The Saga Continues

Class 2 had a focus on more formal greetings as well as the basic necessities should you find yourself transplanted into a Spanish-speaking country (sound familiar?) - counting, general demographics to fill out paperwork, who to call for help, etc. Overall, having had some prior Spanish instruction, this class was not terribly useful to me. That being said, there were small grammar questions of mine that were answered, and I did manage to learn a few new verbs and vocabulary words. What I continue to find most helpful is the continuous banter between David and Jimena - it allows me to practice my listening comprehension. One major issue that I continue to struggle with is understanding what exactly people are asking when they speak to me. For instance, I find myself asking the deli guy to repeat himself at least twice every time I see him. Eventually I feel bad about repeatedly saying "cómo," give up, and just say "sí." This has caused me to get a block of cheese when I wanted it sliced and sliced ham when I wanted it in a block. Go figure.

The nice thing about the Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish system is how user friendly it is - just like playing a movie. It's very easy to pause or rewind the class if there are concepts you didn't quite understand or words you didn't quite hear. I find myself bouncing back and forth between reading the written dialogue while listening and just listening. Personally I feel that the written dialogue is a bit of a crutch and I try to ignore it as much as possible. I think in order to really learn conversational Spanish you need to focus on the conversation and hopefully pickup concepts by hearing trends and by repetition.