El Castellano comienza
I finally started my Spanish classes.
Initially I was going to take classes from a school called Verbum, pero on Monday I walked there and discovered that it was too far away… it took me almost an hour to get there, and I didn’t really want to take a taxi every day to school. So I started looking for other schools that were closer to me (with my newfound knowledge of the city)… I finally found a private instructor that will tutor me for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week.
My first meeting with her was today, and I’ve already learned a lot. One of the most important things that I learned is that the “y” and “ll” sounds in Argentina are very different from Spain, and most of Latin America. This is part of the reason why I have been having such a difficult time understanding what people are saying.
For example: In Spanish, “Yo” means I. It’s pronounced how it looks to an American. In Argentina, “Yo” is pronounced “zho”. In Spanish, “ella” means she. It’s pronounced “A-ya”. In Argentina, it’s pronounced “A-sha”.
It might not seem like that big of a difference, but when you’re struggling with a limited vocabulary to begin with, it is HUGE. One of my cross-streets is Ayacucho--- when I’ve heard people say “Ashacucho” I’ve had no idea what they were talking about.
I’m glad that I’ve finally started classes. My instructor seems very good, and the one-to-one lessons allows me to learn off of tangents, rather than in linear-style which I’m not that fond of.
Initially I was going to take classes from a school called Verbum, pero on Monday I walked there and discovered that it was too far away… it took me almost an hour to get there, and I didn’t really want to take a taxi every day to school. So I started looking for other schools that were closer to me (with my newfound knowledge of the city)… I finally found a private instructor that will tutor me for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week.
My first meeting with her was today, and I’ve already learned a lot. One of the most important things that I learned is that the “y” and “ll” sounds in Argentina are very different from Spain, and most of Latin America. This is part of the reason why I have been having such a difficult time understanding what people are saying.
For example: In Spanish, “Yo” means I. It’s pronounced how it looks to an American. In Argentina, “Yo” is pronounced “zho”. In Spanish, “ella” means she. It’s pronounced “A-ya”. In Argentina, it’s pronounced “A-sha”.
It might not seem like that big of a difference, but when you’re struggling with a limited vocabulary to begin with, it is HUGE. One of my cross-streets is Ayacucho--- when I’ve heard people say “Ashacucho” I’ve had no idea what they were talking about.
I’m glad that I’ve finally started classes. My instructor seems very good, and the one-to-one lessons allows me to learn off of tangents, rather than in linear-style which I’m not that fond of.
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