Working on my Spanish

As an American kid in Peru several lifetimes ago, I learned Spanish in self-defense. Arriving in Lima, with two years of high school Latin under my belt, was not the best preparation for an exchange student, but it was what I had.

Peruvian educators put me in their English classes, which sounded nutty, but actually worked pretty well. For a while. After a few weeks at Nuestra Sra de Carmen, I was advised that I was too distracting to the other students. Whatever that meant.

So, I hung at home with mi tias and the servants. Learned to knit, to shop in the market, and to travel Lima by bus. All good ground for learning new words in Spanish.

Then I went to la universidad de San Marcos. Where I also studied English, though this time with students who were not distracted. The problem at USM was that the teacher taught via immersion, so all I was learning was English. My academic advisor was at a loss for what to do with me, so I sat in the courtyard and soaked up culture instead.

Back at home, my family helped me see Peru. I rode a night bus from Lima to Chiclayo with mi tia Rosa, under a Spanish surname, with the plan that I should play the role of a deaf mute, so that no one would know I was American, in the likely event that the bus would be stopped, by bandits or "state" officials as we crossed borders. I probably should've been worried. We were stopped. I did play dumb. No one kidnapped me, so I must've been convincing in my portrayal.

A car trip down the coast back to Lima. A plane to Cusco. A train to Macchu Pichu. And buses, so many buses. And along the way, I learned Spanish. So much so that when I returned to the US, English sounded all wrong.

But now, years have passed and my Spanish is quite rusty. I've begun a personal effort to recover vocabulary words and verb tense usage. Es muy dificil, pero es importante hablo la lengua de America del Sur. Porque, contestas? It's very difficult, but it's important that I speak the language of South America. Why, you ask? Because I just found my Peruvian family again, after 37 years.

So, If I continue to ignore my blogs, at least you know why. Because I'm working on my Spanish. Happily.