Validation

Before arriving in Chile, I spoke pretty good spanish. I´m not saying I was incredible, but I had a reasonable ability to get my point across without making a lot of mistakes. I decided to take classes anyway, just because I knew I had some bad habits and wanted to speak spanish as properly as possible (although I still can sling some slang no worries). A lot of people that I have met here have questioned why I take so many classes (8 hours a week), and I told them I still have a lot to learn and I really want to get rid of as many bad habits as possible. I felt kinda stupid sometimes but today I recieved validation.

I had an in the field class today with my teacher Tati. She said that she thinks that Candy (the surf shop lady) is one of the most difficult to understand in Pichilemu (not true, Pati Paz, my thirteen year old host sister, blows her out of the water). When I got there, another gringo was there and we all sat down and talked while Candy wooped up some lunch for her son and husband. I did fine, as I expected, although I still have gaps in vocabulary (especially in specifics like kitchen utensils/items). What I did notice though was that the gringo next to me had spent a lot of time in Latin America and spoke fluidly incorrect. He could say whatever he wanted but he had so many errors in his speech that it made me understand why I take classes.

He learned spanish by working with some Mexican guys in California and can understand it perfectly, probably better than me, but because he has had less formal training he had way more errors in speech than me. I guess more than anything it just made me feel like I was doing the right thing.