For the last two weeks I have been taking intensive Spanish classes at the Nueva Lengua school in Bogotá. It has been a pretty intense, fun, and exhausting (and is the reason why I haven’t written much lately). It started on a cloudy Monday morning, Laura escorted me because I was unsure about my ability to make it to the school on the transmilenio (rapid bus transit system in Bogotá). We both felt like she was my mother dropping me off for my first day of school! (Just for the record, I only necessitated this treatment the first day, after that I was able to get to school alone…boy did I grow up fast!)
Upon arrival, the Spanish started, there was no more English… I was a little worried. Since deciding to come to Bogotá, I have been using Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish, but I hadn’t learned enough to feel comfortable when people spoke Spanish to me, unless of course I could respond in English or French (which is never really an option, very few people who are not French speak French better than they speak English). So off I went to take my placement test, giving Laura a timid wave goodbye.
The teacher encouraged me not to guess and only answer the questions I knew. This prompted me to consider the definition of guessing… I would answer the questions I knew, but I didn’t really know how or why I knew the answer…I just did. I could see what was in the past tense, and using my knowledge of French grammar, knocked out the test. Apparently I did well, I was in an intermediate class full of students who had been taking Spanish intensively, at this school, for a few months and some people who had taken a few years in college.
Class started, I was so intimidated, I had never taken a Spanish class before and all the other students were talking…in Spanish. But then I started to realize that I actually understood what was going on and what people were saying! Hey maybe I should be in this level! I had class with people from France, Switzerland, and the states- which was great for me, whenever I was unsure about a Spanish word, I could say either an English or a French word in a Spanish accent and someone would understand me!
I struggled through lots of grammar exercises. After the first week, we had a test on the past tense. My teacher wanted to talk to me after the test… she said she was surprised because I have a good understanding of which tense to use (which is usually the hardest part for students) but I didn’t know how to conjugate verbs…especially irregular verbs (which, for the record, I hate and just want them to become regular for me!). So I’m lacking a few of the basics, but I decided to stay at this level.
By the end of the second week, I was able to give a presentation about micro-breweries in Spanish…pretty cool. I am surprised by how much I learned and how much I can understand around me… if people talk slow and enunciate! The school is a great place to meet people and learn about Colombia. I met a bunch of great people who have given us great advice about living here and getting jobs (which Laura has done!)
The school also offers cultural activities all over Bogotá. I did not participate in most, but one really cool thing that I was able to do was go to a salt mine north of Bogotá. After classes one day the school took us (Laura, me, and 5 other students) to the village of Nemocón where a cool salt mine is located. We had a tour of the mine (which I could understand maybe half of…), and wandered around in amazement. The mine has huge salt deposits that grow about a centimeter a year (yup I understood that part of the tour!), a chapel, and lots of fun information on Colombia’s history. My favorite part was the salty water pools that have perfect reflections of the cavernous walls. It created an optical illusion that made the pools look like canyons in the ground. After wandering around the mine, and enduring a long photo shoot in the never-ending quest to take a good picture of me and Laura, (we have problems: in our 6 year-long friendship we might have 7 good pictures), we walked around the colorful town of Nemocón.
Overall Spanish school was a great experience, but I am glad to have a break from waking up at 6, long hours of classes, and homework!
Here is a slide show from the mine and the town of Nemocón. There were lots of blue lights in the mine and the pictures that kind of look like snow are really just salt!
Zut! Alors! Kahtay! 