Learning Spanish

Ever since we made the decision to move to Peru, the necessity of learning Spanish has always been on our minds. While we had time here and there to learn some Spanish while we were in Texas, we never could devote a lot of our time and attention to it. Well, that's all changed now. I'm very grateful for what I have learned so far, but we need to grow so much more in the months to come.

I thought I would take a moment to tell those who are interested what we have found helpful in terms of resources. First and foremost (and most expensive) is the Rosetta Stone Spanish program for use on the computer. This program mimicks immersion, doesn't translate anything for you, and I have enjoyed it immensely. One resource that set us to speaking Spanish right away was a book that Heather found in her homeschool resources called Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish. This book makes learning Spanish enjoyable, and has lots of practice examples to help get the feel of the language.

One surprise find I came across while doing a search on Amazon for Spanish CDs. Behind the Wheel Spanish Vol. 1, Vol. 2 & Vol. 3 are all very useful to train your ear to hear Spanish as well as to practice speaking. You can listen to them while driving, excercising, showering, etc. The English speaker asks, for example, "How would you say, 'to eat', is Spanish?" And the Spanish speaker will repeat twice with an ample pause for you to repeat, "Comer. Comer." To my surprise, the Spanish speaker on Vol. 1 is actually a native Peruvian. What are the chances? as Calvin might say.

Of course, one must master verbs if one is going to communicate, no? There are multiple spanish verb books out there, but the one I like most and chose is called, simply, "Spanish Verb Workbook." The explanations are very simple and helpful. Plus there are lots of practice drills. Other books in the same genre that we have found useful are Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Spanish Grammer and Spanish Verb Tenses. And you simply must have The Big Red Book of Spanish Verbs which has 555 of the most common verbs fully conjugated for you.

And of course, no student of Spanish should be without their dictionaries. Our desktop dictionary is the Oxford Spanish Dictionary and the handy pokect guide we have is Random House Webster's Handy Spanish Dictionary.

As I tell folks here, "Yo puedo hablar español un poco, leer mas, pero no puedo eschucharlo muy bien." I don't know if I'm saying that correctly, but in my mind what I'm saying is, "I can speak a little Spanish, read more, but I cannot hear it very well." But the good thing is that many people here are understanding and patient and encouraging. Heather and I will start with our tutor our mission's San Agustin Language Institute, either next week or the following, depending on how quickly we can get our stuff out of the port and unpacked at our house.

At any rate, that's enough procrastinating. Back to studying Spanish. ¡Chau!