La Creatividad

For the past several months, I've been studying Spanish.  After spending five years in high school and a year in college studying French, and three years in high school and two in college studying Japanese, I wanted to make a stab at learning a language I might actually speak with some degree of ability some day.  I can understand basic things said to me in French, and I can tell with decent reliability if the language I'm hearing is Japanese or Something Else (not that I have any clue what's being said), but that's ... well, that's it.

I figured Spanish would be a great language to learn since a) it's a Romance language like French, so much of the basics of the grammar and many of the roots of the words are already familiar to me, and b) there are a whole lot of Spanish-speaking people in this country (including a fair-sized Hispanic community just down the road from my church, if the signage is any indication).

So, I've been doing the Rosetta Stone thing -- I have the program on my computer, I had my three months of online access to their extras (despite having beaucoup free time over the summer, I somehow managed to squander those three months and will be paying for another three at some point so I can get the extra practice) ... but somehow, that's not enough.  I want to actually be able to speak the language, to read the language, to understand it ... and I won't be able to do that with just twenty or thirty minutes per day of Rosetta Stone.

And so, in true Creative form, I've started looking for alternative, creative ways to get better at this language.  When I took French in high school, you were basically limited to whatever was in the textbook, and whatever audio cassettes you could find at the public library.  My, how the times have changed!

• Audio CDs -- I know this is borderline old-school tech, but it does help me take advantage of spare minutes during my day.  Being a one-car family, I drop my wife off at school every morning, then head back home for my creative time before I head in to work.  That gives me quite a lot of time in the car, and I can now put that extra time to use.  If I didn't want to do CDs, I could just as easily rip the CDs to my computer and stick them on my MP3 player.
• Podcasts -- There are an incredible number of podcasts in Spanish (and many, many other languages) available out there, both for learning the language, and just listening to people speaking the language.  Downloading them and sticking them on my MP3 player is, again, a great way to practice.
• Dictionary and Google Translator -- I don't use either of these for big things, but for looking up a word here or there, expanding my vocabulary one piece at a time, they're great.
• TV -- If we had cable, I'm sure we'd have more to choose from, but even with over-the-air TV, we still get quite a variety of Spanish-language programs.  Our local PBS station broadcasts the Spanish-language channel VeMe, and many of the programs we watch elsewhere are dubbed in Spanish on the second audio channel.  For the past several nights, we've watched Family Guy in Spanish with English subtitles, and I've taken to watching the occasional Simpsons episode from our DVD collection in Spanish, as well.  If I want to practice on some easier, more kid-friendly program, shows like Jane and the Dragon are dubbed in Spanish, as well.
• Movies -- Much like my Simpsons episodes, more and more movies on DVD and BluRay are dubbed over in Spanish, or at the very least have Spanish subtitles.  Using one or both of these (or Spanish dubbing with English subtitles for a bit of help) is some great extra practice.
• Muttering and Talking -- I've taken to muttering to myself in Spanish, talking to my cats in Spanish, and even saying about half the things I say to my wife in Spanish.  She can't speak Spanish much, but she's gotten to where she can understand me (though half the time I do end up translating for her).  It gives me practice speaking extemporaneously (something that always gave me pause with speaking French or Japanese), and if I do make a grammar mistake, I'm usually able to stop and correct myself, or else realize I have no idea how to say what I want to say, which then sends me to the dictionary or Google to figure it out.

Most of these things are things I would do anyway ... except now I try to include my language learning as part of them.  Most evenings, sorry to say, will find me watching an hour of Family Guy.  Now, instead of wasting away during that hour, I'm tuning my ear to listen better for Spanish.  Instead of riding along singing at the top of my lungs with songs I've sung a thousand times before, I'm repeating phrases that might one day be useful to me.

Best of all, though -- I'm having fun.  I've always enjoyed languages and learning how other cultures view the world.  I may not be progressing by leaps and bounds, but I do see consistent improvement day-by-day, and I get really excited when I say something to my wife and realize that not only did I say it correctly, but it was a more difficult sentence than I'd ever said correctly before on the first try.

I could draw a lot of parallels between learning a language and my composing and writing, but I'll save that for another post.  Ahora, voy a beber un poco más café y practicar un poco de español.  Hasta luego!