Hablo Español...an update

Before I came back to Chicago this summer, I felt that my Spanish was starting to pick up pace. But then I totally regressed after six weeks in the US. I felt that I had to start all over again when I got back here, but I was able to remember things much faster.

Today, I noticed a bit of an improvement with my Spanish. First, I took the elevator with a neighbor - a very sweet old lady who I've encountered before - and we ended up talking a little. She first commented on my footwear. She was shocked I was wearing flip flops, so I had to explain to her that where I am from, the weather is much colder than here. Then she decided to chat with me about the ridiculous tormenta, or storm, we had a month ago that left huge water stains on our ceilings. The storm was so strong (well, strong for Madrid) that water leaked through the ceiling. We realized that neither of our apartments have been fixed.

Then tonight, I was watching this show called Password. It's a game show that involves connecting words...perfect for vocabulary building. I noticed I recognized more words than usual. After Password, I watched Estas No Son Las Noticias, a Daily Show type of show. I actually understood a joke about Colin Powell's endorsement on Obama...because he's black (pa rum pum). Ok, it wasn't so funny, but I laughed because I actually understood it. Then I watched a show on amazing athletes and almost cried when they told the story of Rafael. He's paraplegic and trained for the Ironman. I've never seen anyone swim with just his arms before. I can barely do the doggy paddle and this guy was swimming a couple miles with just his arms!!! WTF!!!

The last time I blogged about my Spanish learning (in January), I could barely speak a word. I mentioned how my roommates and I planned on alternating weeks speaking English and Spanish. For the most part, we never really enforced it. We would try, but in the end spoke English to make things go faster. Since I've been back, we've been speaking more and more in Spanish. Well, I speak Spanglish, but they've been speaking English minimally to me.

I also mentioned intercambios which hasn't quite worked out for me yet but I'm going to try more. Guille is forcing me to speak more Spanish with him, and I'm trying to participate more in organized intercambios. I went to one last week that was pretty fun. The only problem with intercambios is that most of the Spanish people want to speak English only. I'm still trying to figure out how to make it fair for both parties.

Ademas, I've been trying to watch more TV or more movies in Spanish, even though I hate watching dubbed movies. Luckily we have cable and it allows us to put subtitles. So if they are speaking too fast, I can at least follow the Spanish subtitles. This summer, I tried to read my first Spanish book (a book of poetry) but I think I aimed too high...it was way too difficult for a beginner. With the suggestion of a co-teacher, I am reading a children's book. It is called Sopaboba. There is an expression that goes, comer sopaboba, which means to be a moocher/freeloader. I'm enjoying it so far.

Pues, estoy muy contenta ahora. Tengo que mejorar mas, pero...bueno, poco a poco, no?