{"id":242,"date":"2019-04-22T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/22\/learning-spanish-part-2\/"},"modified":"2019-04-22T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T19:30:00","slug":"learning-spanish-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/22\/learning-spanish-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Spanish in Guadalajara, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

There didn\u2019t seem to be a lot of structure at Guadalajara Language Center, but somehow it
\nworked.!<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\nWe weren\u2019t given books, the instructors had some notes and only occasionally
\nreferred to a book they had. It seemed that there was some coordination between
\nthe morning and afternoon instructors, but only in an overlap of general
\nconcepts. It wasn\u2019t a direct continuation of what had been previously taught. Each
\nweek we could be in class with different people, so some weeks we were ahead of
\nthe other people in the class and others we were slightly behind. You wouldn\u2019t
\nexpect it, but for some reason this organization worked. After a while, since
\nwe were there so long, it seemed like we progressed and other students were
\nshoehorned into our classes.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n

\nExcellent instructors<\/h3>\n

\nI thought the instructors were very good. Classes combined
\ngrammar with conversation, and content was flexible, sparked by what we did
\nlast night, our weekend plans, the weather, Mexican traditions. Sometimes there
\nwas a lesson on a specific subject, such as the simple past tense or personal
\npronouns. But other days, the class might consist almost entirely of free-form
\nconversation, during which we learned a lot about the history and culture of
\nMexico. <\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\nFor most of our time at Guadalajara Language Center, we had
\nMonica for a teacher in the morning and Edith in the afternoon. Monica was a
\nraucous, loud, animated woman and an outstanding teacher. She was the kind of
\nwoman you would want to hang out with at a party. Edith was tall and refined,
\nmore reserved, but eventually revealed a wicked sense of humor.  <\/span><\/div>\n
\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Monica explaining pronouns<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Edith watching a lively discussion<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

\nAfter four hours of Spanish every day, we were pretty tired.
\nMany other people who came down for two or three weeks spent additional time
\nstudying, but we knew we had eight weeks of classes, so we didn\u2019t feel like we
\nhad to jam everything in. Besides, we wanted to also experience GDL and TLQ. In
\nfact, at the end of the first four weeks, we felt like we needed some time to
\nreview everything we had learned so we took a week off.  <\/span>Lex, on the other hand, liked the school so
\nmuch that she continued for the full eight weeks, and then did two hours a day
\nfor three more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lex in class<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n

\nLots of work left to
\ndo<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nOur official studies have ended. We\u2019ve been exposed to the
\ngrammar basics and have certainly expanded our vocabulary. We can get by. We
\ncan understand the basics when speaking with Mexicans who speak clearly and not
\ntoo fast. We can have conversations with Uber drivers and market people. But we
\nknow we have a lot more work to do. The Department of State\u2019s Foreign Service
\nInstitute\u2019s School of Language Studies<\/a><\/b> says that to obtain a Professional Working Proficiency (Speaking-3\/Reading-3 on a scale of 1 – 5)<\/span><\/i> <\/span>takes anywhere
\nbetween 600-750 hours of classroom study. We have spent 160 hours in class so
\nfar. Granted, we did come in with some basics, but probably at best we\u2019re 1\/3
\nof the way to where we want to be. We know what areas we need to address, and
\nwe have found other resources to continue our study independently.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nOur plan is to continue studying on our own and supplement
\nthat with several sessions of conversation each week with private Spanish
\ntutors. As they say here in Mexico, \u201cpoco a poco\u201d — or little by little!<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAll in all, we enjoyed our time at the school and found it
\nworthwhile. At some point in time, we will probably take some time to go back
\nto school, perhaps doing the monthlong summer program at the University of Guanajuato<\/a><\/b>,
\nbut not this year!<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There didn\u2019t seem to be a lot of structure at Guadalajara Language Center, but somehow it worked.! We weren\u2019t given books, the instructors had some notes and only occasionally referred to a book they had. It seemed that there was some coordination between the morning and afternoon instructors, but only in an overlap of general … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Learning Spanish in Guadalajara, Part 2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41,43,44,4,98,65,5],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-explore","tag-guadalajara","tag-guadalajara-language-center","tag-mexico","tag-spanish","tag-tlaquepaque","tag-travel-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/messysuitcase.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}