Second Language instruction issues

During our first session this morning, a grammatical question came up in response to an answer in one of the exercises. In that particular class, our instructor speaks no English. She tried several times to explain using examples in Spanish. Sometimes, however, it seemed the more she explained, the more confused we became. We all concluded that it might be best if we questioned one of the English speaking instructors.

This situation made me think about my own instruction in grammatical concepts. Typically I switch to first language to explain grammar. I try to incorporate as much language transfer as the concept will allow. This luxury of speaking the same first language as my students enables me to really ascertain comprehension. It would be interesting to assess how much is actually understood when the concepts are explained in target language only.

And now on to a cultural topic! Every morning on the bus ride to school, an elderly gentleman gets on the bus at the same stop. He carries the same blue bag and sits in the same seat. Of course, I too, sit in the same seat every day, and this morning he greeted me with "Buen día." I guess I'm becoming part of the routine. Dr. Lesman said today that in a few days things would begin to become routine for us. I think some of the girls might be experiencing some homesickness. She said we would begin to find comfort in the routine. And I think it was rather special that the man this morning was part of my routine.

Tonight, we are attending an English course at the university. The class is from 10:00 until 11:30pm. It's a rather late hour. Eliana, our student liaison from UCEL, is the instructor. She said that most of the students in the class work full-time jobs, and that late session is the only one they can schedule. It should be very interesting. I’ll write more on that later.

Hasta pronto!

Our third day in Rosario

I think everyone is beginning to settle into a routine. Friendships are beginning to form and the group of students in the program is beginning to form our own little community.

Today we found out that there will be a final exam the last day of the program. I sensed a bit of panic on the part of the students. During lunch the exams were a big topic of conversation. Everyone seems to be doing homework and practicing, so I think we will all be just fine.

Today was our bus tour of the city. It was such fun. We stopped first at the flag memorial. The memorial to the Melvinas was described in great detail. The Argentines suffered a great deal with the loss of the Falkland islands. We stopped at the suspension bridge from Rosario to Victoria. The view was wonderful.

We received today our itinerary for the trip to Buenos Aires and I think everyone is excited to go. We will also visit a ranch, see a tango show and a gaucho show!
More excitement to come! Hasta luego :)

Beginning to fit in!

Today when I walked into the classroom for our first session, I heard only Spanish being spoken, and there was no teacher. My classmates had taken to heart the urging to speak Spanish. Although not all of it was Spanish, it was a grand attempt. We created a lovely combination of English and Spanish until the teacher arrived. But bravo for us!

This morning we met our third of four teachers, Mariana, and we enthusiastically discussed housing and "Hogar, Dulce Hogar"-home sweet home. We did the ultimate painful language acquisition activity of listening execises!!! I know why my students cringe at this activity. It takes a moment or two to acclimate oneself to the accents of the speaker, and by that time the listening segment is over! Together, however, we were able to make sense of what we were hearing and actually completed a few listening exercises today.

During the break, I noticed that even the students in the beginning class were speaking more Spanish outside of the classroom. It appeared that they were much more comfortable today. Everyone seems to be pulling together to help team members, in terms of comprehension and what to say in various situations.

Number four teacher for our class was Tiziana. She is the academic director of our program here at UCEL. We discussed slang for a bit and language usage, especially vocabulary, in other Spanish speaking countries. It appears that Tiziana is more of a linguist than the other teachers. Her teaching style is somewhat more laid back, which made the afternoon session a bit tough. It was tough keeping the old eyelids open after around 12:15.

For lunch today we were treated to a meal at the restaurant next door to the university. While some balked at the idea of having the meal together as a group, I think it helped everyone to continue to share about experiences. I am seeing a cohesive team of U.S. students building, and we are helping each other with language and cultural adjustments. We were joined for dessert by the director of the program, Dr. Fanny Gotfried. She continued to make everyone feel welcome and quite at home.

After lunch we did a short walking tour to the shopping area of the city. There is a pedestrian shopping area much like those in European cities here as well. We "chicas Argentinas" spent a few hours strolling through stores, buying gifts for family back home and enjoying each other's company. My favorite stop was at the grocery store. The brains and intestines in the meat department were of particular interest.

Once again, it's time for homework and dinner. Hasta manana!

Day one in Classes

Today we began the real immersion experience. We started promptly at 8:30 in the morning with four hours of Spanish classes. We had one thirty minute break and finished at 1:00 in the afternoon. The classes really helped in terms of understanding, structure and grammar review. I think by 1:00 most of us in the class felt much more confident in our abilities to communicate in the Spanish language.

After lunch in a local restaurant, we spent the afternoon discussing cultural topics; differences in daily schedules and attitudes about schedules, differences in culinary and gastronomic cultures, a bit about history of the local area and how to survive in the city of Rosario. We finished just a bit after 5:00 this afternoon. It was quite a full day.

Some of my general impressions were that "overwhelmed" seemed to describe how almost the entire group was feeling this morning. Struggling to understand and a bit stressed at how little English was spoken here. I was also impressed with the quality of instruction. We had a different teacher for each two hour session. I questioned one of the directors about this procedure and she confirmed my belief. The different instructors allow for different pronunciations, different teaching styles and different means of communicating what is important. Rather than spending fifty hours of instruction with the same teacher, we will have a variety of four different teachers. I was also pleased that the classes are so small. We are six in each of the two levels, beginner and advanced.

I am also concerned that safety in terms of theft is continually discussed. My host sister commented on what I should and should not carry with me, when I should and should not travel alone. All of what she told me was reiterated by each and every person who spoke with us today. Even the native students said that Rosario is a beautiful city, but you must always be cautious.

Well, I'm off to do my homework. I have a distinct feeling we will have homework every night.

A walking tour around Rosario

Today after a slow start, Nani and I headed out for a walking tour of Rosario. Her apartment really is located in a nice area of the city. We walked in a park along the waterfront to the Monumento Bandera. The monument houses the tomb of Manuel Belgrano who designed and created the first Argentinian flag. The massive monument also houses the Argentine tomb of the unknown soldier.

We strolled through an outdoor crafts market and walked past the old Aduana building. Rosario is a port city and the old customs house was very similar to the one in Buenos Aires. We crossed through the city and ended up on the opposite side of the Bandera Monument near the Cathedral of Rosario. The Cathedral was constructed at the end of the 19th century and is across from Rosario's Plaza de Mayo.

After a walk around a local park, we returned to the apartment for an afternoon tea and chat. Classes start tomorrow, so I need to review some of my more advanced Spanish grammar. Hopefully, I won't forget my French!

Arrival in Rosario

This morning, after much confusion with the Manuel Tienda Leon bus service, I was finally issued my ticket to Rosario at 10:30, the exact time of departure! It was a group reservation for seven people, only the other six never showed up. So the manager was hesitant to release a ticket to me because the reservation wasn't under my name! I guess I looked pitiful enough that at the last minute my ticket was handed over to me.

Departure was a bit difficult. Tim's flight wasn't due to depart unitl this evening, but he wanted to make sure I got on the bus and that he watched it drive off. This separation of three weeks will be our longest time away from each other since our Navy days.

I was the only non-Spanish fluent person on the bus. So announcements came at light speed! I just listened for my name and UCEL (my destination). There was a bus "flight attendant" if you will, who checked us all in and asked about luggage and final stop. Fortunately for her broken English and my rough Spanish, I was able to understand what was going on. She distributed coffee, water and snack cakes to everyone onboard. Either the road conditions weren't so great or the shocks on the bus were in servere need of replacement, but it was a bumpy ride to Rosario.

We pulled out of the airport arrival area around 10:50. I was delivered to the front door of the University at 2:50. Once we arrived within the city limits of Rosario (there had been three previous stops) those remaining on the bus were moved to a mini bus. Each of the three people who got off before I did was dropped off directly at his or her destination. Door to door bus service!

At the university, I was warmly greeted by my host mother/sister, Nani. There isn't a great age difference between the two of us, so we decided on the host sister relationship! We then hailed a taxi for about a 20 block ride to her apartment, which is quite nice! There is a view of the river from her balcony and I have my own room. I haven't slept on a twin bed in quite some time, but it's my room nonetheless.

Nani shared with me about her family and her life, and I reciprocated in broken Spanish about mine. She was off to mass at around 5:45, so I took a much needed nap. When she returned we talked a bit about the city of Rosario and she gave me a stack of tour books about city-tonight's reading as I am certain the quiz is tomorrow!

For dinner we had a lentil and pork soup that Nani made. It was very good, and frutas for dessert.

So, my adventure in immersion study is off and running!

Day two in Buenos Aires

This morning we slept in a bit late and then had a wonderful buffet breakfast at the hotel. At breakfast, we mapped out our itinerary for the day: Recoleta Cemetery, National Congress and the Caminito area in La Boca.

We took the subway from the Catedral to the Pueyrredon stop. Once we oriented ourselves on the street level, we walked about fourteen blocks to the walled cemetery. More of the bicentennial restoration work was going on, so I thought for a moment the cemetery might also be closed. Fortunately we found one small entry way. We purchased our cemetery map for six pesos and were off.

The first thing that surprised me was that this was like no other cemetery I had been in. There was no grass and no tombstones. Massive family vaults laid out in what appeared to be streets greeted us. The architecture on some of the vaults was amazing, as was the sculpture and stained glass. We meandered through the streets gazing at the final resting places of almost five thousand people.

Looking into the vaults, you could see literally many levels of caskets and wooden boxes for cremated remains. The vaults were marked by family names and very few indidivdual names or dates were written. Finally we found the tomb that we had come to see-the tomb of Eva Duarte de Peron. While the family vault was beautiful, it did not have the majestic presence that I had been expecting. Those vaults we found at the opposite side of the cemetery. Some of those vaults were of great military and political leaders.

After our visit to the cemetery, we stopped for an ice cream. My dulce de leche was wonderful! We sat in a park and watched the many dogs in the area running and playing. Then we were off on a hike across town to the National Congress. About midway we stopped in a park and watched some more dogs. These dogs were being walked or exercised by what appeared to be a paid person. They were walking in little herds and we saw similar herds all through the city. Dog walking must be a lucrative business in Buenos Aires.

The National Congress building strikingly resembled the Capital building in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, we could not tour the building and that was a bit of a disappointment. The guidebook specifically mentioned the beauty of the Blue Hall located under the dome. So we sat in the park facing the Congress building. There was a beautiful fountain in that park that reminded me of the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Afer a brief respite, we hailed a taxi to take us to the Caminito area in the La Boca district.

Our cabbie was quite a friendly fellow and conversed with us in Spanish. He told us about the excitement in the city because of the bicentennial celebration. Tim asked him if the warm weather was normal for this time of year and he said that global warming might have made it a bit warmer, but it was pretty much typical for this time of year.

In the Caminito area, we strolled through the streets looking at the crafts in the many booths set up by local artisans. We made a few purchases; a painting, a small paper mache sculpture and an inlaid wooden box. We watched some of the tango demonstrations and listened to local musicians. The brightly painted houses and shops with their whimsical statues were amusing and interesting to look at.

We finally stopped for a light dinner at one of the outdoor cafes. We ordered empanadas and an Argentine beer called Quilmes. The empanadas were very tasty as was the beer. We ordered the empanadas with cheese, ham and cheese, corn and chicken. The fillings were fried in a tart like pastry. Very yummy!

As we watched the tango performance, little did we know that we, too, would soon be part of the show. Tim was pulled up on the stage by the female dancer. They danced a bit, and he did his best to tango with her. I enjoyed his being the victim until my turn came along! The male dancer enticed me onto the stage by telling me it would only be for a picture. He claimed I had been the one taking pictures of Tim, so now it was my turn to have a picture taken. Of course, that was only part of my performance. I didn't quite manage the feats of the female dancer. Lifting my knee up for a photo pose was a bit more of a challenge. My guess is that she was no where near 50 in age!

After our dinner and tango experience we strolled through the streets a bit more and then caught a cab back to the Plaza de Mayo. We sat and looked at the Casa Rosada and the square and reminisced about the day. Then we were off to the hotel to make arrangements for our departure on Saturday-Tim's back to the U.S. and mine to Rosario.