Oh! My Blog!
I just realized that I've forgotten all about you!
I've been so absorbed in learning to speak Spanish, helping the kids with school, and working, that I forgot all about blogging!
Hmmm...The good thing is that I have such a routine life that not much has happened since I last blogged. I'm somewhere between 60-70% of the way to being conversationally fluent in Spanish. I've reached the point now where I can say most of the things I need to say, and I can read a lot of Spanish. The slowest piece to come is understanding native speakers when they are conversing at a natural speed. I can pick out words and get the context, but a lot of it is still lost on me when people are speaking too fast.
So far I've managed to get a good grasp of present, past (preterit) and future verb tenses. It has been really helpful, conversationally, expanding beyond present tense only. I've dabbled a bit in the conditional tense, as well. I've been avoiding reflexive verbs (ie. I get myself up out of bed), stem changing verbs (the spelling of the root changes when you conjugate them) and pluperfect tenses (ie. I had already gone) because they aren't as easy to learn. Once I roll up my sleeves and get down to business, I know I'll learn it eventually. One of the things I didn't bargain for is that to really learn a language right, there's really no getting around learning correct grammar.
While I'm at it, I might as well throw in a word of the day
poderoso - mighty, powerful
El presidente es un hombre muy poderoso.
The president is a very powerful man.
One week from today until I visit my mom and dad! I can't wait to see them...