Molestar Does Not Mean- To Molest

Play Games and Talk to Yourself
Memorizing Vocab and Verb Tense Was About as Effective as Verbally Telling a Teenager A Due Date Once.

Anytime you can figure out how to incorporate action with new words, it makes long term absorption of the information a lot easier.
The next time you're playing a game with anyone, say the moves in Spanish. I've found that common, simple games are best like checkers or chess. Practice words like mover, doblar, diagonal, derecho, derecha, izquierda, espacio, lugar, perder, ganar etc. Scrabble in English doesn't work, Mom. Sorry.

It's really frustrating at first because all you want to do is speak in English, but after a few turns you get it.

From there, talk to yourself when you're driving. Anyone will think you've got Bluetooth, if they're the creepy type to stare at people in their cars. They bother me. Las personas me molestan?

Don't Go Around Saying Cowabunga Either

Learning the Characters of Class

I'm picking up on the speech patterns depending on their class. Pina is a very rich high class comedy character who adds an 's' or 'sh' to her terms of endearment. For example, "mi amors" and "hermosho". On the other end, there's the Lopez family who calls each other "carnal" and they use "chido" for the word cool. "No manches" is the running joke of the father character, Pancho Lopez.
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I am under strict orders to never use these words unless I want to sound either like I'm trying to hard or simply like an idiot. Saying "no manches" would be as if I went around and said "cowabunga" or "rad" to people. I'm more careful to figure out if words belong in the Urban dictionary or if it's not slang.






One last new thing for today is youtube. Looking up interviews from people on how they became fluent in Spanish as an adult when English is their first language. Once again, it's not really cheating, just looking up eveyone else's answers. Write down ideas and books that sound appealing to you and see if you can find used copies from Amazon.

Learning the Cheat Codes

After two hours of Una Familia Con Suerte, my attention span is
slipping. I can't understand a word of it. Now that I know that it's a comedy it makes sense as to why the facial expressions are quirky and there are odd sound effects like whipping sound every time the stupid "Bad Boy" opens his napkin. I know, really? But aside from that, I can't figure out the plot. So, I'm trying a trick.

Settings=>CC=>Spanish

I'm studying words that would typically come up in a telenovela. Words like Amor, Amante (Lover), Luchar(To Fight), Corazon, Culpa(To Blame), Lo Siento, Olvidar(To Forget), Mira, Mortir(To Die), Matar(To Kill), and I think llorar is to cry and oder is to hate.

I've always tried out memorization and reading on the side, but I can't hear the words for the life of me. Mainly because of the many, many ways that they could be conjugated and used in idioms. The Spanish subtitles are fixing that. It's a Feels-Like-Cheating thing but it's really not in the bigger picture. If the subtitles were in English, then it wouldn't be helping me in anyway.

I'm able to write down words that I see repeated but I don't know what they mean. I look them up and try watching the episode again until I can figure out with the new context clues what's going on.

Don't Tell Teenagers That You Feel Shit

So there's now a secret post-it that I keep on an inside panel of my left desk drawer. The majority of the list came from the movie Stand and Deliver. It's a classic TP movie (teacher porn; movies that excite teachers).
It's PG, but my sweet and innocent freshman tutor had a blast pointing out the inappropriate Spanish words.

I slipped up a few times whenever I would try to tell her that I was scared of embarrassing myself. Miedo and mierda are very close sounding when you're first learning the language. Maybe it was just me in the whole world who was going around saying "I feel shitty" or "I shit" over and over again. I was definitely embarrassing myself.

Why learn the Spanish curse words? High school teacher, remember? However, I finally realized that yes, if I memorized the terrible Spanish words and rude kids spoke them individually and slowly, then I'd catch them. But, then I'd question myself if I really did hear them. I'll have to become fluent before I could really catch kids being inappropriate in class. 

Ineffective Programs that Rhyme with Herietta Pone

Accountability is key when it comes to fluency. I'm a gamer to the extent that I enjoy games that provide instant gratification in the forms of positive reinforcement with added points, tracked progress and cool accessories like flying shoes or fire balls that you can spit.

Rosetta Stone costs hundreds of dollars. It also doesn't track your progress. It gives you a score when you test yourself on quizes but it doesn't compare the different tries you take. I just couldn't assign myself homework beyond a certain amount of time that I would spend with it. I took about two months seriously dedicating whole Saturdays to Rosetta Stone. No flying shoes or fire breath.  Luckily, I borrowed the set from another person who didn't use it to fluency.  No harm done though.

One quick lesson that I learned was that you Have To diversify how you're learning the language. You will get bored otherwise. Keep it new and interesting. There many things that I tried in the beginning. Things that worked, things that were stupid. Rosetta Stone was a stupid one.

Challenge Accepted

Day One-I'm watching a scrubby looking man driving an older woman in a food
truck. They keep flashing back to her trying to kill herself off of a
bridge. Then they're having a birthday meal outside with his family.
Why does he keep laughing like that? UGH, why does he keep making those faces? I
pick up gracias and cumpleanos then I give up for the day.

What the heck happened to two whole years of Spanish classes? Tengo un gato in mis
pantelones. That's what happened.

My "tutor" is a sweet freshman student who's entertained
with my progress. I tell her about my frustration about the suicide attempt,
then a food truck ride then a kid's birthday party. I didn't think it was that funny really. Teachers like it when their jokes make kids laugh or maybe they pity smirk. But this became a literal OMG LOL LMAO session. I guess I do know at least one other language. 

She says that I stumbled on a show called Una Familia Con Suerte, a slapstick comedy. She gives me homework to stick with it. Challenge Accepted.

Why? Rewinding the DVR

So... I am a teacher. Not only am I a teacher but I teach in Texas. Not only do I teach in Texas but I teach Speech Communications. It's asinine that I can't speak Spanish.

When you grow up in Texas you take Spanish courses in high school but you do the work for the grade, not for fluency or even competency for that matter. There's currently a big push here for bilingual education on the elementary level. I missed that boat, of course.

When a teacher feels ignorant or behind it's troubling. We feel like we're not doing enough for their students. We're strange people.

Education is everywhere. No Excuses, and it's going to be fun and at my pace. (Which means completely random, two steps forward one step back, and ridiculous.

I Am Through

I'm not sure that this was Biggest Loser's intent but when the No Excuses season started it got me thinking about my own life and what was the one thing that I wasn't doing because of excuses. Once Conda started her hater rampage it clicked. The remote. Through the basic stations until I got to Univision. So it begins.