Category: My Good Life

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:

1. Able to catch bits and pieces of simple Spanish from books, newspapers, magazines, and etc.
2. Able to catch simple spoken phrases from radio, music, and etc.
3. Able to hold a basic conversation.
4. Write private diary in Spanish.
5. 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).
6. 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).
7. Master Spanish expressions, idioms, and expand the vocabulary.
8. Able to appreciate Spanish humor.
9. Able to hold a decent conversation, appreciate Spanish literature, catch the music lyrics, listen to the radio, and watch a Spanish movie without subtitles.
10. 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.

OK.  Forget about plan A and B.  I am running out of time.  Plan C is to semi-cheat (it is semi because I have actually worked for this).  When our teacher momentarily leaves the classroom tomorrow, I will quickly pull out my phone and hit this page.  Ah ha!  That will most likely help me with some of the exam questions.  I am done with the verb conjugation.  I am done with the long list of nouns and adjectives.  I got wind on what the written and oral questions are going to be (thank you PK and Monster!).  And if I have to spend the entire evening getting prepared for these questions, so be it!

80 words on either “what did you do yesterday” or “what have you done this week”.  Life is not fair.  At this very moment while I am still struggling with the preparation, Cynthia is already fast asleep.  She probably has not set the alarm clock for tomorrow morning.  As for me, I will get up early to continue with my study.

First question is “what did you do yesterday?”.  Well, I woke up, showered, had breakfast, and went to work.  I worked  in front of a computer.  I ate lunch alone, studied Spanish over Starbucks coffee, and then I met up with my friend Ken later in the afternoon over a cup of tea (real story … ha ha ha).  After which, I had dinner with my family at home, studied Spanish, and slept at 12 (which may still happen if I type faster now).

Me levanté a las siete menos cuarto de la mañana.  Me duché después yo desayuné los cereales y bebí un café con leche.  A las ocho salí a trabajar.

Trabajé en la oficina enfrente del ordenador.  A las doce, comí en “PoMo” solo.  Después fui a Starbucks, bebí un café y estudié español.

Ayer por la tarde, quedé mi amigo Ken.  Nosotros tomamos té con limon.  A las cinco, volví a mi oficina y trabaje un poco.  Después volví a mi casa, cené con mi familiar.  Luego estudié español y escuché la radio estación Europa FM.

A las doce por la noche, dormí.

I think I overdid a bit and have exceeded the 80 words requirement.  Next one – what have you done this week – I struggled to meet 80 words.  So what have I done this week?  I have studied Spanish everywhere I go, listened to Spanish radio channel, spent time in Facebook, and worked 5 days a week.  No movie, no shopping, no exercise, just study Spansih.

Esta semana, he estudiado español en mi casa y mi oficina.

He escuchado la radio estación Europa FM y he escrito en Facebook todos los días.  Pues, he trabajado cinco días esta semana.

He quedado mi amigo Ken y hemos tomado té con limon.

No he visto una película, no he ido de compras, no he hecho deporte, por que he estudiado español siempre esta semana.

Oral exam is the tricky one.  I probably won’t be able to catch what the teacher asks.  My best guess is that she will ask me what I can do (¿qué cosas sabes hacer?) and what my physical and non-physical attributes are.  Well, I guess I could say that I can cook, play guitar, sing, ride a bike, and speak Spanish (hmmm).  I think I am sort of tall, sort of thin, quite good looking (ha ha ha!), and have black hair.  Personality-wise, quite funny, a little bit weird, and very *ahem* intelligent.

Sé cocinar, sé jugar la guitarra, sé cantar, sé montar en bici, y sé hablar español.

Yo creo que soy bastante divertido, un poco raro, y muy inteligente.

Estoy alto, delgado y bastante guapo. Tengo el pelo moreno.

The last oral question could be: what are the places of interest in Singapore?  Right, what are the places of interest in Singapore?!  I hope before 1 pm tomorrow, I will figure that one out.