My thoughts - Podcasts and Spanish classes

Last Wednesday on the way home for work I stopped off on the way home from work and enrolled in a course called “Spanish for holidays” at my local adult learning college. The lesson is two hours of a Saturday morning, and the course is only three weeks long – so the £10.40 price tag seems more than reasonable as is the effect this course has on my busy social life!

Well, today I had my first Spanish lesson. I have done a couple of courses there this year – so I was rather blasé about my timings and consequently I found myself running late and indeed I crawled into the class five minutes late.

We started learning simple conversational ‘bits’ this week - hello, good bye, how are you, my name is, where do you live and how old are you. Of course before we started doing this we spent some time looking at the pronunciation of various letters, and also the pronunciation of numbers… it is a little bit difficult telling people our age without knowing some numbers. We have only got up to twenty so far but I believe we will get to 50 at some point over the next couple of weeks!

The teacher of the class is a very nice lady called Mary Jesus, who speaks really great Spanish – which isn’t surprising because I think it is her native language! The only thing that disappointed me about the course was the fact that the room next door was the music room, and when we returned from our short coffee break the drum class started in the next room – and hearing a teacher – and maintaining concentration under such noisy circumstances is next to impossible!!

I don’t think I am really going to pick up enough Spanish in five and a half hours to make me feel comfortable when travelling – but at least it is a starting point for me.

I have over the months downloaded a number of language podcasts French, German, Italian, and even Thai! I have three Spanish language podcasts which are:

• Learn Spanish – Survival Guide
• Learn Spanish With Coffee Break Spanish
• Finally Learn Spanish – Grammar Tips And Dialogs

They are all very different and all have their respective merits but the problem with learning a language on a tape/cd/mp3/podcast is that sometimes you don’t hear exactly what is said. The natural reaction is to rewind a little and listen again. Sometimes – or in my case most of the time – when I rewind and listen again I am no surer of what I heard second time around. Third forth and fifth times are no better so I tend not to bother with that many tries anymore.

As I see it I have picked up a few words here and there from the podcasts but if Maria Jesus can correct the pronunciation of what I have picked up so far then I will stand better chance of reading back correctly once the class has finished and I am on my own with the ubiquitous podcast. More to the point it will help me understand a little better what I am hearing. So, although three lessons are not enough to get me where I want to be, they are a step in the right direction. I think that is what it is all about in life. Most things don’t get us where we want to be but if we are looking we can make steps in the right direction then we will eventually get to where we want to be – even if on the route we change where we want to be.

So, Maria Jesus, I heard something on my podcasts that sounded like “ness-is-seed-a are-you-the por favour?” I believe it is meant to mean “I need help please.” I think this is one I need to get sorted sooner rather than later – don’t you?