It felt like yesterday when we returned home with two certificates. A moderately hard earned albeit minor achievement in our routine life. Now that I am reading that entry I wrote back in January, have you noticed how much the certificate’s template has changed? From that entry, I notice that Cynthia and my scores don’t change much. Except, she has somewhat improved. And I have somewhat … oh well. For Elementary level, Cynthia has upped her score to a high nineties. While I slipped to a low eighties. Our gap has widened from 9% at the Beginner’s level to a worrying 13%! This is Singapore. We all need to score an A+. And there is no anything but.
Jokes aside. I am delighted to have passed and moved onto the next level.
Learning Spanish reminds me of my painful journey of learning English. You see. English is not my first language. We learned English in Hong Kong inside a classroom of students and teachers speaking Cantonese, during English classes. Sure. We have worked really hard on English grammar, since young. In my late teens, I began writing diary in English, reading English books, listening to English songs, and speaking English [almost] everyday. That was when I have moved to UK for my study. Then I went crazy over English literature. Began to write songs in English. And now, running a website in English seems like a fun thing to do.
So, by my reckoning, if I am to be serious on learning Spanish, mirroring what I have learned from learning English, the followings will have to happen, quite possibly in that order. A laundry list of more moderately hard earned albeit minor achievements as such:
- Able to catch bits and pieces of simple Spanish from books, newspapers, magazines, and etc.
- Able to catch simple spoken phrases from radio, music, and etc.
- Able to hold a basic conversation.
- Write private diary in Spanish.
- Play guitar and sing along with a Spanish pop song (music plays a big part of our lives and I wonder why Las Lilas School doesn’t incorporate music into their curriculums).
- Read Bible in Spanish (I happen to be one of those who studies English by reading Bible, as I was familiar with the Chinese Bible and it helped).
- Master Spanish expressions, idioms, and expand the vocabulary.
- Able to appreciate Spanish humor.
- Able to hold a decent conversation, appreciate Spanish literature, catch the music lyrics, listen to the radio, and watch a Spanish movie without subtitles.
- Able to blog in Spanish at ease.
Of course I am eying on #10. But if I could achieve up to #6 in the near future (like in 3 years’ time?), I think I would be much delighted.
Just Do It!!
Congratulations on both your passing of Spanish exams. 80++? I would already consider that as passing with flying colours. Good job! 😉
Hezanie – Thanks! Still, some silly mistakes have cost me quite a lot of marks … ha ha ha. Oh well, I have got to reverse the download trend!
Aiyo….must be a guy thing…hahaha!
Congratulations!! Now you have even more reasons to visit Spain regularly and fulfill your Flamenco fetish! I certainly am all head over heels in love with the Iberian peninsula now thanks to your wonderful photography and narrative. 🙂
Walter – Thanks for your kind words! Yes, Cynthia and I plan to visit Spain regularly. Especially when our Spanish gets better, we can visit those cities that are not major, but have their own charm.
Thats great! You have been a motivation for me to continuing my classes. I hope to be back in class when my leg injury is quite at a recovery stage.
Si Ying – It is good to hear that you have the intend to continue your Spanish class. I pray for your speedy recovery!
Congratulations again~! 🙂
So, in the future, I will leave my baby to you and Cyn to train her up in Spanish and music! Thx Thx~! hehe 😛
Lora – Thanks!
Erm, you should you can trust us with your baby?!?!
Yup! Without a doubt! 🙂 She can learn different kinds of instruments, learn singing, learn different languages, learn painting… oh… May be she can join your band one day! hehe 😛
Oh… just don’t start playing computer games too soon with her… hehe… Scrabble will be better. 😀
Lora – Oh I agree. Computer is bad for eyesight. Scabble is a jolly good idea.
Congratulations to you and Cynthia,
I really thought that you were a natural English speaker, so it never crossed my mind that you had to take it up
Thus, I am sure you can do it! And visit beautiful Spain and be able to communicate with the natives 🙂
Rinaz – Thanks for dropping by! Yes, we are still very happy that we have passed our Spanish examination! Time flies, in just a few more lessons, we will enter the next stage that will result in yet another exam!
Heyy, would like to ask u where do u go and study spanish in singapore as i am interested too. Thanks!
Jenna – Excellent! We study at Las Lilas (near Sim Lim Square). You may check out one of my posts on what the school and learning Spanish is like!
http://www.wilfridwong.com/2010/01/11/learning-spanish-in-singapore-at-las-lilas-recommended/
Let me know if you need anything else and have a nice day.