Knuckling Down to Spanish. A short course in how I plan to estudy espanol

As an educator, I learned a few tidbits about learning that I hang on to.

• To increase learning, you can do three things: Decrease group size. Increase explicitness. Increase time. These 3 things allow for more opportunities to respond, more and better feedback and, of course, more practice.

• The brain learns best on a nibbling diet. Many concentrated sessions beat fewer longer sessions.

• Engagement is everything. Babies are language learning masters because their "on" button is stuck on. They can't not pay attention.

At Education Week, I attended a session on second-language learning. The challenge was given to be the architect of one's own learning. To do that, it's good to look at the perfect model: Babies and toddlers. Little children pick up language naturally because of being bathed in language from birth and maybe before. The brain, being a pattern-seeking organism, begins to make sense of the babble and in just a couple of years the child has a sophisticated understanding of words and their meanings, sentence construction, even humor. It is amazing, but somewhat replicable; realizing that no one is going to stand over me smiling and speaking slowly while I learn.

But, here's my daily plan for learning Spanish:
1. A few DuoLingo lessons on the iPhone. Great free app, by the way. I'm not a digital game player, but the little reinforcing "ching" when I answer correctly is actually pretty motivating. Tonight I learned the word "enemigos." How cool is that? Like "frienemies" except that it's a real word, and now you, too, know it. I am moving on into something called Object Pronouns. Sounds scary so I'll tackle it tomorrow.

2. At least two Rosetta Stone lessons.  Here again, I can't stop with one at a sitting--mostly because I won't accept anything below 80% on a lesson and sometimes that means many repetitions. How I wish I'd taken ANY language in high school!!  Estupidamente me. (Actually, the word is perezoso. Lazy.) And I confess, in the hardest part, writing, I will advance whenever they let me because it is so hard that about three times through and I'm ready to call it quits, 80% or no.

3. Read out loud the old lesson, study and copy the next lesson from A First Spanish Reader. This is a slow slog and these are supposed to be simple stories, but I am a believer in repetition, so I'm doing it. I figure if I just hear things enough times, something is sure to stick.

4. Read a chapter or two of Spanish, Learn the Basics. This and the previous books are on my Kindle. Rosetta Stone is on my computer. The resources are literally at my fingertips.

5. Get started on actual reading Spanish text with Jay.  Probably the Book of Mormon or Preach My Gospel--a few paragraphs each day to begin with.

With just six weeks before we are supposed to be heading out, I certainly don't have any illusions that I'll be speaking the language, but every day a little step closer....

Mission Call

Almost 3 months exactly from the time we were approached about the possibility of serving this mission we received our call in Friday's mail.

I've heard the words, "You are hereby called ________" read out loud when our kids and others received their mission calls, but until the letter was in my hands, with my name, I didn't realize how Brigham Young-like that wording was.

We have dreamed and planned for a mission almost since we were married. This is what we want to do, and have looked forward to; but suddenly I realize what those words might sound like to a 19 or 21 year-old who just made up her mind to serve. Those kids have courage! There is something noble about receiving that envelope, with whatever destination it demands and immediately falling in love with the place. Amazing, really. I admire obedience. You're called to the Muddy, the Iron Mission, Pocatello--and you go.

Already Chile has a special place in my heart. Check this sunset out:

And the little hundred-year-old home we will be living in:

 Here are the baby olive trees all lined up. Isn't that geometric design gorgeous? 

It looks like Egyptian jewelry, or inspiration for a future quilt in my favorite colors.

(Thanks to the Waltons, the missionaries that we will be replacing, who took these pictures)

Here are the basics as we understand them so far:  We'll be teaching English to the farmworkers on this huge for-profit olive farm (ranch?) that the Church is developing somewhat near Santiago, Chile (only sunnier and rural). We get to make friends and manage an English language and computer "learning center," for the workers. We don't proselytize, we don't dress up (jeans, fleece jackets, boots--is that a Kathleen mission, or what?!), and we get to keep our favorite companion the whole time! I don't think we go to the MTC--just a day-long orientation in Salt Lake. The call is from the Presiding Bishopric. We will serve 18 months. We don't drive tractors or do farm labor, although we are called Agricultural Service Missionaries. (It sounds as though Jay and I can keep our dream alive of living on a farm with no responsibilities for plants or animals.) We'll try not to be too lazy!

Sisters in Zion

We had no particular plans, but all just brought--or didn't bring--as impulse dictated. The weather was rainy so the idea of butt-kicking hikes didn't materialize. Saundra stayed at work until midnight the night before but brought her sewing machine and a couple of projects. Suzanne flew from Seattle bringing cut up onsies and bibs for a quilt and we wondered if there was anything we could do with the tiny pieces with no allowance for seams. Gay drove from Camarillo and brought a few groceries in Cedar, and responding to a last minute request, t-shirts and rubber bands. I had a vague idea of making tie-dye shirts dyed with southern Utah red dirt and brought a few left-overs. This was not an orchestrated reunion, but more a "stone soup" get together.

Here's what we ended up with:

Five days, five kinds of cookies: banana with lemon frosting, Ugandan sim sim

(melted sugar and sesame seeds), mocha brownies, pecan praline and chocolate chip.

Fantastic food: Thai noodles, pasta puttenesca, slow roasted tomatoes with quick roasted broccoli and parmesan angel-hair pasta, crusty bread, chipotle chili and bucketloads of Suzanne's Cesar salad. Whole-wheat pancakes, cardamom granola with yogurt and blueberries, Zoom with raisins and cream.
A wonderful visit with the aunties in Cedar and a yummy meal we didn't have to make.

Yes, this is Weeping Rock, bawling its eyes out.

Two projects:

Tie dye with southern Utah red dirt (above)

Quilt for Suzanne's grandboy including a repurposed dirt-died sheet as background for the blocks (below--We seem to like birth order in these pics)

Wildlife sightings:

Wild turkeys on "the 14"

Whitetail deer on the Spencer Bench road

Desert bighorn ram in Zion

Two foxes dashing across the road on Cedar Mountain

                                             

Hours of visiting, all of us sleeping in the loft due to the fact that we all have FOMA (fear of missing anything) and rediscovering the syncronicity of sisters--the joy of making a suggestion knowing that three others will like it (or will be able to top it with their own good idea); and almost the best of all: being able to settle in with a book for hours at a time guilt-free because everyone else was doing the same thing.  Bliss!