. . . isn’t nearly enough when it comes to a foreign language.
My first attempts at learning Spanish were by correspondence. I had no trouble understanding the lessons but instead of doing a little each day I tended to do a fortnight’s work at a single sitting and then forgot everything I’d taken in by the next time I went back to it.
Studying at Otago University was more successful but learning the theory gives you skills in the opposite way from which you acquire them by total immersion. If you learn a language by living it you learn as children do, to understand what you hear first, then to speak and later to read and write. Learning it formally, reading and writing usually come first then speaking and finally listening comprehension follows.
Three months total immersion at language school in Spain did more for my language skills than three years at university could have, but that was four years ago. Teaching night classes has helped me retain the basics but I’m very rusty with anything more advanced.
That’s one of the reasons we’re back in Vejer de la Frontera where I’m spending mornings at La Janda language school.
It attracts students from all over the world and while we learn the language we also learn about the Spanish culture and a little about the countries and cultures of our fellow students.
Es una experiencia muy especial, y día por día, poco por poco, estoy aprendiendo más. (It’s a special experience and day by day, little by little I’m learning more).
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