Language School- All Done!

After 40 hours of instruction (8 hours/day, Monday-Friday), I am now officially done with language school! A typical day consisted of 4 hours of studying in the morning, a 2-hour lunch (and mental) break, and 4 more hours of studying in the afternoon. My days ended at 6 PM. It was definitely an intensive experience, but I am so happy that I did it! While I appreciated the opportunity language school gave me to check out Antigua for a week, more importantly it allowed me to “break and then rebuild” my Spanish as one of my professors said. Improving my Spanish will only make things easier at NPH, and I’m grateful for this chance to really dive into the language.

I’m not sure what exactly I had in mind for language school, but it was not at all what I expected. There really wasn’t a lot of “textbook time”, which I appreciated because that is something I can do on my own. The majority of the time was spent in conversation with my professors, and I also got to take a few awesome excursions with them. I really enjoyed the complex topics we got into this week. Some good ones included corruption in government, legalization of marijuana, Catholic social teaching, faith and God, social issues of Guatemala, and oh so much more! It was much more exciting and stimulating than discussing what I had for breakfast or my favorite types of movies, which is what a lot of my previous Spanish conversations consisted of. There were a few moments where I thought, “Wow, I cannot believe I am talking about this in Spanish right now.” For example, I had that thought when one of my professors asked me to explain why God allows bad things to happen in the world. As if that’s easy to talk about in English, let alone in Spanish! Here’s a rough breakdown of my progress through language school:

• Monday- I didn’t say much besides “Sí!” and nod my head fervently during conversations.
• Tuesday- I felt like I could express my personality a bit more in the afternoon.
• Wednesday- Caught myself actually initiating conversation with my professor in the morning! (*GASP*)
• Thursday- Regressed a bit, definitely frustrated. All the verbs were a mess in my head. Grammar overload. In the afternoon, Humberto and I just took a walk.
• Friday- Realized it’s all gonna be good and had a great last day at school, including some awesome excursions!

I had two different professors for the week: one for the mornings and one for the afternoons. In the mornings, I worked with Francisco. Francisco has a really interesting background. He is very politically active and participated in lots of protests when he was younger. He has fought extensively for the rights of the Indigenous people of Guatemala. Francisco told me all about the awful social situation they are in, how many Guatemalans are actually unaware of this issue, and the dirty details of the social classes. If you want to know more, ask me and I’ll tell you! Even though the topics were very heavy, I am so glad I got to learn about the “real Guatemala” and not just what is displayed in some glossy tourist brochure. Some highlights from my time with Francisco:

• “Jesús es un verbo, no es un sustantivo.”= “Jesus is a verb, not a noun.”
• Watching a documentary about how the monoculture African palm is wrecking the environment and the Indigenous people’s lives. The extremely rich of Guatemala (<1% of the population) own 80% of the cultivatable land, which is one of highest rates of land concentration in the world. SOCIAL ISSUES, MAN, SOCIAL ISSUES.
• “No hay peor ciego que el que no quiere ver.”= “There is no worse blind man than the one who doesn’t want to see.”
• Drinking wine from native Guatemalan fruits!
• Discovering Francisco dabbles in the art of bonsai and that he has a baby pineapple tree, whaaat?

Wine tasting. Best language school excursion ever? I think so.

Not that I didn't already think Francisco's whole bonsai thing was cool, but it went to a whole new level when I saw the baby pineapples. Too cute! Or as Carolyn Bates would say, TMTH (too much to handle).

In the afternoons, I worked with Humberto. As much as Francisco engaged me at a social concerns level, Humberto pushed me in matters of faith. He loved hearing about the Catholic Worker and we swapped stories of faith in the real world. He also has some rather creepy ghost stories up his sleeve! I loved that Humberto said that I “saque el jugo” (take out the juice from him, think squeezing an orange) meaning that I push and engage him as an instructor. He said he greatly enjoyed the depth and topics of our conversations. In turn, he said he was going to make sure he took the juice out of me as his student! Some highlights from my time with Humberto:

• Hearing about his work in orphanages and other social service agencies, and the prominent role faith plays in his life. What an awesome man, seriously!
• Hearing about his training for a half-marathon in two weeks. YOU GOT THIS, HUMBERTO!
• His affirmation of my Spanish abilities at a time when I needed to hear some praise. Thanks, bud.
• Learning a ton of Guatemala proverbs! “Camarón que se duerme se lo lleva la corriente.”= “Shrimp that fall asleep are carried away by the current.”
• Visiting Cerro de La Cruz with him.

Cerro de la Cruz. Sweet vantage point for Antigua and an awesome break from Spanish grammar.

At Cerro de la Cruz, I met this kiddo named Kevin and got to pet his adorable puppy! It felt great to finally interact with a kid.

Both of my professors were models of patience. I definitely made a lot of mistakes when I talked this whole week, and I know I will continue to do so for a long, long time. I tried to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day and that this was definitely helping me. At a minimum, it felt great to know that I had engaged in conversation at a high level for 8 hours for a day! It wasn’t perfect, but hey, I got by and people knew what I was trying to say. Sounds like a win to me! (Even when I speak English, I’ve noticed that I now use my hands A TON. I can only imagine the extreme facial expressions I must have haha.)

Both of my professors said that it was very evident that I had a strong desire to simply learn, not only about Spanish but also about Guatemala. It meant a lot to me that they could see that, because it’s true! I feel like somebody was watching out for me when He (catch that?) paired me up with Francisco and Humberto this week. I cannot think of a better pair of instructors for me to have had! I’d like to thank all the staff of Academia de Español Continental that made my language school experience so spectacular. Even after just one week of essentially being a tourist, I feel like I already have been changed for the better (and definitely have a lot of things to think about this year). My time in Antigua has been wonderful, but I can’t wait leave for the NPH orphanage today and continue to learn more about Spanish and LIFE!

Humberto giving me my diploma. I'm at a level "advancado", woohoo! :)