My Three Year Old Spanish Teacher!
I have always wanted to learn Spanish. I took it in 8th grade and I loved it. I studied from time to time. I did not get very far. Then my Son fell in Love with a girl from El Salvador. She spoke only Spanish. She had an almost three year old daughter who also spoke only Spanish. We were going to El Salvador for the wedding so I studied and studied and learned a lot of words with no idea how to put them into a coherent sentence.
We went to El Salvador for the Wedding and we basically did a lot of charades and my son interpreted. We got a driver who spoke English and he was wonderful. If you ever want to visit El Salvador contact me for his name and number.
My greatest accomplishment while we were there was that all of a sudden I could tell where one word ended and the next began when talking to someone in Spanish! Now that might not seem like a big accomplishment to you. However, to me it was.
Then we came home. I was no longer immersed in the language. Ten days was not enough. I think maybe two months would have been.
My daughter-in-law, Claudia, and my new granddaughter, Leslie, moved in with us. We didn’t want them to be alone in a new country where they did not speak the language while my son worked.
I was sure that they would help me learn more Spanish, I would become fluent. No, of course not! They learned English way too fast. In fact in a couple of weeks my Leslie was speaking Spanglish and another couple and she was a pro at English.
One day in my efforts to become fluent, I put together a sentence with my vocabulary of Spanish words. Leslie was with me in my bedroom and I said to her in perfect Spanish. (I hoped) Leslie, Pregunta su Mama si Ella quieres a ir a la tienda conmigo, Walmart. I was trying to say: Ask your momma if she want to go to the store with me, Walmart.
Leslie got a huge smile and shook her head yes and started to leave the bedroom and then she started laughing.
I said “Leslie are you laughing because I said it wrong?”
She said “Yes”.
Then hoping to improve my language ability I said, “How should I have said it?”
She put her little hand on her hip (that girl came with attitude) and smiled up at me and said “In English, you are not from Salvador!”
I am still learning to speak Spanish. Someday, I will be fluent!
I do not recommend a three year old Spanish teacher.
admin October 15, 2016 Just For Fun