Field Notes for Spanish Learners: Introduction

I've written several posts about my experience learning Spanish in South America. I hoped to chronicle the challenges and rewards of learning a new language, and to suggest some novel ideas about second language acquisition. To make things easier, here's a list of all those posts in order:

Field Notes for Spanish Learners: The Method
Field Notes for Spanish Learners: More Method
Field Notes for Spanish Learners: Vocabulary
Field Notes for Spanish Learners: Castellano Phrasebook
Field Notes for Spanish Learners: Reflections

Travelogue: Uruguay

5/24
Woah, the universities I've visited in South America are...not ideal. I seriously need to appreciate just how beautiful and affluent Stanford is.

6/2
When Uruguayans and Argentines talk to me in Spanish, they refer to the US as allá, meaning "over there," that place where you're from. It's an interesting word choice.

Several people have reminisced to me about a seminal experience they had traveling or living abroad, and how it really "opened up their mind" (as one woman in Montevideo said, me abrió la cabeza). So I have to wonder, has my mind opened up at all?

Computers and other appliances apparently cost more in South America because they have to be imported from the US; maybe that explains the comparative rarity of household appliances and gadgets I noticed here. Nearly all movies come from North America, and are shown in English with subtitles. It's funny how people here are so familiar with American culture because they see it all the time in movies.

I'm from the primer mundo ("first world," rather than third world).

I'm fascinated by the idea, expressed by several Servas members, that it's beneficial for older people to spend time with people my age in order to keep themselves young (mantenerse joven). Not that this is such a revolutionary concept, but for me it's a new attitude.

6/3
Staying for a few days on a farm in Uruguay. It looks just like any farm in the Midwest would, except for the South American addition of palm trees and parrots. Working dogs on the farm seem to have a good life. They run, they roll in the grass, they have all the space they want; they seem more animal than pet. The farm is owned by Hugo C., whose lifestyle seems Mediterranean, as if he were some farmer in Tuscany. Hugo was president of Rotary for a while in Montevideo, which reminds me of that famous Roman farmer Cincinnatus (Cincinnati is indirectly named for him), who left the countryside when Italy needed him to lead in Rome, but happily returned to his farm afterwards. Hugo had me help him out on the farm a little, and it turns out I'm a disaster at farm chores, although I do like working with my hands. It's beautiful here, unreal: I should never forget that I love the country and a life that's simple. Trucks go by, tiny in the distance, so far away you can’t even hear them. The clouds look huge and puffy the way they do in Dutch landscape paintings. The cows are kind of ugly and dirty; the horses are elegant. I'm thinking nostalgic thoughts about how there's just something missing in the current way of life, where you buy what you want at a store using money instead of having to make it yourself. Pretty naive, but it's what I'm feeling here.

6/6
Each individual is dense and layered. Inside one person, there's a lot of room for interesting experiences, accomplishments, adventures. You can just keep piling on so much stuff that you're proud of. Over a whole lifetime, wow, a single person can do so much!

6/9
Staying with Viviana A. and Aramis L., funny incident where Viviana was scolding her son Maceo for putting too much ketchup on his food, because “it’s not healthy.” What American mom would tell her kid not to eat ketchup because it’s unhealthy? It's okay, though, since Uruguayans make up for the loss of ketchup by pouring on large quantities of mayonnaise.

Some comments I've recently heard (originally in Spanish):

"No Protestant country is a member of the third world. The problem is our Spanish inheritance of the bad influence of Catholicism, which says you should be humble and accept fate.”

“Living in South America will cure you of this idea that being efficient and productive is good. We say, don’t plan and organize your whole life. Those business and self-help books on how to be productive or become successful arrive at bookstores here, too, but no one buys them. If they published a book called ‘How to Get a Lot of Money Without Much Effort,’ people would buy it. If someone becomes rich or successful here, they have to hide it because people will assume that they acquired their money by unscrupulous means.”

"Large countries with a lot of land [like Argentina or the US] tend to be arrogant."

6/10
Sometimes it seems like Uruguay and Argentina aren't so different from North America. It would be instructive first to live abroad in a country much less developed than the United States, then to live in a country that is arguably more developed: somewhere in Europe, maybe?

In the view of one Uruguayan, physically large countries (like Argentina or the United States) tend to be arrogant. When it comes to countries, size does matter.

6/13
A lot of aggressive pandhandlers. You pull up to the bus terminal in a taxi, and someone outside opens the car door unasked, pulls out your luggage, then holds out a hand for you to give them some coins. When you ride long-distance buses, too, many times the guy who puts your luggage away immediately sticks a hand out for a tip, even though he's literally done nothing except move your backpack a couple feet. I think maybe it's easier to be generous in a restaurant than on the street; as the guidebooks say, "if you can afford to eat out, you can probably afford to leave a tip." I've also noticed that Uruguayans and Argentines seem more generous than many Americans would be. In Montevideo, buskers strumming guitars and vendors selling trinkets frequently hop on the city buses, and a surprising number of people cough up some change. Sometimes when you return to a parked car in Montevideo, a person will be there "guarding" it, expecting a few coins from you in exchange for their service.

6/14
There is no magic key to greatness. Travel is not a silver bullet, nor is a gap year, nor is an exchange program... Plenty of people have spent a year in a foreign country, or traveled extensively, or had great adventures, but those experiences don't necessarily convert them into influential people. We put a lot of emphasis on being famous, but being influential seems more worthwhile to me: the important part is to change the world a little, not whether people know it was you that did it. And since very few people in the world achieve influence, maybe you don't have to influence the whole world. It's enough just to be influential to a few people. That's what parents do, isn't it? They change the world a little by shaping the lives of children.

6/18

There's a funny phenomenon I've noticed, where some people's voices sound warm and appealing when they speak Spanish, but when they speak English their voice sounds nasal and annoying. It totally changes the way you perceive them. Or the change can go the other way around: one woman I met seemed sort of frail and elderly in Spanish, but in English she had this compelling authority, and for the first time I noticed the graveliness in her voice. In a way, speaking in another language transforms you into a different person: since you're unable to express yourself fully, only a portion of your personality comes across.

I'm not sure what the protocol is when you enter a restaurant in Argentina or Uruguay. Do I wait for a waiter to direct me to a seat? Or do I just take a seat and then they come to the table? Weird how you never think about these things when you're in your own country.

Memorable sounds:

Dale vacas vacas vacas...

"Come on cows cows cows..." (this is what Hugo C. yelled when herding cows)

Paraguas vendooooooo! Paraguass paraguass paraguaaaaaas!

"I'm selling umbrellaaaaaaaaaaaaas! Umbrellas umbrellas umbrellas!" (yelled by one of the many street vendors)

I love to watch salsa dancers, or people playing candombe: drummers with smiles or with their mouths open, intent, focused. Behind the formation of drummers and dancers, a slow crowd of beautiful young listeners moves down the street, some clutching beer bottles or wine in paper packages. The sharp smell of smoke drifts from someone in the crowd every now and then.

It's a strange feeling when you wake up in bed and at first it's quiet, and then suddenly you hear your first Spanish of the day: maybe your host is calling to you from another room, or the radio's on, or someone's talking noisily in the street outside... Suddenly it hits you that you're in a different country. That's how every day begins.

Do I have a right to be offended by South Americans who treat Americans with suspicion and dislike? I need to learn the history of my country, how it affects and has affected other countries. What is the place of the United States in the world?

You know you've settled in abroad when you can eat at McDonald's without a trace of shame, ordering a "Beeg Mock" instead of a Big Mac.

Since I'm in Uruguay during a World Cup in which it performs spectacularly, I get to see the city after a victorious game. It's loud, chaotic, almost what I imagine Mumbai to be like. This is the day I get mugged. I get off the city bus a few blocks from the Plaza Independencia, where a gigantic screen has been set up for Montevideans to watch Uruguay play against Ghana. As I'm waiting to cross the street, I feel something touching my hands. It's three kids, probably my age or a couple years younger, who have walked up behind me out of nowhere, and two of them were prying my hands open, trying to see if I was holding anything valuable, I guess. Next thing I know, the third kid has punched me in the forehead. I'm down, they take the coat I was carrying (lent to me by my host family), and they're gone. I yell an unkind word in English, they yell back hijo de puta, and I watch the game against Ghana with a bad mood and a big bump on my head. For a while, I'm suspicious of all the sketchy soccer-hooligan guys I see (which is what the muggers looked like), and it occurs to me that prejudices based on appearance or nationality aren't right, but they're understandable. I'm no longer invulnerable; after that, I always look around carefully, because not paying attention is asking for trouble.

7/22/10
Walk slower, what's the rush? Slow the @%!# down and enjoy the moment more.

I'm preparing to leave Uruguay and spend a few days in Buenos Aires. In my imagination, Buenos Aires is a city full of well-dressed women in somber colors, black coat, fitted dark jeans, gray scarf, black leather boots (popular, maybe, because of the city's proximity to Argentina's cattle plains). Don't expect people to be friendly in Buenos Aires, I tell myself. When I get there, though, I'm pleasantly surprised after all the ominous warnings I'd heard in Uruguay.

Buenos Aires

FAQs about the Incas

I learned a lot about the Incas at the Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña (Museum of Alpine Archeology, or MAAM) in Salta, Argentina. To be honest, I didn't really know the difference between Incas, Mayans and Aztecs before traveling in South America. But now, I can knock your socks off with these answers to many common questions about the Incas:

Q: Who were the Incas?

The Incas were a Quechua-speaking empire along the length of the Andes from Ecuador to northern Argentina. The Incas arrived in that region in 1400, but it wasn't long before the Spanish showed up in 1532.

Q: Why were they called the Incas?

El Inca was the head of Inca society.

Q: What did they believe?
Travelers might be familiar with Cuzco, the city in Peru; to the Incas, however, El Cusco was the name used to refer to a sacred place. In fact, the Incas believed that mountains were actually gods or holy places, where people would go after death.

(I've almost felt that religious awe sometimes, looking up at mountains in Alaska.)

Q: What language did the Incas speak?

Their language is Quechua, which some people still speak today. I present my extensive research on the Quechua language:

Huasi, "house of"
Inti, "sun"

Thus in Salta there is a hostel named Inti Huasi, "House of the Sun."

Q: Didn't they perform human sacrifice? Why would anyone do something so disgusting and wrong?

Human sacrifice was part of Inca culture, but the details are fascinating. The most beautiful children, those totally free of physical defect, were gathered up from all over the empire. They traveled to the Cusco, then made the arduous return trip in a straight line, forcing them to cross whatever obstacles stood in their way. They were buried alive. The idea was that the community would receive health and prosperity in return for the sacrificed lives. The Incas gave the very best they had, their most beautiful children, because they hoped to be paid back in equal measure by the gods. These rites of sacrifice also served a practical function, bonding remote parts of the Inca empire to the center at Cusco.

In Uruguay, One Laptop Per Child

6/9/10
Uruguay is home to an impressive educational initiative called El Plan Ceibal, which gives a free laptop to every child enrolled in public school. The laptop, officially called the XO-1 but referred to in Spanish as the equis-o, sells for US $188. The idea came from the United States, where Nicholas Negroponte had proposed the One Laptop per Child Initiative (OLPC). His mission statement?

To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.

Uruguay is, in effect, the first country in the world to actually implement Negroponte's big idea. El Plan Ceibal, whose name is a reference to Uruguay's national tree (the ceibo), has been supported by no less a figure than singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler, whose song A la Sombra del Ceibal ("In the Shade of the Ceibo Tree") is featured in this short promotional clip:

Field Notes for Spanish Learners: More Method

Drawbacks of language schools and classes
Language schools and classes are great for learning grammar and provide a routine to help reduce the shock of arriving in a new city. The school where I studied in Córdoba for four weeks (Espanex) definitely achieved this. Unfortunately, a major flaw of schools and classes is that much of your input is incorrect speech produced by other foreign students:

4/29/10
I’m more accustomed to speaking Spanish with Brazilians [who study at Espanex] than with Argentines.

The problem of not meeting locals
It's easy to stay in hostels, hang out with other travelers, and have limited contact with people of the country you're living in. Now, that's perfectly valid and offers its own rewards, like meeting really interesting travelers. If your objective is to learn a language, though, it's not ideal.

The truth is, it's hard to meet locals. CouchSurfing and Servas are two great opportunities to break down the local-tourist divide and meet locals who are excited to hang out with foreigners.

Dilemmas for native English speakers
To be sure, it's a huge asset to be born speaking English. That said, there are advantages and disadvantages to being a native English speaker when learning a language abroad.

Advantages:

• Lots of people in the world want to practice English
• Therefore, it's easy to set up a language exchange

Disadvantages:

• You might get spoken to a lot in English purely based on appearance

Some caveats
The method below is intended to get you sounding impressive in a foreign language quickly.
However, it does not include all the basic steps, like learning grammar. For that, you will want a textbook or a class. The method contains some information directed at beginners as well as some insights aimed at more experienced language learners. Also, after spending four months in South America working pretty hard at Spanish, I'm inclined to agree with Douglas Hofstadter, who explained to me in an email that:

"In my view, a language is something that one spends a lifetime learning, not a year or two. There's no doubt that one can get one's feet wet in a language by studying it on one's own, but learning any foreign language deeply is a lifelong lesson in humility."

That said, I believe that in 4 months it is certainly possible to achieve functional, conversational fluency. You will have mastered a limited domain of the language. You won't always know the exact way to say something, but you will be able to talk your way around it. You can reach a sufficient level to travel successfully around a country on your own—which, it must be said, doesn't require particularly extensive language skills.

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Field Notes for Spanish Learners: The Method

My Method

Let's call it the Crispy Method. The main goal is to learn to speak, to learn conversation. Why?
Well, although I used to study languages for the intellectual satisfaction of it, I now view foreign languages as an interpersonal tool to derive greater enjoyment out of life. I love becoming friends with people from other countries, I love listening to unfamiliar music styles, and I love the challenge of mimicking a foreign accent as closely as possible. For me, speech is the most direct path to excitement when it comes to learning a foreign language.

I'll divide the method into its components:

Conversation
Notice that a small set of words and phrases are used over and over in everyday conversation. Listen attentively and try to identify them. Then, make it a game: deliberately insert colloquial words, phrases, and idioms into conversation every chance you get. For some Spanish examples, look at the "Castellano Phrasebook" post below.

You won't necessarily be able to identify these on your own; you may need the help of a native speaker, maybe even a speaker who speaks your language in addition to their own, to determine the exact meaning. I learned words like tipo and ponele ("like...") from a native speaker who explicitly pointed them out to me, and I only learned este ("um...") after directly asking my teacher Marisa what it meant.

Podcasts
Podcasts for learning a specific language are abundant. They're audio, which means you start developing your comprehension of the spoken language early on. And unlike programs like Pimsleur, they tend to use natural speech rather than stilted dialogues. Podcasts are also an easy way to pick up some extra vocabulary; I find that a few new words/phrases usually stick in my mind after listening. Finally, many high-quality podcasts are available for free.

Language Exchanges
In a language exchange, you meet with a partner and help each other practice a new language. For instance, as a native English speaker looking to improve my Spanish, I would seek a native Spanish speaker looking to improve their English. If you're unable to spend time abroad, you can do language exchanges over the internet using the program Skype and websites like Mixxer or MyLanguageExchange. If you can spend time abroad, I recommend joining CouchSurfing. CouchSurfing (CS) is primarily a hospitality organization, similar to Servas but with greater youth participation. As it turns out, many cities around the world have local groups open to all CS members; in Montevideo, the group meets every Thursday night to talk and mingle. In the Buenos Aires group, there's actually a whole page devoted to finding partners for language exchanges; whatever the local situation, CouchSurfing is a great medium to set them up.

Borrowing from various websites, here are a few things to keep in mind with language exchanges:

• Encourage your partner to correct your mistakes and suggest alternate ways to say things
• Be sure to resist the temptation to "generously" give up all your practice time. It's an exchange, so both partners should spend an equal time practicing the foreign language they're trying to learn

In fact, I've still barely explored the possibilities of language exchanges. As I wrote in my journal:

4/29/10
If I could have 3-4 different language exchanges going at once, like with Viki and her friends, I would learn so fast!

Flash Cards, Pocket Notepad
Barry Farber gives good tips on making flashcards in his book (see the post "How to Learn Any Language" below). They're really indispensable, but they can also be supplemented with a pocket notepad to jot down any new words or phrases as they come up in everyday life. Alternatively, you can carry around a supply of blank flashcards.

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