Hablo Español

Panic not - no more shootings or muggings (that I know of anyway!)

I've been thinking about Spanish today. Well actually I've been thinking IN Spanish! I am still amazed at the fact I have become bilingual (more or less, still lots to learn!) I find myself in a meeting or chatting with friends and actually stop and take in the fact that it's not in English. You'd think I'd be over that by now! Today I was daydreaming and thinking away to myself, when I suddenly realised I was thinking to myself in Spanish!! That snuck up on me, but proves my Spanish has improved 100 fold. I then got to thinking about the last few years here. Last year I lived with Amanda and I guess that in reality we only spent about 25% of our time speaking Spanish and 75% English (however much we thought at the time that we were speaking loads of Spanish!) But in reality, we lived together so spoke English at home, spoke English at work, which left Spanish for Youth Group and church and for friends that came round. Maybe 30%

Now, however, I live by myself and so have noone to talk English to when I get home (and really my English grammar has gone to pot!) and so I would say that things have reversed. I now spend 75% of my time in Spanish and only 25% in English. I speak Spanish at work, and although I teach the kids English I have to translate what I tell them into Spanish half the time, I speak Spanish with my friends and at church etc. Even my biligual friends speak Spanish to me.

I haven't had Spanish classes since Easter (abuot 8 months ago) and so I have picked everything up from speaking it and from reading the subtitles on the TV!! If I'd had classes maybe I'd be much better, but I think I'm more of a practical learner than a classroom learner so maybe not. I'm not saying my Spanish is great - I've huge amounts to learn and still make huge mistakes. But it's definitely improved amazingly in the last 4 months. Not sure what I'll do when I'm in England - I don't want to forget it all!!

If my high school language teachers could hear me now!!