Spanish lessons.....any progress?
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 @ 9:25 PM
The old adage of old dogs and new tricks seem appropriate to my ability to learning spanish. I have spent my entire adult life as an accountant, I do figures, I use the left side of my brain, I cannot draw and I have no ability to visualise how a room would look when changed - until it's actually been done - so, the right hand side of my brain has become somewhat unused and so I thought languages would probably be a right side function. That would explain why it felt like I was struggling to learn.
So, imagine my disappointment on checking and finding that language skills use the same side of the brain as figures, I was using the functioning side of my brain - and still I was struggling to remember so much.
I've been taking spanish lessons for a couple of months now and whilst I seem ok when I am doing my homework and I can understand quite a lot when it's written as soon as I am out and about without my translater chip in my DS, my mind goes blank...................
......and so today we had to take our car to the garage. We have a small problem with the engine when it's cold, it stutters a little. Now, we bought the car new from the Kia dealer from Stuart, who is english, and part of the decision to buy it was so that if and when something went wrong, we wouldn't have problems explaining what was wrong.
We spoke to Stuart yesterday and he asked us to take the car in today for the mechanic to have a look at it. So, on our way to Vera today, I rang Stuart to let him know what time we would be there and that's when we got the bad news...........he had been sent to Mojacar, he wouldn't be at the garage when we got there!!!
Now no-one else at the garage speaks any english. Stuart told me he had told the mechanic about the problem and if we couldn't make ourselves understood when we got there, we were to ask the mechanic to ring him.
OK, I had 20 minutes until we got to the garage, time to rehearse some basic sentences so I can try and explain why we were there. Oh, did I miss my DS!
So, how did I do?
Well, actually, I have to admit, I impressed myself. I managed to explain who we were, why we were there, what was wrong, the fact that we only had the problem when the engine was cold and after the drive there the engine was too warm to show the problem - all in Spanish. The mechanic had us bring the car in, he had a look under the bonnet while the engine was running, had his colleague raise the revs a few times, continued to look, smoked his cigarette and scratched his head and then tell me he couldn't hear any problem, he would need the car when it was cold. Yep, we'd already figured that one out for ourselves. I told him we would need to bring it in another day and leave it over night so that he could start it up cold and that we would ring Stuart to organise it. He seemed to understand all this and we said our goodbyes and thank you's.
I got back in the car and realised I had just had my first proper impromptu conversation in spanish, and although it had all been in the present tense, I had been totally understood - hey, maybe I am getting it after all.
OK, so I couldn't remember what the verb 'to bring' was, I found another way of saying we would bring the car in another day - exactly what my tutor has been telling me to do, don't think what you want to say in english and translate, think what you know in spanish and use it.
There have definitely been days recently when I have wondered whether all the effort I have been putting into my spanish were worth it, well today proved it has been. If ever I needed a boost to carry on, I got it today.
So, thank you Stuart, for going to Mojacar - now, what is the verb for 'bring'?
While speaking to the mechanic, I had in my mind that the verb to bring was traer, an irregular verb, first person singular - traigo. But it seemed too much like the verb to work, trabajar - so I wasn't convinced. I so wanted to tell the mechanic 'traigo el coche un otra día' but I thought I'd be telling him I would be working on the car another day - and there's no way in this world anyone would see me with my head under the bonnet - so I chickened out and said 'yo vengo un otro día con el coche'
Well, a quick check and yippee!!!!! I was right, I could have said it all as I wanted, so in future, I will trust my instincts, and hey, if I get it wrong sometimes, at least I will have tried!
Un vaso de vino tinto para mi, yo pienso!