Mission: Urban

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Before coming to language school I got several questions as to what a normal day would look like for a missionary.  It’s a good question, but at times very hard to answer.  While in language school its pretty cut and dry, we go to school, study, eat, study, sleep, study in your sleep, try to [...]

Life right now is one wicked roller coaster for me.  There are good days and then there are bad days.  It seems to me that there are more bad than good for me right now.  Let me define what I mean by ‘good’ and ‘bad’:

Bad = I go through out the day and fall asleep [...]

So far in my language learning experience it utterly amazes me that the sounds that come out of my mouth actually make sense to people. At times what comes out of my mouth seems like gibberish to me yet people understand what I’m saying! These sounds carry so much meaning, yet they are [...]

So I was out on my language learning route, talking with a lady in a bookstore.  The topic was La Comida de Ticos (Costa Rican Food).  We were in the middle of her describing all different kinds of foods.  I was tracking most of the conversation but my comprehension is slow right now, so its [...]

The other night, as I was diligently working on my conversation homework, a Tico came by to hang out with Rich. He’s part of Rich’s FARO route. They had prearranged to meet on Tuesday nights at our house. When Gustavo arrived, I talked with him for a few minutes, but quickly [...]

What is the head bob…it is the unconscious, and sometimes conscious, slight nod of the head while listening to people on the street speak to you.  And I’m perfecting it!  The program I’m in right now (see my previous post) has you memorize a paragraph of text, written by a native speaker, and recorded by [...]

I often compare my Spanish language learning to Emerson’s English language learning. Mixing up pronouns, using wrong verb tenses, and trying out new words. Understanding far more than we can communicate. And sometimes nodding our heads, pretending to understand far more than we actually understand. Yep, we’re in the same language [...]

Today was the first day of classes for my second trimester of language school.  Our schedule this time around is a bit different than last trimester.  Tara and I both are doing something different (I’m sure she’ll tell you all about what she’s doing).
Last Tri we started out at 7:30am with 2 hours of Grammar.  [...]