Mission: Urban » school http://www.missionurban.org/blog Team: La Plata Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:29:35 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 The head bob http://www.missionurban.org/blog/2008/05/14/the-head-bob/ http://www.missionurban.org/blog/2008/05/14/the-head-bob/#comments Thu, 15 May 2008 04:06:07 +0000 Brian http://www.missionurban.org/blog/?p=42 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 the native speaker so I can practice getting the phonetics correct as well, then using that with people on my langugae learning route.  Apparently, the people on my route, after hearing me say my text and then ask them the questions, think that I can actually communicate well….so, off they go!  Enter the deer in the headlights look, then the quick realization that I’m a deer, which begins the head bob.  The first break in breath I try to cut in to say “Más despacio, por favor” (Slower, please).  Which causes them to slow down, ohhh, let’s say…not one bit (LOL).  By now they are sentences and sometimes paragraphs into their thoughts.  Most of the time I can get the general gist of what they they are saying, but not anything specific.  Then when the inflection of their voice changes to alert me that they are asking me a question, enter again deer in headlights…with about 15 seconds of awkward silence, when I ask them to repeat the question.  My mind needs time to go back and replay the words that came flying at me.  Most of the time after clarification and explanation of unfamiliar words or phrases, I can give some sort of satisfactory response to them.  But there is this one guy that can’t understand one iota, even when I try to ask for clarification and to slow down, I still can’t understand him…whew, it’s hard work!  I don’t know if he’s mumbling or if it’s my ears that are mumbling! So back to the head bob, the main point, right now at least, is for them to talk and me to listen.  Which I need a lot of.

So, my language learning route consists of going to a commercial area and speaking to the workers in the stores.  I go to 2 shoe stores, 2 men’s clothing stores, 2 electronics stores, the national theater, an art gallery, a book store, and a cafe.  Today was my first official time out on the route, it was fun, hard, and demanding.  This is gonna be a good trimester.

]]> http://www.missionurban.org/blog/2008/05/14/the-head-bob/feed/ 1 A good change http://www.missionurban.org/blog/2008/05/13/a-good-change/ http://www.missionurban.org/blog/2008/05/13/a-good-change/#comments Wed, 14 May 2008 02:54:27 +0000 Tara http://www.missionurban.org/blog/?p=41 Last week began our second trimester of studying Spanish. Our family needed a change. The last few months have been really tough. For those who may not have known, we were at school from 7:30 until 12:10 each day. All three boys were in childcare(I previously stayed home with them) and Brian and I were in classes. We’d come home, eat lunch, the boys would take naps and then we’d have about an hour or maybe two to play. Usually they were really cranky and we were exhausted and short tempered. We’d do dinner and baths and then bedtime. It was exhausting for all of us. We went through some culture shock, not necessarily culture shock of the Tico community, but culture shock from our schedule. I wasn’t used to getting up at 5:30 each day and studying each day on top of taking care of my family. It was seriously grueling for all of us. But there’s been a really, really good change this trimester. I am staying home in the morning (one of my greatest values is caring for my kids). I go to school in the afternoon for one hour a day meeting one-on-on with a teacher. Now I have more energy to work on conversing with Ticos. Previously, it was difficult to have conversations with Ticos because our kid’s would be extremely needy and cranky in public. It’s difficult enough to hold a crying child and have a conversation in English…..it was absolutely impossible to do this in Spanish. In the morning, the boys and I have been going to a park a few blocks away. My hope is to meet Tica moms and practice conversing with them. Most people are so patient….that’s just wonderful. Today I met a lady who’s husband is a student at the Institute. She is Venezuelan, she obviously speaks Spanish and also speaks English. She told me today she would practice with me. She goes to the park with her daughter most days of the week. She’s perfect to practice with. She’s understanding and speaks slowly, but corrects me. Plus, she introduced me to Tica moms at the park. Through her I will be able to meet other moms, but then ask questions to her if I don’t understand the Spanish and learn how to say it. I still have a constant undercurrent of stress, but since class began last week it’s dropped many degrees. It’s been great to play with the boys and enjoy them. I am so excited to have energy to practice and study Spanish. This is a good change…..really, really good.

]]> http://www.missionurban.org/blog/2008/05/13/a-good-change/feed/ 4 FARO http://www.missionurban.org/blog/2008/05/07/faro/ http://www.missionurban.org/blog/2008/05/07/faro/#comments Wed, 07 May 2008 19:47:45 +0000 Brian http://www.missionurban.org/blog/?p=36 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.  Then at 9:20 we had a language class where we talked (or tried to talk).  At 10:10 we had Chaple/Break and then at 11:15 we had a Phonetics class.  During the morning the boys would be in childcare, we’d get them at about 12:15, go home, eat lunch, then they would nap and we’d study or rest.

This Tri I’m doing a special program through the school called FARO.  Thats an acronym that stands for Facilitador (Facilitator),  Ayudante (Helper), Ruta (Route), Oír (Hear)/ Observar (Observe)/ Organizar (Organize).  I have a teacher at the school who will be facilitating my learning and keeping track of my progress.   I will meet 2 times a week with a helper in the community.   This person needs to be native speaker. He will help me formulate a conversation that I will have with people on my route.  We’ll write down 2 paragraphs per week, I’ll record him reading them,then  memorize them.  I will then use that to begin conversations with the people on my route.  My helper is my next door neighbor, Guillermo.  He is a lawyer and a very nice person.  I’m looking forward to getting to now him better.  My route will consist of 7-10 people who agree to talk with me 2 times a week for about 10-20 minutes.  I will then report on what I learn from these conversation by both hearing the language and observing the culture.  There are also some other projects I need to do as part of the program, but I won’t get into that now.

So my schedule as I see it right now (Tara and I still need to feel things out, Tara’s will be much different than mine) will look like this.  7:30am 2 hours of Grammar.  Monday/Friday 9:20am Meet with my Faro group and Facilitator 11:00 – 1:30 on my route/study.  Tues/Wed/Thur 9:30-1:30 on my route.

I meet with my neighbor for the first time tonight, hopefully all goes well!

I’m exciting about this next tri and getting deep into the language.

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