Category: Linguistic

The thought of giving up on my Spanish class has briefly come and gone.  I would miss my classmates too much, my teachers too much, and if Cynthia wants to continue, I just have to press on.  It is rather up to my linguistic limit knowing how little talent I have on that department.  Today was the first day of the 10 “Elementary 2” lessons that will lead to an examination, unlike “Elementary 1” that is exam-free.  My lovely teacher Natalia jumped when I jokingly yet rather seriously commented that the only two or three things I have learned [by heart] from the last 10 lessons were que pasa (what’s up?), pausa (have a break), and uff (an expression).  Something Natalia always says; something I can always pick up.  The rest of what she says?  It literally sounds like music to my ears.

Stress aside, I always welcome a lighthearted break.  This morning I woke up with a foggy mind and a pair of eyes that could hardly be opened.  Still not fully recovered from that mild cold over the weekend, I thought of taking a medical leave.  But I thought of all the work piled up, the face-to-face meetings and the multi-country conference call that were set up, maybe working through the day with half of my brain still working is not too bad an idea.  So I did.  And as I was rushing out of the office for the Spanish Class this evening, my wireless phone continued to ring.  OK.  One more call to answer then.  This morning, in the car, Cynthia was playing the album by James Morrison.  I nearly fell asleep.  I begged for something more upbeat and she put Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” on repeat.  Immediately I woke up.

Immediately I woke up when today’s Spanish Class started.  Today’s topic was on movies.  Thank God.  I love that topic.  You know I do.  And we learned the different genres in Spanish, how to describe everything about movies in Spanish (including popcorn), and we were given a printout of a movie schedule and asked to form sentences in Spanish.  Lovely.  When it came to my turn to speak, I said, “Me gustaría ir a (I would like to watch) … Confessions of a Shopaholic.”  The rest of the class was shocked while Cynthia was laughing (she knows me well).  And I continued, “Porque me gusta (Because I love) chick-lit.”  OK.  It took the entire class some time to explain to our teacher Natalia what chick-lit is.  And it took me quite a few moments to convince them that I do read the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella.  Seriously guys.  To get into a woman’s head, chick-lit is as close as you can get.  Besides, that series is very entertaining to read.

So, how does the photo relate to this blog entry?  Well, as part of the exercise for next week, we are suppose to pen down some Spanish film titles that we know.  I dig through my foreign film DVD collection, only manage to find 3.  Two of which I have yet to open.  Maybe I shall try out learning Spanish by watching Spanish films.  Now, that’s easy.

This has got to be one of the most hilarious Spanish lessons Cynthia and I have attended.  Not because of the bizarre Spanish reggae music piece that the whole class has to listen to not once, not twice, but … I can’t recall how many times.  Rather because I felt so stupid not able to follow most of what our new Spanish teacher Natalia said.  “¡Conecto!  ¡Conecto!”, she kept saying.  I reckon she was asking me to connect the phrases on the exercise sheet given.  I kept repeating certain words that I could recognize like a toddler, and she kept coming down on me like I was a … toddler.  Yes, I could guess what I needed to do.  No, I had no clue what she was saying.  How come I was the only one in the class who was so fascinated by the strange vocabulary and have that unstoppable urge to repeat till the words get registered into my brain?!  OK.  Laughter is infectious.  Soon, the entire class was laughing.  I was in tears trying to keep quiet while listening to the song “En La Ciudad” the …

… umpteenth time.

Maybe somewhere in the world, right now, someone is learning English by listening to songs written and performed by Bob Dylan.  Political, social, philosophical, and literary lyrics can be an alternative source to learn a language in a fun way.  Like Bob Dylan’s lyrics, “En La Ciudad” is kind of just that.  It is – literal translation here – a song about illegal migrants making a living in a foreign city of noise and waste, mafia and black money, building a city like growing flower of cement, nothing is what it seems.  Pressure in day, passion at night (OK, we did laugh quite hard on that expression too).  There are temples of money and districts made of cardboard, looking at our roots and dream that one day will be better than today.

And it was first time when we learned Spanish idioms.  Like “sin papeles (without paper)” means illegal and without documents.  “Pagar en negro (pay in black)” means to pay in cash without tax.  At home, I did a search on the song by Amparanoia and she is in fact an accomplished Spanish artist whose music is built on reggae and rock and lyrics that offers social critiques.  In fact, I have managed to find the song in YouTube, for now.  Check this out.

And for those who are interested in the Spanish lyrics (I know at least one of you may), I am typing this out for you.

en la ciudad hay mucha tribu, mucho barrio, hay poco saldo, mucho banco, aves de paso que se quedarán.  en la ciudad todo se paga con tarjeta, aquí la gente es muy discreta, y por la calle no te van a mirar.  en la ciudad todo es prisa, atasco, coche ruido, consumo, oferta, derroche, busca el paraíso en tu ciudad.  flores de cemento vi crecer, nada es lo que te parece, día presión, noche pasión.

siempre amanece en la ciudad en la ciudad en la ciudad.

en la ciudad si no te paran te atropellan, sin papeles no vale la pena, nadie trabajo te va a dar.  y en negro te van a pagar.  la mafia se va a aprovechar.  y en negro te van a pagar.  la mafia se va a aprovechar.  ay soledad, no me dejes soledad, no te vayas soledad.  ay soledad, la soledad se apodera de la ciudad.  hay miedo, no hay sistema de seguridad, templos de dinero, y barrios de cartón, busca las raíces y sueña qué será mejor.

en la ciudad …

Oh dear me, the Spanish Exam for Beginner 2 was mind blowing.  I dragged myself out of the bed just hours before the exam, having a fever of 38°C.  Oops, that was no good.  My body ached (still does) and I have these non-work related appointments coming into my mobile phone’s Gmail application as I was trying my last ditch effort to memorize as many Spanish words and phrases as possible.  I think nothing really entered my head at the last minute of studying, even at my heightened mental power with the help of BRANDS Chicken Essence.

Leveling up to Beginner 2 is easy as there is no exam at the end of Beginner 1.  Our beloved Spanish teacher Anna remains vague on what the exam is like and got the whole class hopelessly guessing.  OK, she did hint to us that we have to work hard on …

1. Describe our families, our cities, and our home.
2. Able to understand and give street directions.
3. Able to describe objects and where they are.
4. Describe what we like and don’t like to do in our pastimes as well as what our day-to-day life is like.
5. Able to … duh as it sounds … converse in Spanish.

I think I have too many theories for my own good.  People in general panic when they come face to face with exam.  I do too but I had a theory that I used to calm everybody around me, including me.  You see, Beginner 2 is level 2 of 20.  If Las Lilas School fails too many students at such an early stage, think of the potential loss of income!  How many would retake the entire course of 10 lessons just to pass level 2?  I wouldn’t.

It is rather strange that the exam is smacked right into the Christmas holiday period.  Most of our classmates have been holidaying overseas.  So Cynthia and I have missed our last Wednesday’s lesson - the supposed day of exam during our Bandung trip – and instead, we took up today’s slot.

We were expecting the Director to appear as the independent examiner and instead, there came a lovely lady from Peru (I have another theory on ladies who speak Spanish as first language).  We were expecting one hour of revision and then one hour of oral exam like what Anna has told us but instead, we had …

1. Listening Test
2. Written Test
3. Oral Test
4. Reading Test (too bad it didn’t happen as it is my strength in a larger scheme of work)

I had a splitting headache when I was pulled into a room for my oral test.  Gosh!  Okay, Mamy – the Spanish teacher from Peru – is very friendly, which is good.  Conversing in Spanish is my weakest subject.  I struggled so hard and fortunately Mamy has been very encouraging.  She asked me what I like and don’t like to do in my past time (thanks Anna!) and I said … me gusta comer … (means I like to eat) and I paused.  That got her laughing and I continued … las tapas (some kind of Spanish food).  Everyone laughs when they hear me saying me gusta comer las tapas.  A lovely piece of icebreaker.

Then she asked me (I think) what my home is like, what kind of furniture I have inside, what I do in my daily life, and that is!  End of oral test!  I seriously don’t have a lot of high hope on that test.  I really need to work on the Spanish grammar.

Written test was OK.  Fortunately, I did 12 lessons worth of Spanish exercise (a separate book from the text book) over the weekends.  Our Spanish teacher Anna is not that into drilling us on exercise.  And I bet most of us in our class have not been working hard on those exercise, except Cynthia of course.  Many of the examination questions came straight from the exercise book.  I did a lot of brutal memorization over the weeks and it helped.  To give you an idea, I would keep writing Monday to Sunday in Spanish non-stop till I get it.  I take every hobby of mine very serious, Spanish included.

Oh, and we needed to write a mini-essay about our daily life (40 words).  That too went OK.

Listening test was OK too.  Two Spanish people on tape asking each other about the time.  The conversation is fast and furious but Mamy was kind enough to pause between each conversation and to replay it again.  I asked if we could listen to it again.  Mamy looked at our answers and smiled, you all should go home now.

One student from the Monday class (Cynthia and I are from the Wednesday class) asked when the class for the next level will start.  Mamy said, let’s see if you can pass first.

Oh gosh, I really hope that Cynthia and I will pass this exam.

PS. I was at Vivocity’s Coffee Bean studying for my Spanish exam while waiting for Cynthia to finish her facial.  Right in front of me was a “No Studying” sign.  It takes time to finish drinking a regular cup of coffee right?

Tres cosas importantes en la vida – which means 3 important things in life – to the Spanish are salud (health), dinero (money), and amor (love).  After our Spanish teacher Anna translated what salud means, I asked in all ignorance, “What about heaven?  ¿Cómo se dice “heaven” en español?  (How to say heaven in Spanish?)”  The entire class was silence and then bursted into laughter.  It was happy kind of laughter.  I soon joined them after realizing that salud means health, not hell.  Oh well.  I probably speak Spanish with a Singapore accent while Anna speaks English with a Spanish accent.  How come I was the only one who didn’t get it.

Now you get it?  By now you should.  You knew that I have enrolled the first Spanish lesson this July and since then, my journey has not been that smooth sailing.  If I was to redesign the Spanish curriculum for the English speaking people, I would list out a whole set of vocabulary that is common between Spanish and English (the word ‘curriculum’ is a good example).  And I would also create a list of words that are similar between the two languages.  Such as importantes versus important, vacaciones versus vacations, salario versus salary, familia versus family.  Imagine, all of a sudden, Spanish is not such a foreign language anymore.  Imagine, the level of confidence that I would have, that any English speaking person would have, after seeing that entire list of similarity.

Though I have missed the first class of this new season (because of that trip, you know which trip I am talking about), I am as determined as ever to do well and pass the examination with the rest of the class.  I love my class, I really do.  I don’t want to be left behind as the rest of the class continues to the next level.  These are fun people, people with interesting careers, and most importantly, people whom I look forward to meet every week.

This new season I am doing something different.  I think one way to learn a new language is to try it without thinking too hard about it.  Once again … ¿En la vida solo hay tres cosas importantes amor, salud y dinero?

Si, el mismo orden (yes, in that same order).

How time flies when it seems like yesterday Cynthia and I first joined the Spanish lesson.  I may only get a fraction of what she got from our teacher Anna, I do learn a lot from Anna’s unorthodox way of teaching – letting the learners subtly define our learning objectives, allowing us to grow beyond the syllabus, and making each lesson fun.  Learning should be fun and it shouldn’t be restrictive.

Take today as an example.  Two guys from our class will be visiting Mexico for three months as exchange students for real.  So Anna started the lesson (our last in this course) with the scenario of these two arriving at the airport making friends with the locals.  So they meet this girl and …

At that moment, we were all tongue-tied.  Quickly we rewound to lesson one and asked me llamo XYZ, y tu (my name is so-and-so, and you)?  Next of course is where are you from, de dónde eres?  And then?

We all went blank.

Imagine, two guys and a Mexican lady, how about a beer?  ¿Quieres una cerveza?  How about asking her if she’d like to eat something?  ¿Quieres comer algo?  How to ask if you like me?  ¿Te gusta?  And if she does?  Me gustas mucho.

I love you is te quiero.

What else will our two friends need to know?  At the airport?  Where are the taxis, I suppose.  ¿Dónte están los taxis?  And the taxi driver would probably ask dónde van ustedes (where are you guys going)?  Hotel Hilton, we are going.  Vamos al hotel Hilton.  At the hotel, we may wish to ask where a decent restaurant is.  ¿Dónde hay un buen restaurante?  What time does it open?  ¿A qué hora abre el restaurante?

It is no fun with these two dudes dining on their own, is it?  We can always count on the friendly (and beautiful) Mexican ladies.  Would you like to dine with us?  ¿Quieres cenar con nosotros?  If the response is si, claro.  That is a yes of course.  Quizás is a maybe.

Over the dinning table, the girl may ask cuanto tienpo en mexico (how long are you staying in Mexico)?  And there and then in the class, we learned how to say the years (años), months (meses), weeks (semanas), and days (diás).

One of us asked how to ask the girl for a dance.  Anna told us that in Mexico, you have to ask the permission from her brother as seldom girls come out alone for dates.  Erm, OK.  ¿Puedo bailar con tu hermana?

May I kiss you?!  ¿Puedo besar la?

OK.  Maybe something should be left unsaid.  The dinner is lovely and when the bill comes, why let the girl pays?  Yo invito.  Literally means “I invite (hence I pay)”.  And when will we see each other again?  ¿A qué hora (nosotros) nos encontramos?  Or if the night is still young, why not catch a movie?  ¿Quieres ir al cine?

Our class went on and on creating fun scenarios, departing from our textbooks.  Our teacher Anna really enjoys our sense of curiosity and in her words of encouragement, we have gone far ahead of what beginner 1 class offers.  So here we are, 5 girls and 1 guy (me) heading to beginner 2 class next month.  Oh God, wish me luck.  These girls are smart, very smart.

Thank you for all your creative answers for that little quiz of mine posted last Sunday.  It was a great fun just by reading them.  Darkspore and TK came really close to the answer of a reflection through a car (though I must say they have the advantage of knowing me in person) and therefore, dudes, I will cook that Cantonese meal I promise.  In the spirit of fun and charity, I will make them donate a handsome sum of money so that I can continue to fund this website and continue to delight you lovely readers out there.

I have a habit of taking random pictures as and when inspirations hit me.  I enjoy doing that because these pictures may come in handy in the future.  Like the one for my Sunday post on self-reflection, I thought it does suit the topic well (Cynthia did guess the association right).  This particular image was taken using my camera phone.  I did a rotation and crop the image to the right size.  And I surgically removed the dried leaf on top of the car.  Other than that, there isn’t much alternation to the original picture.

Spanish Class

I look forward to the Spanish class because after all the daily 9-to-5 bombardments in the office, the one thing I look forward to is my weekly 2 hours of dedicated time in learning a new skill.

Can passion be nurtured over time?  I hope so.

Cynthia has a natural talent in learning languages.  For me, I am going to once again deploy my hardcore repetitive drilling exercise.  I write, and write, till these foreign words are scribbled into my brain in black and white.

The variation of Spanish verb forms is just amazing and they have this concept of formal and casual,  permanent and temporary.  In English, we have “I am married” or “I am a man”.  In Spanish, the verb used for the former is different from the one used for the latter because to the Spanish, being married is temporary while being a man is permanent.  So, it is a little bit more complicated than “I am” in English.

And we have to learn by heart that shop, factory, and office for instance take in a feminine form while school, hospital, and farm take in a masculine form.  To introduce you as my friend if you are a guy, I would refer you as “un amigo mío” – literally means a friend of mine.  If you are a lady, all three words have to be switched to “una amiga mía”.  If I am to introduce you as a group of ladies, that would be “unas amigas mías”.  Otherwise, in a mixed gender or only men situation, “unos amigos míos”.

My 6th and 7th lessons are certainly more demanding than the previous one that we sang birthday song and what not.  But certainly we are expanding on what we can converse, in Spanish.

Below are samples of what I managed to squeeze into my brain before the lesson.