APRender: To LEarn - December 20, 2015
**First, if you didn't catch it on Facebook, have a look-see at this Video Christmas Card we made just for ya'll! Que emocionado!
And now, for an in-depth look at what the last 5 weeks of Spanish school have looked like!
"Un dia, Pablo Bunyan estaba sentando en una colina cerca del rio pienaba su barba con un arból grande de pino cuando sin una advertencia el rio se levantó y escupió quatro ciento galónes de agua en su barba."
(One day, Paul Bunyan was sitting on a hill by the river combing his beard with a large pine tree when without warning the river rose up a spit four hundred gallons in his beard.)
-excerpt from "Paul Bunyan and Whistling River" trans. Aarón Westendorp
"A veces, si las personas no vienen muy rápido y temprano de la mañana como cinco o seis de la mañana, ellos no serån vistos."
("Sometimes, if the people do not come very quickly and early in the morning--like five or six in the morning--they will not be seen.")
-excerpt from "El Sistema De Salud De Guatemala" escrito por Elena Westendorp
...Well guys, we're making progress. Progress comes in many forms, is helter-skelter, and easily humbled by a failed conversation in the store. Nonetheless, Spanish--both in and out of school--is rubbing off on us. We spend 4 hours, 4 days a week, at Semilla (a seminary/guest house/spanish school) with our respective tutors--Adriana (AJ) and Rosa (Alaina). Class time is like Michigan weather--always different and unpredictable. You might find us reviewing last night's homework, reading a Mayan legend aloud, tackling a lesson on the present perfect tense, just talking back and forth about our weekends, Guatemalan culture, or our families. This comes with many-a-furrowed eyebrow and enough visits to our phones to keep Google Translate and Word Reference in good business.
And now, for an in-depth look at what the last 5 weeks of Spanish school have looked like!
"Un dia, Pablo Bunyan estaba sentando en una colina cerca del rio pienaba su barba con un arból grande de pino cuando sin una advertencia el rio se levantó y escupió quatro ciento galónes de agua en su barba."
(One day, Paul Bunyan was sitting on a hill by the river combing his beard with a large pine tree when without warning the river rose up a spit four hundred gallons in his beard.)
-excerpt from "Paul Bunyan and Whistling River" trans. Aarón Westendorp
"A veces, si las personas no vienen muy rápido y temprano de la mañana como cinco o seis de la mañana, ellos no serån vistos."
("Sometimes, if the people do not come very quickly and early in the morning--like five or six in the morning--they will not be seen.")
-excerpt from "El Sistema De Salud De Guatemala" escrito por Elena Westendorp
...Well guys, we're making progress. Progress comes in many forms, is helter-skelter, and easily humbled by a failed conversation in the store. Nonetheless, Spanish--both in and out of school--is rubbing off on us. We spend 4 hours, 4 days a week, at Semilla (a seminary/guest house/spanish school) with our respective tutors--Adriana (AJ) and Rosa (Alaina). Class time is like Michigan weather--always different and unpredictable. You might find us reviewing last night's homework, reading a Mayan legend aloud, tackling a lesson on the present perfect tense, just talking back and forth about our weekends, Guatemalan culture, or our families. This comes with many-a-furrowed eyebrow and enough visits to our phones to keep Google Translate and Word Reference in good business.
And then there's a good chunk of homework each night! 20 sentences using verbs in the imperfect tense and 10 using direct and indirect object pronouns. Read a chapter of "Alex Dogboy," write down any words that are new, and write a sentence using each of the new words correctly in your notebook. Complete the 5 exercises on "Irregular Verbs in Preterito" in your book. Prepare a presentation on any subject you wish...in Spanish. Write a story that's 2 pages long, handwritten. Translate a newspaper article from the States into Spanish. These kinds of things make up homework.
We've come to appreciate a lot about our maestras, and all they have to teach us. We were a little nervous at first that they speak just one lick of English (which ain't much), but they have been able to crack open the window into what Guatemala really is and let the breeze flow about our faces. Human trafficking, traditional foods, love lives, Mayan history and legends, education systems, and pueblo life--they've taught us so much by answering our ignorant questions, and by whetting our curiosity for this country. They're graceful, funny, and real. So today we can thank God for Rosa and Adriana, for the learning we've had and the (incredible amount of) learning we have coming. There are little victories like successfully ordering internet over the phone without help and terrible defeats like baking Christmas cookies with 4 Spanish speakers and just not being able to catch the conversation at all. So it's fun, hard work, rewarding, and very humbling all at once! Thanks for taking a peek through this window into our Spanish learning and for all your encouragements, challenges, and prayers. The most Feliz Navidad to all of you. God is with us.
-AJ & Alaina
thewestys.weebly.com
We've come to appreciate a lot about our maestras, and all they have to teach us. We were a little nervous at first that they speak just one lick of English (which ain't much), but they have been able to crack open the window into what Guatemala really is and let the breeze flow about our faces. Human trafficking, traditional foods, love lives, Mayan history and legends, education systems, and pueblo life--they've taught us so much by answering our ignorant questions, and by whetting our curiosity for this country. They're graceful, funny, and real. So today we can thank God for Rosa and Adriana, for the learning we've had and the (incredible amount of) learning we have coming. There are little victories like successfully ordering internet over the phone without help and terrible defeats like baking Christmas cookies with 4 Spanish speakers and just not being able to catch the conversation at all. So it's fun, hard work, rewarding, and very humbling all at once! Thanks for taking a peek through this window into our Spanish learning and for all your encouragements, challenges, and prayers. The most Feliz Navidad to all of you. God is with us.
-AJ & Alaina
thewestys.weebly.com