Tag: Spanish class

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Linguistic My Hobbies

Pollo A La Crema De Maíz Con El Arroz Al Vapor – Now, How About That?!

Mr. Chicken says to Ms Maze, "Let's have some rice".

Thank you for not hating my doodles.  Drawing can be very therapeutic at times.  Truth been told, though we often complain in the Spanish class that we dislike homework or deberes, I reckon we all secretly love it.  This week’s homework was to write a recipe or receta.  In fact, I looked forward to writing it as I love to cook.  Inside Facebook, my buddy Alex’s wife Shirley suggested paella; my blogger friend Tigerfish suggested fried rice (by the way, you ought to check out her site if you love cooking).  Both are great ideas and they got me thinking.  Of course, being so behind time, it has never occurred to me that I could Google a recipe in Spanish and present it in the class.  So I did it the hard way.  Armed with my passion towards Chinese cooking and my electronic dictionary inside my wireless phone, below is the recipe for Pollo A La Crema De Maíz Con El Arroz Al Vapor, or in English, Chicken in Cream Corn Served with Steamed Rice (hence the doodle).

OK.  I made quite a number of mistakes in the original version.  Our teacher Natalia has patiently corrected them for me.  ¡Gracia!

*     *     *     *     *

Pollo A La Crema De Maíz Con El Arroz Al Vapor

Dificultad: Fácil
Preparación: 5 minutos
Cocción: 10 minutos
Ingredientes: 2 personas

Ingredientes:

  • 1 pechuga de pollo
  • 1 huevo
  • 1 lata de crema de maíz
  • 1 cucharadita de azúcar
  • 1 cucharada de salsa de soja
  • Un poco de harina de maíz
  • Un poco de sal
  • 30 ml de agua
  1. Cortar en cuadritos la pechuga de pollo, adobar con un poco de sal, un poco de azúcar, un poco de harina de maíz, y un poco de salsa de soja.
  2. Sofreír removiendo el pollo.
  3. A cocción, agregar la crema de maíz, el agua, el azúcar, la salsa de soja, un poco de sal, y sin parar de remover.  Dejar hervir lentamente 5 minutos a fuego lento.
  4. Agregar el huevo, cocer poco.
  5. Servir con arroz al vapor.

*     *     *     *     *

Disclaimer: Please don’t take the measurements as they are.  When I cook, I often cook with feeling.  It is not at all incorrect to say that I have no clue on how much salt or sugar or etc. I use.  Oh well … sorry!  Just go with the feeling, would you?

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Linguistic

¡Uff…! Our Spanish Exam Certificates From Las Lilas

Yes, we have passed! He he he.

It felt like yesterday when we returned home with two certificates.  A moderately hard earned albeit minor achievement in our routine life.  Now that I am reading that entry I wrote back in January, have you noticed how much the certificate’s template has changed?  From that entry, I notice that Cynthia and my scores don’t change much.  Except, she has somewhat improved.  And I have somewhat … oh well.  For Elementary level, Cynthia has upped her score to a high nineties.  While I slipped to a low eighties.  Our gap has widened from 9% at the Beginner’s level to a worrying 13%!  This is Singapore.  We all need to score an A+.  And there is no anything but.

Jokes aside.  I am delighted to have passed and moved onto the next level.

Learning Spanish reminds me of my painful journey of learning English.  You see.  English is not my first language.  We learned English in Hong Kong inside a classroom of students and teachers speaking Cantonese, during English classes.  Sure.  We have worked really hard on English grammar, since young.  In my late teens, I began writing diary in English, reading English books, listening to English songs, and speaking English [almost] everyday.  That was when I have moved to UK for my study.  Then I went crazy over English literature.  Began to write songs in English.  And now, running a website in English seems like a fun thing to do.

So, by my reckoning, if I am to be serious on learning Spanish, mirroring what I have learned from learning English, the followings will have to happen, quite possibly in that order.  A laundry list of more moderately hard earned albeit minor achievements as such:

  1. Able to catch bits and pieces of simple Spanish from books, newspapers, magazines, and etc.
  2. Able to catch simple spoken phrases from radio, music, and etc.
  3. Able to hold a basic conversation.
  4. Write private diary in Spanish.
  5. Play guitar and sing along with a Spanish pop song (music plays a big part of our lives and I wonder why Las Lilas School doesn’t incorporate music into their curriculums).
  6. Read Bible in Spanish (I happen to be one of those who studies English by reading Bible, as I was familiar with the Chinese Bible and it helped).
  7. Master Spanish expressions, idioms, and expand the vocabulary.
  8. Able to appreciate Spanish humor.
  9. Able to hold a decent conversation, appreciate Spanish literature, catch the music lyrics, listen to the radio, and watch a Spanish movie without subtitles.
  10. Able to blog in Spanish at ease.

Of course I am eying on #10.  But if I could achieve up to #6 in the near future (like in 3 years’ time?), I think I would be much delighted.

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Linguistic

¿Qué Hiciste Ayer, Qué Ha Hecho Esta Semana?

OK.  Forget about plan A and B.  I am running out of time.  Plan C is to semi-cheat (it is semi because I have actually worked for this).  When our teacher momentarily leaves the classroom tomorrow, I will quickly pull out my phone and hit this page.  Ah ha!  That will most likely help me with some of the exam questions.  I am done with the verb conjugation.  I am done with the long list of nouns and adjectives.  I got wind on what the written and oral questions are going to be (thank you PK and Monster!).  And if I have to spend the entire evening getting prepared for these questions, so be it!

80 words on either “what did you do yesterday” or “what have you done this week”.  Life is not fair.  At this very moment while I am still struggling with the preparation, Cynthia is already fast asleep.  She probably has not set the alarm clock for tomorrow morning.  As for me, I will get up early to continue with my study.

First question is “what did you do yesterday?”.  Well, I woke up, showered, had breakfast, and went to work.  I worked  in front of a computer.  I ate lunch alone, studied Spanish over Starbucks coffee, and then I met up with my friend Ken later in the afternoon over a cup of tea (real story … ha ha ha).  After which, I had dinner with my family at home, studied Spanish, and slept at 12 (which may still happen if I type faster now).

Me levanté a las siete menos cuarto de la mañana.  Me duché después yo desayuné los cereales y bebí un café con leche.  A las ocho salí a trabajar.

Trabajé en la oficina enfrente del ordenador.  A las doce, comí en “PoMo” solo.  Después fui a Starbucks, bebí un café y estudié español.

Ayer por la tarde, quedé mi amigo Ken.  Nosotros tomamos té con limon.  A las cinco, volví a mi oficina y trabaje un poco.  Después volví a mi casa, cené con mi familiar.  Luego estudié español y escuché la radio estación Europa FM.

A las doce por la noche, dormí.

I think I overdid a bit and have exceeded the 80 words requirement.  Next one – what have you done this week – I struggled to meet 80 words.  So what have I done this week?  I have studied Spanish everywhere I go, listened to Spanish radio channel, spent time in Facebook, and worked 5 days a week.  No movie, no shopping, no exercise, just study Spansih.

Esta semana, he estudiado español en mi casa y mi oficina.

He escuchado la radio estación Europa FM y he escrito en Facebook todos los días.  Pues, he trabajado cinco días esta semana.

He quedado mi amigo Ken y hemos tomado té con limon.

No he visto una película, no he ido de compras, no he hecho deporte, por que he estudiado español siempre esta semana.

Oral exam is the tricky one.  I probably won’t be able to catch what the teacher asks.  My best guess is that she will ask me what I can do (¿qué cosas sabes hacer?) and what my physical and non-physical attributes are.  Well, I guess I could say that I can cook, play guitar, sing, ride a bike, and speak Spanish (hmmm).  I think I am sort of tall, sort of thin, quite good looking (ha ha ha!), and have black hair.  Personality-wise, quite funny, a little bit weird, and very *ahem* intelligent.

Sé cocinar, sé jugar la guitarra, sé cantar, sé montar en bici, y sé hablar español.

Yo creo que soy bastante divertido, un poco raro, y muy inteligente.

Estoy alto, delgado y bastante guapo. Tengo el pelo moreno.

The last oral question could be: what are the places of interest in Singapore?  Right, what are the places of interest in Singapore?!  I hope before 1 pm tomorrow, I will figure that one out.

Categories
Diary Linguistic

The Art Of Conjugation (Be Back After Our Spanish Exam!)

The art of Spanish conjugation

How time flies.  Just about a year ago we have started learning a new language.  That was before I have started my photography hobby.  And it seems that I have been taking photos for ages.  Getting things into rhythm does have its merits.  Before I knew it, I have clocked in 80 hours of Spanish lessons; before I knew it, I have taken 15,038 photos using my dSLR camera.  Who knows what I would become 12 years from the day I have got these things in rhythm?  (I have this theory that all good hobbies take 12 years to mature into something decent.)

Onto what I termed as “Season 2” of our Spanish class, it gets a lot harder than the previous “season”.  First, is the conjugation of verbs.  The picture above illustrates the two verbs – to want and to come – in three tenses (present, past, and present perfect) for different persons (I, you, he, and etc.).  The variation is mind blowing.  The extensive irregularity across common verbs makes it harder for me to perform pattern memorization.

Besides conjugation of verbs, for this “season”, we have a whole bunch of nouns to memorize (and we have to be able to tell which one is masculine and which one is feminine), a whole bunch of adjectives to memorize (in both masculine and feminine forms), and on top of that, forming sentences and dialogues.  At times, it seems like brutal memorization is the only feasible way to go, for me that is.

Over dinner, I have had some sharing of experience with Cynthia and her mother from Indonesia on how we learned Chinese in Hong Kong, during my time.  There was much brutal memorization on Chinese characters, poems and ancient documents, idioms, and etc.  I remember during examinations, we had to reproduce the entire poems and ancient documents accurately and strictly from our memories.  Looking back, how did we do that?  That was a lot of Chinese writings to memorize, word-by-word.  But we did it just fine back then, most of us.  And as a hobby, believe it or not, I chose to memorize extra pieces of poems that were not in scope.  There is so much wisdom and value compass embedded inside these ancient works.  It is hard to extract them if we don’t internalize them the hard way.

Back to our Spanish examination, it will be this coming Saturday.  Wish us luck!  I have just completed one round of revision and we have tomorrow evening and Saturday morning to do the round 2 and 3.  If all go well, “Season 3” will begin next Tuesday.  I suspect that the difficulty level will ramp up quite a bit.  However, since the entire class is determined to move onto the next level, I guess I just have to see how far I can get.

¡Hasta luego!

Categories
Linguistic Snippet of My Life

Snippet Of My Life Episode 20 – Extreme Idol, Extreme Sport, Extreme Spanish Verb

Extreme Spanish Verb

Extreme Idol

So Adam Lambert didn’t win the title.  On the next day, I briefly joined the countless of fans reading through hundreds of comments easily found in the Internet.  It was as though we all need a global support group, to hear that common voice.  Majority of the younger audience these days probably won’t appreciate the vocal powerhouse of Freddy Mercury or Axl Rose, the mighty guitar skill of Slash and Brain May.  So get over it.  We all love Poker Face more.  It would have been nice for Adam’s career had he gained the title.  Then again, I think it is the American Idol franchise’s loss more than anything else. 

I love the franchise.  And due to the time difference, by the time we get to watch the result shows in Singapore, there bound to be someone around us who can’t contain the emotion and broadcasts the result.  To some, it’s no big deal.  To others, the anticipation throughout the day, the excitement of spending an hour or two in front of a TV to wait for that very nail biting moment is gone, utterly spoilt.  So I have developed this natural defence system.  On the day of the result show, I would avoid visiting Facebook and even CNN.  On the season finale, I would take leave if I could.  And if I couldn’t, like this year, I would not read any text messages sent to my phone.  Call me if you need to contact me.  I would not watch the tiny television inside the lift and I would listen to my music throughout the day if possible.  For two consecutive years, Cynthia – rather sad really as she too is a fan of American Idol – knew the result prior to the finale because someone sent her a text message.  Throw that phone away, just for a day.

Extreme Sport

Unlike American Idol, my new interest F1 is usually broadcast live on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon or evening.  I love watching F1.  Such an extreme sport.  To win a race, the car constructor has to do a fabulous job in constantly evolving the car throughout the season, the engineer has to closely monitor the car’s condition, traffic condition ahead and behind, weather condition, competitors’  lapping performance, and decide on the pit stop strategy, the driver has to perform and take care of the car during the race, and the team has to adapt to the different circuit challenges as they tour the world for the race.  Accidents may happen, safety car may come out, mistake can happen anytime, anywhere that some teams may be able to take advantage of while others cannot.  And it is a flawless execution of the entire team, from qualifying round to the actual race, that has a higher chance of a podium celebration.  F1 is not just some cars going round and round in circle.  These are the meanest machinery on Earth that can go beyond a speed of 300 km per hour.  It’s an extreme sport with rule of the game changes every year.

Extreme Spanish Verb

If day one of my Spanish Class was to start with Spanish Verbs, I would have quited long ago.  In Spanish, the verb ir means to go.  In English, we have the verb forms goes, going, went, and gone for the verb ‘go’.  What about its Spanish equivalent?  To conjugate the verb ir, we need two pages of text (see picture above).  Those highlighted in red are without any pattern.  You have to exercise brutal memorization for that one irregular verb.  And these conjugations are not often found in the dictionaries.  You have to know their model form.  Ir is one of the hardest verb to remember, I reckon.

Below is a straightforward regular verb vivir side-by-side with the English equivalent – to go – in four simple tenses.

  • (I) live, (you) live, (he/she) lives, (we) live, (you [plural]) live, (they) live / vivo, vives, vive, vivimos, vivís, viven
  • (I) lived, (you) lived, (he/she) lived, (we) lived, (you [p]) lived, (they) lived / viví, viviste, vivió, vivimos, vivisteis, vivieron
  • (I’ll) live, (you’ll) live, (he/she’ll) lives, (we’ll) live, (you’ll [p]) live, (they’ll) live / viviré, vivirás, vivirá, viviremos, viviréis, vivirán
  • (I’ve) lived, (you’ve) lived, (he/she has) lived, (we’ve) lived, (you’ve [p]) lived, (they’ve) lived / he vivido, has vivido, ha vivido, hemos vivido, habéis vivido, han vivido

That covers 25% of the verb conjugation for ‘to live’ in Spanish.  In case if you wonder, that is not the most amazing thing I have observed today.  In today’s class, our teacher Natalia played an audio clip on several repeats and Cynthia was able to pick up major sentences while I was staring into space.  That, is extreme Spanish, from me to you for me.  (OK, you have to be an American Idol fan to get this).

I look forward to Adam Lambert’s upcoming release that goes without saying, my anticipation does come with hopes and fears.  I look forward to a good F1 season though the memory of the last season has hardly faded and now we do it all over again.  I may still watch the next season of American Idol and most likely, I will drill deep into the land of extreme Spanish Verbs, this weekend, and do what I best in doing: extreme memorization.

Categories
Linguistic My Hobbies

Spanish Supercharged: Elementary 2 @ Las LiLas School

The only Spanish DVDs I have ...

The thought of giving up on my Spanish class has briefly come and gone.  I would miss my classmates too much, my teachers too much, and if Cynthia wants to continue, I just have to press on.  It is rather up to my linguistic limit knowing how little talent I have on that department.  Today was the first day of the 10 “Elementary 2” lessons that will lead to an examination, unlike “Elementary 1” that is exam-free.  My lovely teacher Natalia jumped when I jokingly yet rather seriously commented that the only two or three things I have learned [by heart] from the last 10 lessons were que pasa (what’s up?), pausa (have a break), and uff (an expression).  Something Natalia always says; something I can always pick up.  The rest of what she says?  It literally sounds like music to my ears.

Stress aside, I always welcome a lighthearted break.  This morning I woke up with a foggy mind and a pair of eyes that could hardly be opened.  Still not fully recovered from that mild cold over the weekend, I thought of taking a medical leave.  But I thought of all the work piled up, the face-to-face meetings and the multi-country conference call that were set up, maybe working through the day with half of my brain still working is not too bad an idea.  So I did.  And as I was rushing out of the office for the Spanish Class this evening, my wireless phone continued to ring.  OK.  One more call to answer then.  This morning, in the car, Cynthia was playing the album by James Morrison.  I nearly fell asleep.  I begged for something more upbeat and she put Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” on repeat.  Immediately I woke up.

Immediately I woke up when today’s Spanish Class started.  Today’s topic was on movies.  Thank God.  I love that topic.  You know I do.  And we learned the different genres in Spanish, how to describe everything about movies in Spanish (including popcorn), and we were given a printout of a movie schedule and asked to form sentences in Spanish.  Lovely.  When it came to my turn to speak, I said, “Me gustaría ir a (I would like to watch) … Confessions of a Shopaholic.”  The rest of the class was shocked while Cynthia was laughing (she knows me well).  And I continued, “Porque me gusta (Because I love) chick-lit.”  OK.  It took the entire class some time to explain to our teacher Natalia what chick-lit is.  And it took me quite a few moments to convince them that I do read the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella.  Seriously guys.  To get into a woman’s head, chick-lit is as close as you can get.  Besides, that series is very entertaining to read.

So, how does the photo relate to this blog entry?  Well, as part of the exercise for next week, we are suppose to pen down some Spanish film titles that we know.  I dig through my foreign film DVD collection, only manage to find 3.  Two of which I have yet to open.  Maybe I shall try out learning Spanish by watching Spanish films.  Now, that’s easy.

Categories
Linguistic My Hobbies

Our Spanish Teacher Turns to Music for Inspiration – En La Ciudad by Amparanoia

Amparanoia

This has got to be one of the most hilarious Spanish lessons Cynthia and I have attended.  Not because of the bizarre Spanish reggae music piece that the whole class has to listen to not once, not twice, but … I can’t recall how many times.  Rather because I felt so stupid not able to follow most of what our new Spanish teacher Natalia said.  “¡Conecto!  ¡Conecto!”, she kept saying.  I reckon she was asking me to connect the phrases on the exercise sheet given.  I kept repeating certain words that I could recognize like a toddler, and she kept coming down on me like I was a … toddler.  Yes, I could guess what I needed to do.  No, I had no clue what she was saying.  How come I was the only one in the class who was so fascinated by the strange vocabulary and have that unstoppable urge to repeat till the words get registered into my brain?!  OK.  Laughter is infectious.  Soon, the entire class was laughing.  I was in tears trying to keep quiet while listening to the song “En La Ciudad” the …

… umpteenth time.

Maybe somewhere in the world, right now, someone is learning English by listening to songs written and performed by Bob Dylan.  Political, social, philosophical, and literary lyrics can be an alternative source to learn a language in a fun way.  Like Bob Dylan’s lyrics, “En La Ciudad” is kind of just that.  It is – literal translation here – a song about illegal migrants making a living in a foreign city of noise and waste, mafia and black money, building a city like growing flower of cement, nothing is what it seems.  Pressure in day, passion at night (OK, we did laugh quite hard on that expression too).  There are temples of money and districts made of cardboard, looking at our roots and dream that one day will be better than today.

And it was first time when we learned Spanish idioms.  Like “sin papeles (without paper)” means illegal and without documents.  “Pagar en negro (pay in black)” means to pay in cash without tax.  At home, I did a search on the song by Amparanoia and she is in fact an accomplished Spanish artist whose music is built on reggae and rock and lyrics that offers social critiques.  In fact, I have managed to find the song in YouTube, for now.  Check this out.

And for those who are interested in the Spanish lyrics (I know at least one of you may), I am typing this out for you.

en la ciudad hay mucha tribu, mucho barrio, hay poco saldo, mucho banco, aves de paso que se quedarán.  en la ciudad todo se paga con tarjeta, aquí la gente es muy discreta, y por la calle no te van a mirar.  en la ciudad todo es prisa, atasco, coche ruido, consumo, oferta, derroche, busca el paraíso en tu ciudad.  flores de cemento vi crecer, nada es lo que te parece, día presión, noche pasión.

siempre amanece en la ciudad en la ciudad en la ciudad.

en la ciudad si no te paran te atropellan, sin papeles no vale la pena, nadie trabajo te va a dar.  y en negro te van a pagar.  la mafia se va a aprovechar.  y en negro te van a pagar.  la mafia se va a aprovechar.  ay soledad, no me dejes soledad, no te vayas soledad.  ay soledad, la soledad se apodera de la ciudad.  hay miedo, no hay sistema de seguridad, templos de dinero, y barrios de cartón, busca las raíces y sueña qué será mejor.

en la ciudad …

Categories
Diary Linguistic

Spanish Reloaded: Elementary One!

4th Spanish Film Festival

This morning I woke up with a clear vision on how my day was going to play out by the hour – like many other days of my life.  I was composing my next blog entry at the back of my mind while showering, while ironing – like any other morning of the week.  Little did I foresee my day being turned upside down, from curiosity to anxiety to desperation to joy.

Ever since Cynthia and I have passed our Spanish test we took last year, we were eagerly waiting for the next class to begin.  Cynthia did all the correspondence with the school Las Lilas while I watched the email messages flying from left to right, and right to nowhere.  One of the reasons why we studied so hard was to join the rest of our classmates, proceed to the next level, and not to be left behind.  Out of nowhere, one email from one of our classmates popped out and caught my attention.  What?!  E1 (Elementary One) starts today?!  I was curious as in why we were not invited.  Then I shot another email to another classmate and she shared with me that half of our class would be joining today’s E1!

Gosh!

So I was baffled, virtually bashing the gate of Las Lilas via my friendly electronic mail raising fists in the air asking why we were left behind (seriously, the feeling was kind of not that pleasant).  The class was full.  Oh no!  3 dropped out and we could join.  Yes!  Then I called up Cynthia and she preferred a Thursday slot.  Uh-oh.  But I highlighted that Tuesday is a good day to study Spanish because the World of Warcraft game server is down on Tuesday.  Ah ah!  Through my mass electronic communication to our classmates, some started to consider forming our own class (just need 5 at minimum).  Oh no!  2 hours before the class was due to start and the group was still swinging between (a) attending a confirmed slot tonight or (b) to wait for a new slot in March – via email.

Oh dear, what have I done?!

So I made an executive decision to commit to a Tuesday slot.  And it was a good decision.  This new class is a consolidation of three B2 (Beginner Two) classes and it is one fun class.  Statistically, that means two-third don’t make it eh?  We have a different Spanish teacher Natalia and she has such a cheerful personality, talking non-stop in Spanish.  I tried so hard to catch what she said.  Stress!  OK, good stress though.

I am so glad that it all works out in the end and hope that the rest from my previous class would be able to join our next lesson.  One thing I learn today is that taking myself out of a waiting list requires a little dose of opportunity, a little dose of reaching out to people, a little dose of a leap of faith, a strong dose of desire, and making a firm decision and stick by it.

Categories
Linguistic

Passing Our Spanish Beginner 2 Exam at Las Lilas with Flying Colors!

Our Spanish Certificates

Hard earned, certainly, from that rather challenging Spanish test we had – at least from my point of view.  That one scene of 1-on-1 oral test with a Spanish teacher whom was not from our class still haunts me today.  But I scored a 86% while Cynthia managed to score 95%.  95%?!  How did she do that?  To me, it was pure hard work as my talent in linguistic is limited.  I even brought along the Spanish textbooks and practiced Spanish during our holiday trip to Bandung.  Our buddy TK can write a testimony on that.

I am happy with a score of 86% from a Spanish test that covers oral, listening, and writing.  Personally, although I dread exams, I welcome the discipline of little checkpoints along the journey.  Not to be too philosophical on a Saturday, we ought to – or rather I ought to – look for opportunities to put ourselves to various tests.  Maybe I shall enter a photography competition, maybe our band should record a demo album and distribute, maybe I shall …

… cook a 10 course dinner to a party of 12 … (and see who call the Pizza Hut takeaway first!)

Back to Spanish lessons, our next level should be “Elementary 1”.  And we are still waiting for some of our classmates to pass the exam.  A little thank you note to all whom have sent us the warm wishes of “You Can So Do It” online and offline, consciously and subconsciously.  Many ask why Spanish?  Honestly I haven’t given much thought as I just follow Cynthia’s passion.  Learning Spanish seems to have opened a new dimension of my awareness.  One time, inside a bookstore in Hong Kong, a kid spoke to his parents in Spanish and I could understand some bits and pieces.  Another time, while I was photo-shooting at the Singapore Night Safari, one lady screamed “Mire” (means “Look” in English), I looked at where she was pointing and snapped a picture of a flying squirrel.  Now when I watch a Spanish movie and I can pick up parts of the conversation.

So why Spanish?  It could well be any language.  There’s no right or wrong answer I guess.  Just ‘do it’, and then ‘follow it through’.

Categories
Linguistic My Hobbies

So This is What the Spanish Exam at Las Lilas School Beginner 2 is Like

Studying Spanish at Coffee Bean

Oh dear me, the Spanish Exam for Beginner 2 was mind blowing.  I dragged myself out of the bed just hours before the exam, having a fever of 38°C.  Oops, that was no good.  My body ached (still does) and I have these non-work related appointments coming into my mobile phone’s Gmail application as I was trying my last ditch effort to memorize as many Spanish words and phrases as possible.  I think nothing really entered my head at the last minute of studying, even at my heightened mental power with the help of BRANDS Chicken Essence.

Leveling up to Beginner 2 is easy as there is no exam at the end of Beginner 1.  Our beloved Spanish teacher Anna remains vague on what the exam is like and got the whole class hopelessly guessing.  OK, she did hint to us that we have to work hard on …

  1. Describe our families, our cities, and our home.
  2. Able to understand and give street directions.
  3. Able to describe objects and where they are.
  4. Describe what we like and don’t like to do in our pastimes as well as what our day-to-day life is like.
  5. Able to … duh as it sounds … converse in Spanish.

I think I have too many theories for my own good.  People in general panic when they come face to face with exam.  I do too but I had a theory that I used to calm everybody around me, including me.  You see, Beginner 2 is level 2 of 20.  If Las Lilas School fails too many students at such an early stage, think of the potential loss of income!  How many would retake the entire course of 10 lessons just to pass level 2?  I wouldn’t.

It is rather strange that the exam is smacked right into the Christmas holiday period.  Most of our classmates have been holidaying overseas.  So Cynthia and I have missed our last Wednesday’s lesson – the supposed day of exam during our Bandung trip – and instead, we took up today’s slot.

We were expecting the Director to appear as the independent examiner and instead, there came a lovely lady from Peru (I have another theory on ladies who speak Spanish as first language).  We were expecting one hour of revision and then one hour of oral exam like what Anna has told us but instead, we had …

  1. Listening Test
  2. Written Test
  3. Oral Test
  4. Reading Test (too bad it didn’t happen as it is my strength in a larger scheme of work)

I had a splitting headache when I was pulled into a room for my oral test.  Gosh!  Okay, Mamy – the Spanish teacher from Peru – is very friendly, which is good.  Conversing in Spanish is my weakest subject.  I struggled so hard and fortunately Mamy has been very encouraging.  She asked me what I like and don’t like to do in my past time (thanks Anna!) and I said … me gusta comer … (means I like to eat) and I paused.  That got her laughing and I continued … las tapas (some kind of Spanish food).  Everyone laughs when they hear me saying me gusta comer las tapas.  A lovely piece of icebreaker.

Then she asked me (I think) what my home is like, what kind of furniture I have inside, what I do in my daily life, and that is!  End of oral test!  I seriously don’t have a lot of high hope on that test.  I really need to work on the Spanish grammar.

Written test was OK.  Fortunately, I did 12 lessons worth of Spanish exercise (a separate book from the text book) over the weekends.  Our Spanish teacher Anna is not that into drilling us on exercise.  And I bet most of us in our class have not been working hard on those exercise, except Cynthia of course.  Many of the examination questions came straight from the exercise book.  I did a lot of brutal memorization over the weeks and it helped.  To give you an idea, I would keep writing Monday to Sunday in Spanish non-stop till I get it.  I take every hobby of mine very serious, Spanish included.

Oh, and we needed to write a mini-essay about our daily life (40 words).  That too went OK.

Listening test was OK too.  Two Spanish people on tape asking each other about the time.  The conversation is fast and furious but Mamy was kind enough to pause between each conversation and to replay it again.  I asked if we could listen to it again.  Mamy looked at our answers and smiled, you all should go home now.

One student from the Monday class (Cynthia and I are from the Wednesday class) asked when the class for the next level will start.  Mamy said, let’s see if you can pass first.

Oh gosh, I really hope that Cynthia and I will pass this exam.

PS. I was at Vivocity’s Coffee Bean studying for my Spanish exam while waiting for Cynthia to finish her facial.  Right in front of me was a “No Studying” sign.  It takes time to finish drinking a regular cup of coffee right?