Paper-Trail For Spanish Language Learning Project - Relating To "Engaging In Cultural Inter-Action "

Paper-trail -

Initial Start Date - (16 /Nov/ 2016) - I had intended to check out the Spanish worship services (etc) to see if any were helpful, but timetables did not work for me thus far

I did hear of a family who are friends of some people I know who are in process of moving to Costa Rica from Bolivia, so there might be an avenue of "breakout" there in January.

Our trip to C-R in Jan might give a lot of options in this regard, but I think some "comprehensible input" might be in order initially

(21 /Nov/ 2016) I went to the Spanish service down the street on Saturday evening...delightful experience, and I was amazed at how much I understood The music had Youtube words and music with lots of repetition and some of the music was already familiar in English or from online songs I had already discovered. The welcoming was closer to the Latino warmth brand than the customary Northern European coolness, which was so appreciated! A terrific way to engage in the new language community for me. As the sermon was on Family life, it was fairly easy to get the gist of what was being said, from an extremely expressive speaker. Coffee and goodies after and a chance to chat...this time in English, but a context for change.

Thanks Lord for this

(Dec/18/16) - My involvement at the local Spanish church has been very interesting.
I jotted down in a notebook words I could isolate from the flow and each week it increased... -113-195-330-426-(next one did not do that exercise),
Joking with kids and English conversation good

Mar3/17. My time in Costa Rica as well as my Saturday nights at the church on the corner have been very good for my cultural exposure and involvement. Songs have been a huge part as well.

Coming home from Costa Rica I found myself mostly looking forward to the Saturday night services, and he cultural warmth I have experienced there. I heard they had been praying for me during my absence. I commented that I found he spiritual dimension to be rich and conveyed quite independent of he language awareness, which I gather got passed on to the group.

I still feel the presence of he linguistically constructed boundary between our cultural groups as I approach he church building, but feel quite at home once there. I get to go home after a few hours, but I well remember living in another culture and always having that barrier around me to some extent. I understand its reality much more of course than I did earlier in my life, but that doesn't prevent it's happening. Fortunately he group is increasing in size so I have less of an impact by my presence in their midst. I definitely do not want to be disruptive. I have a little friend who loves jokes so we swap jokes each week...he catches on to the humor very fast. Still have to make the jump to Spanish jokes but it will come.

(April 17/2017) I am finding that people are using a less "edited" version of English with me as I become more a "part of the background" at the Sat. evening Church experience. Good to know that happens, and to expect it going the other way into Spanish as well.

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