I desperately want to improve my Spanish because it would make life in Honduras so much easier, but my problem is I do not want to have to put forth any effort to learn the language because I already have a ton on my plate with school, so add "learning a new language" into the mix and I am left with a massive headache. Apparently this isn't enough to stop me though because I am signed up for tutoring once again and hopefully will make use of it this time instead of skipping out on lessons halfway though the year when I become too frustrated.
Today was hilarious. After the tutor realized I was basically clueless when it came to Spanish, she decided she needed to start at the ground-floor and work up. She put a pen in my hand and told me to dictate the words to she was saying to test my ability to pick up the different sounds in Spanish. After getting all of the words she spoke correct, she decided I was ready to try a phrase. She spoke, I wrote.
When she had finished reciting her phrase she looked at my paper and in Spanish said, "We have a BIG problem. You don't know any grammar."
I realized I had not bothered to capitalize the first word or put a period at the end. The result of this oversight was that we spent the rest of our time together leaning how to capitalize a sentence and use appropriate punctuation. I tried, but failed, to communicate with her that these rules are the same in English, I just hadn't realized she would be upset if I didn't do it for this particular exercise. Her next question: "What do you teach at IST?" My answer: English. Her eyes got wide and her jaw dropped and I think she said a little prayer for the 9th grade students at IST who are leaning English from a teacher who obviously knows nothing about grammar.
Someday I will get this stuff down I hope, but until then I'm sure there will be plenty more awkwardly fantastic tutoring sessions to come!
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