Lost in Translation

Today was a hard and long day.  Classes started yesterday with tango and grammar. Tango was fun because we learned a little bit about the expectations for the class and then moved the seats aside to make a dance floor.  Unfortunately, there were 3 guys to 18 girls (even worse than the ratio at Gordon). This meant that some girls had to be boys for the day. Who got to be a boy? Me. I learned that in dance, being the boy is a lot harder than being the girl because you are the leader. If you mess up, the girl messes up or runs into someone else. Everyone was just laughing and having a good time.

Being the leader reminded me that God is our leader (a much harder job than being the follower) and he knows the steps of the "dance" or life, so if (as the "girl") we follow him, we run into less obstacles and he makes our steps right. However, once we start trying to lead, the dance is thrown off.

Later yesterday, I found out the tango class would be approved for credit at Gordon because it is about culture and has a theory section! Yay! Things are working out.

After a lunch of empanadas, I had a grammar class. We talked about some of the unique customs of Argentine language, like instead of using tú they use vos (but it conjugates the same way as tú, not as vosotros). The teacher seemed a little nervous (teachers in Argentina only work part-time and do research or take classes as the other part), and the class was pretty quiet (it was the first day), but the teacher had a lot of energy and she seems really sweet.

Today, I had two more classes. The first: a speaking class. Luckily there was a lot of overlap with my grammar class from yesterday, so I understood most of what the teacher was talking about. She also is very nice and patient. Then came the hard part of the day: Argentine Fiction of the Twentieth Century. Reading comprehension has never come super easily to me, especially in Spanish. I wanted to take this class because I knew that I needed to improve in reading. However, I did not expect it to be so hard. The teacher is a guy with a strong Argentine accent. As an introduction he explained to us something about modernism vs. postmodernism and also about vanguardia (which I guess is the process of implementing new ideas). He literally talked for 3 hours straight in a train-of-thought manner. I was so confused and do not think I understood anything past the first 2 hours.  Below is a picture of all the readings I have to do for this class over the next 15 weeks. It is going to be a lot!!!!

I am realizing that I am more of a visual learner than I thought. The classes I have had do not use powerpoints (like almost all my classes at Gordon) and are usually just straight lecture (with the exception of tango, in which I was able to watch and imitate the teachers). Sometimes the teacher will write a word or two on the white board but usually I miss the significance of that word.  Tomorrow, when I don't have class I am going to google search (with results in Spanish) the key words I wrote down so that I have an idea of what was taught today. Also, I think the teacher assumes we have background knowledge of the topics, but no one in my class really knows much about Argentina or literature, which makes it a lot harder.

By being in the education system here, I am realizing how an ESL student in one of my future classes might feel. I believe this will make me a better teacher.  It is important to incorporate visual aids as well as audio aids for students to understand what is going on.

Translating what the teacher is saying, taking notes, and comprehending what is going on takes a lot of effort and concentration. If you zone out for a minute, you are bound to be lost. After 5 hours of class in the U.S. I feel pretty good, but here after 5 hours of class I'm ready to go to sleep for the night!

I am excited for when I get to the point that my Spanish is good enough to understand the content, which seems really interesting.

Please pray that my Spanish continues to improve and that I can start to understand my classes. Right now I am feeling slightly inadequate in my Spanish abilities and frustrated.

Thank you for your prayers and support,
Bot