Learning Language and Culture

María, our language teacher enticing us to learn with sweets

There was no question that learning Spanish culture and language was going to be the most important and time-intensive part of our first year in Spain.  I had made it walking the Camino where local people are used to encountering people from all over the world and making it all work in many languages, but now we were no longer pilgrims or tourists but permanent residents and members of the neighborhood.

Now we would be going to the hardware store in search of round-headed screws (they don't exist here) and getting haircuts and buying embroidery thread and dealing with government agencies.  We had a responsibility to learn to understand and speak Spanish.

I had developed skills in eating in restaurants and buying things in food stores.  I mean, that is the basics of life, right?  I learned to say lo siento (I'm sorry), la cuenta, por favor (The check, please), Gracias, de nada and Buenos días.  I understood siéntate (sit there) as well as no te sientes ahí (Don't sit there). I learned to call ahead and ask ¿Tienes una cama para esta noche? (Do you have a bed for tonight?) as well as to understand the most terrifying word for a pilgrim - Completo (we are full, no more beds here). 

But when the answer to that question was Sí, ¿cómo te llamas? and I would respond with 'Ron,' I usually got silence in response.  Ron means rum, yes the liquor, in Spanish, and is pronounced somewhat different.

I see a resemblance ...

So I adopted my to-be Spanish nickname, Ronaldo.  And that generated some funny conversations.  The first one I remember was a reply in broken English after a few tries in Spanish "Just you or team?" which I thought was referring to my Camino family.  I learned solo uno cama, por favor in response, "Just one bed, please."  Another day I got the comment after securing a bed "You play bad, very bad, in last game." What?  I just shrugged it off and thanked him for the reservation.

Later when I got to that albergue he again told me I played bad.  And someone explained to me that he was referring to Cristiano Ronaldo, perhaps the most famous fútbol (Soccer) player of the day.  Of course, I didn't know anything about him or soccer in general, but I saw the need to learn this part of the culture too.

María and her dad, with a Gracias note from us
for the fruit he had sent us from his garden.

So when we got to Astorga I wanted to find someone who would teach us Spanish better than that owl Duo on my phone screen.  We mentioned that to everyone we talked to and our first AirBnB host got us connected to María who has turned out to be much more than just a teacher.  We laugh together and she has allowed us to participate with the young boys and girls to whom she teaches English.  We have been to a birthday party, met them in the plaza, and even made an online video about ourselves for them to learn to hear US native English speakers and respond to us.  We have also joined a Skype lesson with several young students. ¡Mucho divertido!

But that is the icing on the cake.  The process of learning another new language is not so easy for me.  I'm old and I don't hear well, so getting pronunciation is difficult on top of not remembering vocabulary.  But María has the skills, attitude, and flexibility to work with Ann, who hears a lot better, and me. My comfort level gets better all the time, especially reading, as we have done a lot of that during our stay-at-home weeks. 

Skype Language Learning

During this lockdown we meet online using Skype - and send homework back and forth using email, WhatsApp, and shared Google docs, learning more technology and Spanish every day.  María keeps us inline online, lets me write stories and helps me fix mistakes, and more important than anything perhaps she is never Completo, she always has the energy to keep us moving forward.  I see a day soon when we can eat with María on the plaza and practice the restaurant vocabulary we have been learning at home.

What are your language learning memories?  Please share them in the comments.

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The Other Jew of the Day is Prof. Shmuel Rafael, director of Bar-Ilan University’s Salti Center for Ladino Studies.  More than 525 years after expelling its Jews, Spain is officially recognizing Ladino as a Spanish tongue in the hope of saving the language of Spanish-Jewish exiles from extinction.