May 9, 2008

Brad had his first real conversation on the street with a stranger today. He was walking home and passed a place where they work on tuk-tuks (the local taxis). Two guys were out front and as Brad passed them he said “Buenas Tardes.” One of them responded with something and Brad is thinking “here we go again I didn’t understand one word he said.” As he passes them it dawns on him the guy was speaking English and had said “How are you.” It is so strange because you get so geared toward listening for Spanish and having to focus to try and understand enough of the words to get the meaning that when someone speaks English, and you’re not expecting, you are totally lost. Brad went back and talked with the two guys for about ten minutes in Spanish. Once again, the conversation was basic, BUT it was a conversation.

Before you start thinking we have this language thing down. Here’s a good one. Wednesday night at supper (cena) and again on Thursday the family and Miguel are talking and Brad is following along pretty well. They are talking about traveling to different countries and places, getting visas, and all the stuff that goes along with traveling. They are in the middle of talking about all these different locations and they keep say “oo ropa.” Well, the word for clothes is “ropa” and usually they put an article in front of it such as “la.” So, Brad is thinking he is just not catching how they pronounce “la” and to him it sounds like “oo.” This is not a strange occurance having trouble understanding pronunciations. The problem is Brad can’t figure out how “clothes” fit in with the discussion about different locations around the world.

It’s not until Friday morning in language school that he figures it out. His instructor uses the same phrase during their discussion about something. Brad realizes he is not saying “oo ropa.” He is saying “A oo ropa”. Get it? He is saying the Spanish pronunciation of “Europe.” So goes the world of language learning. Sometimes days later you finally understand what a person was saying. The long delay in comprehension sure makes it difficult to participate in a back and forth conversation when it may take two days or more to understand what the person is saying. But many times you never understand what they are saying, so two days is better than never (nunca)