Spanish lessons

The reader might justly enquire what is my motivacion for learning Spanish. The answer is two fold:-

(i) I have been travelling to Spain and intend to do so more often and feel disadvantaged by not knowing the language;

(ii) I want to see how difficult it is at my age to apply myself to learning a new language.

Initially I enrolled on a local adult learning class but decided I would learn quicker with one to one tuition. There would be different levels of application and appreciation in the class and for some it might be more a way of meeting people, a sort of secure lonely hearts club. Through the internet I engaged Claudia from Barcelona. I was pleased as I wanted to learn from a local.

I wondered where and how we would start. The answer is by building up a core knowledge of fundamentals like pronunciation, the alphabet, numbers, the definite and indefinite articles. In the second lesson we did verbs . The verb “to be’ is tricky as there are two different words: ser and estar, depending upon the meaning. ‘He is  in London’ and ‘He is  from London’ have two different verbs – esta and es.

Most difficult of all is pronunciation. The word for 5 is cinco, not too different from the French cinq or Italian cinque, but pronounced shinko.

My knowledge of French and Italian certainly helps as Spanish, like these too, is a Latin-based romantic language – however, Spanish is a stand alone tongue.

As to learning, I find I am reasonably receptive and Claudia is pleased with my progress.

She tends to speak quickly and absorbing everything in a one hour lesson is hard so, as well as doing my homework like a good boy, I have also to go over stuff.

 

Hasta la vista!