Monday, November 28, 2011

Spanish and Figuring Out New Year's Resolutions

I was looking at Rosetta Stone today (since thanks to Cyber Monday it was $100 off) and realized that I would probably fall somewhere between level 2 or 3 in their program.  It seemed a little ridiculous given that I scored Advanced Low on the Oral Proficiency Exam and that's all you need to teach Spanish in NJ or PA.  I felt a little sad. I mean, I've taken Spanish since I was in middle school (so that's something like 14 years).  I know that I've learned most of what they list in levels 1-3, but I've forgotten a lot over the years. So, I bought levels 1-5, even though I felt slightly embarrassed about it.  I feel like I shouldn't need to buy the program since I've had so much schooling, but honestly, unless I live in a country where Spanish is the main language spoken, I'll never speak anywhere close to a native.

One of my goals for the new year is to improve my speaking and reading ability in the language (and generally just improve my vocabulary and grammar).  I figured Rosetta Stone might be a painless way to go about it.  I'd like to at some point retake the Oral Proficiency Exam and score 1-2 levels above what I did the first time I took it (my life goal would be to score a Superior on the scale).  When I took it in 2009, I had been taking a workshop at Rutgers specifically geared towards the test, been watching movies in Spanish, practicing my conversational skills with a friend over the phone, and I believe, I was reading stories in Spanish as well.  Now, I practice speaking with my fiance's family although I don't even answer in complete sentences (I mostly just listen and nod my head, occasionally saying "si").  Still, I speak in Spanish everyday at work to my students.  I learn new words everyday at work. I should, I suppose, keep a journal of these new words, but every time I do that it seems to be a useless and boring enterprise.

I also want to learn Portuguese within the next two years, since Ed and I plan on going to the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.  It's something to look forward to, for sure.  When we saw Turkey play the US in Philly last year it was amazing (not World Cup, but still pretty good; I imagine the World Cup would be even better!).  I will, of course, have to save a lot of money for this trip.

Ed has switched his research interest to the moriscos.  So, we might go to Spain at some point, which means I need to brush up on 'vosotros' and other grammar points.  I also need to learn the Spanish (Spain specific) words for various things.  I need to save money for that/those trip(s) as well.

In totally unrelated news, I've been watching House Hunters International and been thinking about how beautiful parts of Eastern Europe are.  At some point, I'll have to travel around in that region.  I've always wanted to go to Prague, but now I'm adding places like Warsaw and random places in the countryside of Slovenia.

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