spanish Weekend with My Dad/Fin de Semana de Espanol con Mi Padre

We are still and studying away! We just completed week 7 (I think) of our Summer Spanish Project Contest and I think we doing well! Check out the "Keeping Score" page. As you can see, I'm still winning! (This is very exciting... mostly because the cost of Amazon's Kindle 2 came down in price just last week!)

This weekend (Friday-Sunday) The Husband, kids, and I went to spend time with my dad, a native spanish speaker. We told him ahead of time that we wanted to practice our spanish and he was READY! Boy, by Saturday night my brain was exhausted. The husband said he was all "spanished-out" and I agreed (but only in my head... didn't want to admit it to my dad!). I do believe trying to speak in a foreign language throughout the day feels like thinking calculus all day! I don't think I'll ever hear then end of the funny face I (apparently) make when I'm about to say something in Spanish. It's my thinking face, I guess! I think it looks like a combination of me spacing off and me being confused. Right now I have to think so hard before I say anything; there's just no way around it. Maybe with time it will fade away. :)

The conversations over the weekend were slow and effortful but felt good... the way feeling sore after a workout feels good. We did get quite a bit of spanish practice in, though we both feel that we should have done even more. Hopefully we'll get to go back in about a month to try it again. It will be neat (yeah, I said, "neat") to see how much progress we make between now and then. I visited my dad about a month ago and I know that I've made much progress towards being conversational since then. Don't get me wrong... neither The Husband nor I can actually have a conversation in Spanish, yet. Seeing our progress though, was motivating and I know we'll reach that goal eventually!

He Thinks I'm Cheating./El Piensa Yo Estoy Haciendo Trampa.

Enough said. I am beating the socks off him! The Husband has seriously underestimated how much I want to win. Honestly, I'm kinda sick of studying Spanish. But as long as I have that carrot dangling in front of me, I'm gonna work and work to win the carrot!

You may think that this must mean that when I win the prize I won't want to study anymore. I don't believe that's the case. My theory is that by then I will have obtained a base knowledge of Spanish; Hopefully enough that through daily conversation, reading my favorite books in Spanish, and learning new vocab (through studying), I'll be able to continue to make progress in the language.

Right now I'm really working to get through Rosetta Stone. I'm in the last unit of Level 2. Soon I'll be in Level 3, which is the last level we own. Apparently, they've come out with a Level 4 and 5 but I'm not sure we're sold on purchasing it. I'm looking forward to focusing on some other studying options. Don't get me wrong. Rosetta Stone has really helped build our vocabularies, increase our ability to understand the spoken language and most of all, helped us gain confidence in SPEAKING Spanish. Lately we've just been concentrating on it so much that I'm pretty anxious to see what we can do once we're done with Level 3.

I'm not sure if me winning (so far) is going to get The Husband to pick up his studying time, so I'm going to have to continue going full steam ahead. We'll see what happens... :)

Escupelo Para Afuera/Spit It Out

We are currently in the middle of our "Spanish 20 Minutes"... yeah, we're behind schedule. We haven't done it in a long time! It's pretty painful. But we did end up laughing a lot! It was nice for Chad to sing "Alto! en el nombre de amor antes de romper mi corazon..." to fill up some of the time! WE now know the translation is not correct but it was pretty funny!
I'm starting to get worried. It's already the second week in June and we're not progressing fast enough. I keep thinking that we're almost a month away and we're not speaking the language enough. I know it's just a matter of practice and we've been all out of whack with that. This week our "regular" summer schedules start so I'm hoping we get back into the groove of things.
On a happier note, I posted the results of THE CONTEST for the last 2 weeks on the "Keeping Score" page. I'm winning!

2 Weeks in the Bag/Dos Semanas en la Bolsa

We started intensive study and "The Contest" 2 weeks ago. I studied 14.58 hours in the first 2 weeks of the contest. The husband has studied 11.18 hours. I am winning.
It may be temporary but it feels nice for now!

Honestly, I think the total time I heard and practiced speaking Spanish in the last week (over 11 hours) made a difference in the amount that I "thought" in Spanish. For the longest time I felt that I had some kind of "recall" issue. :) Pathetic, I know. If I saw or heard a word in Spanish, I could come up with the English translation but I often had a very difficult time coming up with a Spanish word when I wanted to use it. What do you know? It was a matter of learning the words BETTER. I simply didn't know the information well enough. Now my vocabulary is very small but I really KNOW what I know. I can use it.

I've added a few tools to my arsenal. I'm listening (occasionally) to Pimsleur Spanish CD's in the car. I found a website, 123teachme.com that has been kind of fun. AND, I've added a ton of new decks to my kaka flashcard program (on my phone). It's never been easier to squeeze a few Spanish minutes into my day!

The Contest... Rules/El Concurso...Reglas

Alrighty,we totaled up our hours for the week. Chad did beat me. I studied 3.3 hours. The Husband studied a whopping 4.9 hours. We also set some goals and defined the rules a bit.
1. The person who studies the most (from the week ending May 15 until the week ending July 17th; 10 weeks) wins the head to head challenge.
2. In order to win any prize, each player must study a minimum of 50 hours.
3. The WINNER gets... well, I'd like to get a Kindle. The husband has not yet chosen an item.
4. If the LOSER studies over 50 hours in the alotted time, he or she will earn a buck for every hour studied.

So, the winnings could be FANTASTIC! A Kindle? Ooh, I've wanted one for quite some time! Cash? Not as cool but would be nice if spent on some iTunes music for my long Saturday morning training runs.

It's true, I am a wee bit concerned about competing against each other. As a rule, we tend not to do that! Since we set up a consolation prize, I think we'll be okay. Now, if I could only figure out a way to stifle his trash-talking... new rule? Only Spanish trash-talking allowed.

We're Having a Contest!

The husband and I are trying to learn Spanish together. His motivation is a Spring Break trip he is taking with students next year. They'll be going to Mexico, providing medical treatment in a "compound". My motivation is not so precise. I just want to learn it.

Anyway, healthy competition is good sometimes, right? We are going to log the number of hours we spend studying. The person who logs the most hours wins. Unfortunately, it isn't going to be a good measurement of how well we are learning. We couldn't agree on a system for that! But it is something. Honestly, right now he is totally creaming me. He studies all the time! Just yesterday he starting trash-talking (in English... what does THAT tell you? :) ), talking about how he is going to win and it's going to be something BIG... No, we hadn't yet decided on what the winnings would be. Now that there is the possibility of me winning something "BIG"... I might just kick it up a notch!

Gotta go study!/Tengo que ir a estudiar!