So I did a ten week course, once a week two hours from April to July in very basic Spanish, and as I thought remembered nothing from GSCEs… I had then intended to do some homework revision everyday till I embarked on this trip; of course I did nothing. I got off the plane and could hardly remember to say what my name was. A lot of people had warned me of the differences in the accent here in Argentina, but I think I slightly underestimated it! And it’s not just an accent change, it’s totally different pronunciation of some letters, some different verb conjugations and a lot of different words used from Español España. That all said my biggest problem was I could not speak much Spanish full stop!

On my first evening here to get myself out of the B&B room I went to a “Spanglish” event in a bar. It’s something run four times a week here, and is somewhere for Spanish speakers want to learn/practice English, and vice-versa. The format is a like speed dating, in that you change tables every ten minutes, and half way through the ten minutes you switch from speaking to the other language. This first night I went I could hardly say anything in Spanish, but I met some nice people and got out of the hotel room. The next day I went to a different bar for the same event and somehow I managed to speak quite a bit more Spanish this time, and met some really nice people. I’ve since been about six times and each time I can hold much more of a conversation. Of course this is in part because I have been in Spanish school for 4 weeks now!……

So my Spanish language school experience:

I found a school just searching on the internet, and in general I was pretty pleased with the school. It was quite large, and right in the centre of the city downtown area. My first week I had a really fun class, mix of Oz, Belge, Swiss, English (6 of us in total) and two really fun teachers. And I really a enjoyed myself, all though I knew that I was way behind on my verbs compared to there rest of the class. The problem was that in class we are all stringing some sort of sentences together, but then as soon as we went for lunch none of us could say anything! At the end of the first week, one of my teachers suggested I step down a class, as the class would be moving onto past tense and I really a needed to revisit my basic verbs and tenses! So the following week I was in a class of 8, mix of Brazilian, German, Swiss and American. This time I just didn’t bond with my teacher, I think I irritated her. We did far less talking in this class, and It was much less fun. I’ve realised that I need to have fun to learn, which is why Spanglish has been a good forum for me to practice. I also had a couple of private lessons, which meant six hours a day. I know this does not sound much considering for thirteen years I worked ten hours a day, but learning a language is exhausting!! The private lessons were good, and I had a really nice teacher. At the end of the second week we had a mini test in the group class, and I did terribly. I think it always helps to read the instructions!! Anyway I think I was bit tired, really frustrated…left the class and then when the teacher asked me what was wrong I cried… Slightly embarrassing to say the least!! I walked three miles home, had a beer and felt better. The third week I only had two hours private on two days, and I had an easy week.

This week I started at a different school which I can walk to in fifteen minutes. It came recommended by one of the guys who was living in my apartment when I first moved in. He was from Norway, and had done three weeks intensive in this school and spoke really highly of it and he had learnt ALOT!

I’m really glad I’ve made the change. The school is much smaller, and I have been in a class this week with two Dutch girls. We have one teacher for the first two hours and another for the second two hours. The classes have flown by, the teachers are great as are my classmates. I feel like I’ve made some progress!!

The other Spanish lessons I’m really benefiting from is my taxi journeys! Most things here are not cheap, pretty much the same price or in some cases more expensive. Inflation is rising and rising. But the one thing that is cheap is taxis! So at night I take taxis everywhere…and I’ve found it an excellent way to practice Spanish! Partly helped with the confidence of a couple of glasses of wine on my way home, and I’ve been really lucky with some very nice chatty drivers…(of course there are some grumpy silent ones to!) . The other night I had three really nice drivers and had some sort of converstation with all of them…it’s a very very satisfying feeling that I’m finally communicating! The more I can learn in the next couple of weeks the more I’m gong to enjoy the whole year!