Saturday, March 21, 2009

SPANISH SPEAKING

Whenever people ask me how long I have lived in Costa Rica I usually mumble "two and a half years". The reason being usually when people ask it is in reference to my Spanish speaking, or I should say my lack thereof!
When we first arrived here I had the best intentions to learn Spanish. I had my verb trees and worked very hard to memorize them. I went to classes every Saturday that the missionaries held at the church.
The reason they started holding the classes was because they were tired of translating everything at church for us. So they told us they would use the books they learned with and we would have it down in no time.
Well big surprise boys! I was sent here with no "gift of tongues". We are just on our own to try and master the Spanish language. My husband cheated when he got called to be in the branch presidency and had a blessing by the stake pres. that he would be able to learn Spanish. He definately has it a lot more than I do.
What I am getting to is the fact that tomorrow our family is speaking in church. It is the third time and you would think they would have learned the first two times! It is just painful to listen to us. Me the worst because I have a theory that the bluer the eyes the stronger the accent.
My daughter sounds great, and her boyfriend helped her with hers. My husband sounds great, because of course he was "blessed". Then there is me!
I guess they have to have us get up once in awhile for some comic relief. Don't know if that is sacrelig or not, but at least they look up at me very politely and don't outright laugh. They are very kind here.

1 comment:

Book Lover Lisa said...

My mom is having the same problem with spanish. She has been in Ecuador for the better part of 2 1/2 years, and just can't seem to get the language to click. It does cause her some difficulties. Hopefully you will both be able to grasp it at some point.