Puerto Rico en mi Corazon

It's called Isla Del Encanto for a reason.

After almost 38 years, I visited my late father's birthplace for the first time. With any luck, it will not be the last.

The 4 of us spent an amazing week in both San Juan and Fajardo. We stayed at the El Conqistador which was fabulous and a very family-friendly resort. While there was plenty of activities there, we made it a point to venture out and eat at local places (we discovered a little bakery where we ate breakfast and had excellent coffee almost every morning), as well as explore the amazing nature. We loved the El Yunque Rainforest so much, we went back for a second day of hiking and exploration. We discovered that snorkeling is something that we can enjoy as a family...discovering a coral flower formation full of hundreds of tropical fish was a highlight for everyone. On our final night, we took an electric boat ride through a tunnel of mangroves to a bio-luminescent lagoon where the water lights up from the phosphorescent plankton that live there. Truly magical.

As much as we loved the natural surroundings, it was every bit a cultural experience as well. Baseball Boy now loves tostones (not a part of our regular diet here but he enjoyed sampling them from different places). We ate everywhere-from roadside stands and food trucks to the Luquillo Beach food kiosks to a great restaurant nestled among trees and run by ex-New Yorkers who only use fresh local ingredients. I had the best mofongo ever there- tostones (green plantains) mashed with garlic and stuffed with some sort of meat or seafood. Several times. I'm not sure I will ever be able to eat it here again, which is probably not a bad thing.

I totally get it now...why my dad wanted us to appreciate where we came from. I am so sorry that we never go the opportunity to go there with him. When I told people I was going, inadvertently the first question was, "Do you have family there?" Sadly, I did not have the experience of going there as part of my upbringing. However, I am so appreciative that my children have seen this place, and I have never felt so connected and at home than I was while there. It's a wonderful feeling to be connected with such a beautiful place.

And of course, it was a perfect opportunity to practice my/our Spanish. Even though almost everyone there is bilingual, it was still nice to use some greetings here and there. Also, because all the signs are in Spanish, it was easy to pick up vocabulary words.

Now that I have been there, I am even more determined to work towards conversation ability (total fluency remains the ultimate goal - but one step at a time!). I would like to have my comfort level improve by the time I return. Until then, I will be dreaming of and planning for our next trip to the Island of Enchantment.

Reality Check

Let's begin with a pop quiz. After all, I am a teacher.

I have been occupying myself with all of the following over the past two weeks except:

A. Indulging my inner artist by painting a pasta bowl and attending a photography lecture.

B. Planning a trip to a Spanish-speaking place.

C. Learning Spanish.

D. Buying cute shoes to go with my cute dresses for my upcoming 20-year high school reunion.

E. Shoveling out Baseball Boy and Little Guy's bedrooms.


If you guessed C - you are right!

Sigh.

Here are some of my lame excuses. I shall try not to sound too whiny.

1. When I am in the mood to do a lesson or have BB quiz me/me him on vocabulary, BB is not in the mood. And vice versa. We were at the pool during LG's swimming lesson the other day and since BB was not swimming too, it seemed the perfect time to quiz me from my old SparkChart (those laminated fold-out cards from the bookstore) from my ESOL days. He was not into it. The next night (at like 9:30) he asks me if I wanted to do a lesson. My turn to not feel it. We loaded a "Spanish for Travelers" CD from the library into the car one morning...both our turn to not feel it.

So what should we do? Should we just work on our own...so that it is less like "work" and more of a routine? I admit that once I start procrastinating, it's hard to stop. I can and will tackle every dust bunny and weed first before I buckle down. I have to incorporate this into some sort of regular routine...so that if I don't do it I feel weird.

So yeah...I think it may mean BB and I will have to work separately - for now at least.

2. The purpose of this blog is to be honest, so I am going to be. I am going somewhere in a few weeks where Spanish is spoken. You would think that in addition to making all my endless lists and research I would be learning some freakin' Spanish as well! But no, I'm not.

Why is that? I think it is because...and I really hate to admit this...it's just easier to no habla Espanol sometimes. If I don't know, I won't try and if I don't try...I won't fail or sound foolish. I need to get over that. If I sound stupid, so what? At least I am trying and learning.

I have had some of the most wonderful suggestions regarding learning resources, now I need some motivational techniques!

Glad to get all that out. Off to do a lesson - by myself.

So here we go!

"It's always best to start at the beginning..." -Glinda, The Good Witch of the North

I think the best thing about this whole blogging experience so far is that it has provided me with lots of wonderful suggestions from friends. I now know that I can attend conversational classes at the library, join a meetup group, or watch TV (including cartoons) using my cable's on-demand feature. Viva la Espanol!

Now I just have to figure out how this is all going to fit together.

I did set up my account with Mango Languages last week, and Baseball Boy and I sat down to our first lesson. There are three "courses" for those wanting to learn Spanish: Basic, Complete 1.0 (intermediate) and Complete 2.0 (advanced). Even though BB and I have a few fundamentals, we began right at the beginning with Basic, Lesson One. It was nothing we hadn't seen before, just greetings. I was more interested in the instructional delivery, which I thought was just what I/we needed -repetitive, with visuals, phonetic pronunciation and opportunities to rewind if necessary. The program even tracks how much time you spend on the lessons--17 minutes so far, baby! Woo hoo!

My short term goal is for BB and I to get into the habit of completing a lesson every evening (more or less). Once we finish the Basic course, we will then assess how brave we are and perhaps venture out to one of the conversation classes. That's the plan for now. Maybe some cartoons thrown in for good measure.

In other news...Little Guy, ever the observant one, must be catching on to what we are doing. As we were taking a little siesta this afternoon, out of the clear blue sky he asks me, "Mommy, how do you say 'no' in Spanish?". What followed was a rather hilarious exchange reminiscent of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?" with me telling him "no" was no in Spanish and him getting more and more irritated that my answer was "no" when he kept asking over and over.

Maybe you just had to be there.

The Little Guy

My 4 year old will be known here as Little Guy. Actually, he's often referred to around here as the Little Monster but I'll refrain from calling him that here since all this stuff is archived forever. Little Guy could not be more different from his brother. They weighed the exact same amount at birth (7lb, 15oz) but that's pretty much where the similarities end. They do both like LEGOs though. A lot.

LG is the youngest child in a family where everyone else is either an oldest or only child. As a result, he is the source of much head-scratching and head-shaking around here, as he has a very different personality. However, he is also an endless source of amusement because the kid has an adult's sense of humor in a kid's body. He is a funny, funny guy-even when he's not trying to be.

He is also whip-smart in his own way, but has done everything (walking, talking, potty, etc) on his timetable and not anyone else's. At this point, I am not going to "force" any Spanish lessons on him but I have a feeling he is going to pick things up on his own when BB and I become conversational. This past year in preschool, his bilingual teacher would use some Spanish phrases here and there and reported to me she would overhear him telling the other students, "Siéntese en la alfombra." (Sit down on the carpet.).

So when he decides he's ready, look out...he may become fluent before BB and I do!

Meet Baseball Boy

I shall be referring to my 10 year old son on this blog as "Baseball Boy". As far as kids go, he's a pretty good one in my opinion!

I'm not overstretching things by calling him Baseball Boy. He loves the game - be it playing, watching, or reading about it. Maybe it is because his dad and I met in a college class called "Writing About Baseball", or maybe it's the Puerto Rican genes. Who knows? His favorite team is the Philadelphia Phillies, courtesy of his dad, but one of his favorite players is Roberto Clemente. This warms my heart to no end as he was my late father's favorite player. Sometimes I feel like my dad's spirit is with him whenever he's out there on the field...

Interestingly, it was at a baseball game that I was hit with this idea to bite the bullet and learn Spanish. We were attending a minor league game a few weeks ago and sitting behind us was a group of young men. Because of the location of our seats, we surmised they were part of the "baby" league, in other words, very recently recruited kids. I also guessed they were from the Dominican Republic. I could be wrong, but I know that's a big recruiting area for baseball talent. As I overheard them talking (I recognized one of them cursing during a botched play-lol) I was suddenly struck by the fact that once again, if I only knew Spanish, I could actually have a conversation with these guys! That's it, I am going to learn. Was it like The Voice in "Field of Dreams"? Well, not exactly BUT it was a pretty good inspiration nonetheless. Do I realize there are all these dialects and such that vary from region to region? I do, but still, I'm not ever going to assume I will be able to pass myself off as a native, I just want to communicate better.

So, as we were driving home, I casually made my little announcement. BB immediately piped up from the back seat "I want to learn with you too, Mom!". Hearing that from him was all I needed-not only was I proud and happy to hear him willingly take on this challenge (and he does know what he is getting into-he has had Spanish as a special since Kindergarten, so he does have some familiarity) I knew that if we could learn this together, it would reinforce both of our skills. I was thrilled, and I vowed right then and there that we would make this happen. I would focus on BB for now, but the Little Guy also in the back seat knew a few words in Spanish as well, and was known to use them on his preschool classmates. You'll meet him next.

Beginner's Luck...If It's Free, It's For Me!

So here's another thing most people who know me well already know: I have a tendency to make things a lot more difficult for myself than they need to be. Must be a firstborn thing. Maybe a Virgo thing. In any case...

Since I just started this blog, I figure now may also be a good time to start thinking about how I am going to achieve this goal of mine. Miss Virgo needs a plan, you see.

When this idea began to take shape, my go-to plan in my head was Rosetta Stone. For the unfamiliar, it is a popular and well-regarded software learning program. I have seen commercials for it, but I really saw it in use when I was working in Adult and Community Education, as the ESOL students used it in a lab setting, and they loved it.

Oh, and it's really, really expensive.

I talked with my husband about it and when I mentioned that I couldn't even find used versions on ebay, he suggested we go ahead get it at some point and then re-sell it when done since it seemed to hold its value. What a smart guy - he's good like that.

So today the kiddos and I went to the library (we are already out for the summer) and it occurred to me to hunt around or at least ask about what software they might have to borrow. I struck up a conversation with the librarian and she completely blew me away by telling me the library has a comprehensive online education program...including foreign languages. For free.

Free? Yippee!

So here I was, all prepared to spend money on something that I can now do for free. She showed me how it works...from what I can tell, it seems awfully similar. There's visuals, audio...it even tracks your progress. Fantastico!

She's now following my blog too. :)

I read The Alchemist recently for the first time and it struck me that this could indeed be "beginners luck" on this journey, but I like another quote from that book more:

"When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it."

So...here's the story.

The Short Version:
I want to become fluent in Spanish by the time I turn 40. As of today, I have a little over two years to accomplish this. My 10 year old son wants to learn as well. Hopefully, he will learn before he turns 40. I am hoping that having a blog will keep me/us accountable and focused on this goal.

The Long Version:
I really should speak Spanish. I'm half Polish and half Puerto Rican. This makes me, well, a PoleRican. I realize that people of mixed ethnicity are no longer a big deal today but I definitely felt different when I was growing up. My late father spoke Spanish fluently and of course attempted to teach me when I was young, but I would just laugh and refuse to learn. In high school, I took Latin.

You know how you just cannot escape certain things sometimes? Well, this not-knowing-Spanish-thing has hung over me as long as I can remember. I have been in countless situations where people assumed I was bilingual, I even taught reading to ESOL students who were from all over Latin America. It just has followed me everywhere.

One other thing you should know about me: I am a complete nerd, and proud of it. I think the more appropriate term is "lifelong learner", but I am fine with nerd. I embrace it. I like to learn new things and I read voraciously. I was always a good student and totally focused on the "next" thing...college, grad school, job. I have been a stay at home mom with some teaching in between for a number of years. Over the past few years, I have found myself focusing more on topics that I wanted to learn, rather than what I had to learn. One of these is photography. I always enjoyed taking pictures, but did not own or learn how to use a DSLR camera. After getting one and taking a class, it is now something I really enjoy and I will probably post some of my favorites here and there.

A year ago, in yet another attempt to lose weight and get in shape, I tried a Zumba class. I was hooked immediately. Again, despite the Hispanic heritage, my knowledge of Latin dance moves was minimal, but I loved it anyway. I felt like an elephant those first few months, but as time went on, I got better and better, moving from the back of the class to squarely in the front. As the weight fell off and my confidence grew, I began toying with the idea of becoming an instructor myself, and when one of my best instructors suggested it to me one day, I took it seriously. I'm going to my certification class in a few weeks, and shall see what happens from there.

As silly as it may sound, I am kind of on a roll with this lifelong learning thing. Learning Spanish is my white whale, my Mount Everest. My 10 year old volunteering to learn with me is a bonus-he's a smart kid who likes to learn as much as I do. I want to model for him that you can learn anything at any age.

One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies, "Back to the Future" is this one:
"If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything."

I really believe that. I am excited to see where this learning journey take us.