Living Language Note: Over the next few months, our new friend Ari will learn Spanish and share her journey on the blog! When she’s not reading her Living Language books & playing games on her Living Language app, Ari is a Program Planner at Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research in Boston, Massachusetts. Make sure to leave a comment & say hello in the language you’re learning.
¡Feliz año nuevo!
The start of a new year brings a whole host of New Year’s resolutions and commitments for me, including the usual getting in shape, bettering myself and moving forward in my career, and of course, a renewed commitment to learning Spanish.
Although I’m still far from being able to speak with any true ease or facility, now that I’ve done a few more lessons, I feel like I’m really starting to learn how to put sentences and conversations together. I still find myself having to pause when speaking in order to remember which verb form I need to use, or whether something is masculine or feminine, but now that I’ve begun to conjugate some verbs again, like tener, memories of conjugation tables are beginning to dance in my head again. I remember chanting verb forms in high school along with my class, and although I found it annoying then, I find myself doing it again now to remind myself which conjugation I need to use when. It’s getting easier, but hopefully with a few more lessons, several more verbs, and some practice, it will become more like second nature.
Lessons two and three also brought the return of my old nemeses, the verbs ser and estar. This time around I am determined to master not only the annoyingly irregular conjugation of ser, but also a real fluency in which to be verb to use when. So far, so good, and I seem to be keeping the confusion at bay!
I’m excited that I am starting to build a vocabulary and gain some grammar knowledge that makes me feel like I am really speaking, rather than just reciting words. Hopefully 2013 will bring some real fluency!
