This is my new friend Maria. Well, she's really not a new friend. I've known her for several years. She's a parent at Matthew's preschool. The thing is...I never got to know her because she primarily spoke Spanish.Since then, she has taken many English classes and has learned a lot. I, on the other hand, have done nothing to learn Spanish. Still, we can now have brief and paced conversations in English.
One day I was chatting with her and we realized that it would be fun to get together to practice English and Spanish together. A language exchange. Interestingly enough, you can search for language exchange partners on craigslist.com.
Maria came over last week and we got started. We weren't sure what to do at first, but then eased into something that worked for us. Even though I had known her for a long time, I knew almost nothing about her. So, I started asking her questions in English. I would write them down and she would write out the same sentence in Spanish. Then the answer, in English and Spanish. We wrote down numbers above the words to help us see how it all connected. Before long, we had 5-6 sheets. I made copies for her to take home.
Now when I see Maria at the school she asks me simple questions in Spanish. I'm constantly making a fool of myself, but I'm trying. The other day I said "Buenos dias, Maria". She then reminded me that it was the afternoon. Oops. I corrected myself..."buenas tardes, Maria". Later I saw her cleaning up after the kids at lunch and she looked tired. I said, "cansado"? She smiled and said, "Si". I think she was happy for me to move past greetings.
My new favorite site...spanishdict.com! We get together again tomorrow. I'd better go study!!!
1 comment:
That is so great! What a cool idea. And a new friend to boot.
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