Mission: Urban

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I’ve been AWOL on the blog for awhile now, for no other reason than just forgetting or not mustering up enough energy when I would remember.  So, an update:
The 3rd trimester of language school began at the beginning of September, and it began on a rough note for me.  Basically, I’ve had a rough time [...]

In this segment we meet my last language helper, Emilia, and head home.  Tara usually gets home about 2:30 from class, I try to get home about that time to give her a couple hours of study time without the kids bothering her. (in the video i said 2:00, but I meant 2:30).  You also [...]

I hope you have been enjoying the trip.  Today we visit the coffee shop I study at and we’ll meet 2 people there that I talk with on a regular basis.  Carlos is becoming a friend.  We’ve been planning on getting our familes together for dinner, but it just hasn’t happened yet.  He’s also a [...]

In this segment we go to the ‘hole-in-the-wall’ that I eat at.  Tony is the name of the guy that runs it.  Great food for a great price, you can’t ask for much more than that!
When I began my language learning route downtown I wanted to find a place like this where I could eat [...]

In this segment we meet a few more of my language helpers.   Tomorrow, you go with me to lunch to a delicious ‘hole-in-the-wall’ Costa Rican “Soda”.

In this segment I go out on a limb.  I recorded part of a conversation that I had with Andrés.  It’s an example of what one of my conversations looks like on my route.  In preparation for each of day of my route I work with a language helper (my neighbor), putting together a text [...]

In this segment we get downtown and visit 2 of my language helpers, José y Andrés.  For continuity sake I recorded before, after, and during each of my stops.  Just so you know, I was holding a small video recorder down at waist level trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.  The segment after talking [...]

Is is so refreshing when one of these pops into the week.  It’s probably been one of the best days I’ve had in this country.  I talked to five different people today….all in spanish,  the length in time ranged from a half hour to 2 hours.  Right now I am not exhausted and I haven’t [...]

Learning another language is so difficult, but to put it into perspective it isn’t nearly as difficult as teaching 34 hormone raging inner-city kids. But nevertheless, it is difficult. I have good days and I have bad days. Good days include me actually communicating (stumbling and bumbling word order and verb conjugation) [...]