To Cheat -- To Be

3 May 2012.  Today our Spanish professor taught us to cheat.  But she has introduced us to many other verbs, nouns, and adjectives, too, so “to cheat” wasn’t that much of a surprise.  It was okay to cheat, “engañar” she said, by looking in the textbook for help on the answers to our exercise.  So today I cheated, though just a little.

We have been in classes for almost 2 weeks now.  How can it be that we have learned so much, but know so little?  I am amazed at the progress I feel I have made, yet equally amazed at how insanely difficult it seems to actually use my new Spanish in conversation.  But really, we have learned a lot and we’re having fun doing it.

 

We started at the lowest level of instruction—A-1 beginners.  Our class initially had 4 students, but one soon dropped out in favor of more intense private lessons.  That left the three of us, a very pleasant 50-something man from Oregon, Peggy and me.  We and our Profesora Tamara are quite compatible together.  She patiently, slowly and carefully explains things to us in Spanish, in ways that we understand.  And she makes it both interesting and fun.

From the very first day she spoke to us in Spanish, using English only when absolutely necessary—maybe about 5% of the time.  So at first we struggled to understand almost everything she said or wanted us to do in class.  But by the end of week one, we were understanding lots of what she said, even though we couldn’t have said it ourselves.  Toward the end of the first week we had a discussion about our different religious faiths (Christian Reformed, Seventh Day Adventist, and “protesting” Catholic).  La Profesora seemed genuinely interested in that.  We also had a discussion about the economies of Panama and the United States, even about the differences between the Republican and Democratic Parties—try to explain that to your friends in Spanish, or even English!  Today she explained to me in Spanish a story I had seen (but did not understand) in the news on TV about a North American just arrested for a series of 5 murders (of other North Americans) committed in Panama about 3 years ago.  So, you see, learning Spanish here is not just about grammar.

So far we have learned, in detail, how to use only 3 verbs, and 2 of them have more or less the same meaning.  For those readers with unbounded curiosity, the verbs are “ser” (to be), “estar” (to be), and “tener” (to have.)  So we spend a lot of time in dialogue talking “am,” “is,” and “have.”  Sometimes it’s hard to be creative using only 2.5 verbs.

Well, I have (“tener”) some homework, and because I am (“ser”) a good student I must do it now so my Profesora is (“estar”) pleased tomorrow.  Got it?  Bueno!