Plan #2 Learning Spanish

Spanish has always been my Kryptonite. In high school, I took 4 years and the only year I managed to get an A in Spanish (my junior year) I finished 2nd in the class that particular year. The other 3 years I barely carried a B and I imagine I could have at least made the valedictorian race a little more interesting without it. Oh well.

Fast forward to college. In college I received one grade that wasn't an A. One. It was a C+ in Spanish Conversation.

Of course back then I had a horrible attitude about learning Spanish. It was something I just wasn't interested in doing. For some reason, in my junior year of high school, I really tried and did fairly well. Of course school let out for the summer and I didn't even think of Spanish for 3 months. Then when I got back, senioritis set in. In college, I just needed to fill requirements.

So why now? Why learn Spanish? Well I think it would be cool to be fluent in a second language. Additionally, if I ever travel to a Spanish speaking country I would like to be able to communicate. Finally, at this point in my life I think Spanish is the way to go if I want to try and learn a new language because I at least have some basis in the language. In fact, the more I am practicing the more it is coming back to me.

Since I've started this list I've been using the Coffee Break Spanish podcast as my tutor. Mark and Kara are excellent teachers and the first 10 podcasts I've downloaded have been a great refresher. Additionally, I've been listening to the Inspired Beginners podcast. These guys go a bit faster than Mark and Kara and focus mainly on conversation, which I find invaluable. If you give me a story in Spanish I can usually piece it together. However, I really fall apart in spoken conversation because the speakers go too fast for me.

So I've got my podcasts and I bought an old Spanish Stories for Beginners book from a used book store. Nothing has been quite as exhilirating as being able to understand the story you just read in another language.

My plan is to continue to go through the podcasts (there are 50 lessons to get through on one and 20 on the other). I'm also going to read my book and hopefully engage some people in conversation. I guess I should also practice... so here we go...

Hola! Que tal? Soy muy bien. Mañana voy a ir el cine porque quiero mirar Cloverfield. Desafortunadamente tengo que trabajar mucho mañana. Trabajo en mi casa. Me gusta mi trabajo porque tengo tiempo libre mucho. En mi tiempo libre me gusta leer y me encanta leer libros cómicos. Me gusta aprender espanol!

Or something like that!