For Christmas last year, my husband got us a CD/book set for learning Spanish. It’s a language both of us have tried to learn – rather unsuccessfully – in the past, but since there is a large Spanish-speaking population in our area and we both believe in exercising our brain muscles for better ‘mental health’, we’re slowly but surely giving it a try.
Mostly, this consists of confidently repeating phrases along with the CD and then flailing (and failing) linguistically in other (read: real-life) situations, but a few words have stuck in our memories and we try to use them with one another on a daily basis.
Currently, the most commonly used phrase in the Fever household is ire la douche, which is “shower” in English.
I’m pretty sure it means ‘shower’ in the noun sense of the word (or maybe ‘go shower’?), but we use it like a verb (because, what? parts of speech are a thing?) and occasionally link additional SpanFeveLish phrases onto it. Such as, currently (given as an order, from me to him):
Ire la douche, stinky la Smotch-a.
(For those of you who don’t know: My husband’s nickname is Smotch.)
Who says learning a language is hard work?
For us, you might say it’s good clean fun.
😛
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I admire you for being so persistent. When I was a teacher the government decided that all Primary School children should learn an Asian language. Teachers were trained, keeping one step ahead of the children each day. I had the choice of Japanese or Bahasa Indonesia. I chose the latter because I thought it might be easier. One year of university by correspondence with a residential and two years of TAFE (Technical and Further Education) plus a three week teacher tour of Bali and guess what – I realised I am not naturally a linguist. Anyway it was fun while it lasted.
I studied Japanese in college, and I found it much easier to learn than Spanish. I think that’s because collegiate study is largely focused on reading and writing the new language; with Japanese it was an entirely new/different sound and symbol system, whereas with Spanish… Well, when I see a ‘v’ I already have a preconceived notion of how that letter “works.” So I have first language intrusion.
Your language training sounds like quite an experience! Do you know why your government chose, specifically, to require Asian languages? Very cool that you got to go to Bali as part of your learning!
I recall in beginners’ Spanish class, 7th grade (long ago), the first phrase taught was Donde esta la biblioteca? (Where is the library?). . . as if that was the most important thing to know when visiting Mexico hahaha
Wait… That’s NOT the most important thing to know??? 😛
I have been stumbling my way through learning Spanish for going on 5 years. Even tried a tutor for a few months before my mental health really went to shit. My auditory ability is better than my speaking. I try when I encounter Spanish speakers, but I get so flustered and scared of messing up that it hinders me a bit. I doggedly keep trying. I also wish you much better success than I have at speaking it
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It’s not easy! Good for you for keeping up the effort!
The Spanish speakers in my area… I think they laugh a little bit, but I can laugh at myself too so that’s okay. And I’m sure I sound terribly gringo. But mostly the people I’ve encountered just appreciate that I’m making an effort, y’know? When someone lights up because you’re putting some effort into communication… It’s encouragement to keep learning. 🙂
I visit Spanish speaking countries all the time. My Queen and I have talked about learning to speak the language. Maybe one day we will. Holidaying would be more fun and easier if we could speak to and understand people. And it really is a sexy language!
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It’s a FAST language… One of the fastest known spoken languages. That’s part of my struggle.
I think it would be great if you learned Spanish for travel purposes. The first time I went to Mexico, I knew none, and I felt like, “That’s not right.” So I took a community college class for a semester (I audited the class, so no stress about grades) before I went the second time. I was awkward and only knew a few phrases, but the people there were very sweet about my vocabulary-of-a-baby white-girl efforts. 🙂
I love that you are learning the language together. We are currently watching a Spanish series on Netflix, in Spanish, but up to now none of the words have stuck with me. Unlike the Swedish series, where nowadays we recognize many of the words. Not enough to speak the language, though 😉
Rebel xox
He’s doing much better with it than I am. He’s installed an app on his phone and does some kind of practice with it every day.
Me… Not so much. 😉
A little water, a little soap, a little rub here, a little dab there, and a shower can get you clean in spots you’d never reach by yourself. ( I was gonna make this rhyme, but I’m brain dead right now… )
Heh.
Rub-a-dub dub
Musclehead in a tub
Eating his curds and whey
…errr, no, that’s not quite right, is it? 😛
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