Wednesday, January 15, 2014

The thing with foreign language . . .

No matter what you do or what curriculum you use you have to be immersed in the language to truly get a grip on using it.  This is what I believe.

I took Spanish all 4 years of high school and one semester in college.  I had planned to minor in Spanish but didn't see the point because I knew I wasn't going abroad.  So I dropped it.  I wish someone had encouraged me to go abroad to learn the language.  Little did I know that I would marry into a family from a Central American country.  My in-laws' first language is Spanish so my kids have a real interest in learning it.

I purchased Rosetta Stone our first year homeschooling.  Princess completed (well nearly completed) the entire first level.  She knows a few words but that is it.  We participated in two foreign language programs with the TOS Crew with marginal success.  I liked this one the most.

Now our church is doing a 12 week Spanish class centered around Christian witnessing to those in the Spanish community.  What the heck, it's free so we are participating.  Yesterday was our first class and just like every other Spanish language program it starts with the greetings - Buenos Dias, Buenas Tardes, Buenas Noches, etc.  I think we got that part down!  One great thing about the class is the teacher made everyone introduce themselves in Spanish giving everyone an opportunity to practice some of what she went over in class.  Conversational practice, that's exactly what we need.

Did I mention that I also purchased a year subscription to BJU's Spanish program?  So here we go again attempting to earn Spanish I credit for my two high schoolers.  By the end of the year we should be ready to move on to BJU Spanish 2.

My prayer is that we will all be able to visit my husband's country of birth, Panama, and put these Spanish language skills to use.

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