Today was day two of Spanish immersion class. It was also the day Robin and I attended our first concert of the trip.
It was a L O O O O O N G day.
And a very good one.
Our school day is organized like this: We’re in class from 9:00 to 11:00, take a half-hour break, and then return from 11:30 to 1:30. The first session is devoted to grammar. During the second, we practice conversation.
I found my brain getting overwhelmed during the first session, which was also my experience yesterday.
I was diagnosed with ADHD some years ago and used to take medication to help with it. When I retired, I decided I wanted to reduce the amount of medication I was taking. I discussed it with my doctor, and we agreed that I could stop taking the ADHD medication regularly.
However, I mentioned that there might be occasions when I needed a little help concentrating. So he gave me a prescription for a lower dose that I could take when needed.
After struggling through the first session two days in a row, it occurred to me that this might be exactly the kind of occasion we’d talked about.
I’ll try it tomorrow and see whether it makes a difference.
During our break, Robin and I went to a coffee shop, where she got some caffeinated coffee to help her concentration, and I got a very sugary snack.
Based on what happened during the second session, I think they helped!
I certainly felt better. Robin is having a much easier time understanding what people are saying and constructing sentences. I think she has a much better chance of being able to carry on short conversations than I do.
I’m not giving up, but perhaps a more realistic goal for me is to learn how to ask simple questions and understand the answers.
We’ll see.
After class, we returned to the apartment. Robin took a nap while I started entering vocabulary words into a Google Sheets spreadsheet.
My plan is to have two tabs: one with the words alphabetized in English and the other alphabetized in Spanish. That way, I can look things up in either direction.
Between the afternoon and the time we got home from the concert, I entered 154 words!
Sometimes problems turn into good learning opportunities.
For example, there were several occasions when I couldn’t read my own handwriting. (Apparently, learning Spanish isn’t the only challenge I’m facing.)
When that happened, I turned to Chad for help figuring out the word or its correct spelling.
Have I mentioned that I’m now calling ChatGPT “Chad”? I’d been calling “him” Chet, but since I have a brother named Chet, references to our conversations were getting confusing. So Chad it is.
Anyway, asking Chad to help decipher my handwriting often led to learning additional words.
For example, Robin and I like grilled food. Thanks to Chad, I discovered that Spanish has different ways of describing grilled food, including food cooked over an open fire and food cooked on hot stones, often volcanic ones.
So instead of simply identifying one word, I’d sometimes end up learning several.
I still haven’t entered all the vocabulary words from our classes, but I’ll continue working on that tomorrow. I think having an easy way to look them up will help me remember them.
Chad also says he can make flashcards to help me learn.
We’ll see how that goes.
Now, on to the concert!
The concert took place at the Templo de la Tercera Orden Franciscana, a beautiful little church next to the larger San Francisco church in Arequipa.
The concert itself took place in the main hall.
The performers included the German choir Westfälische Kantorei Herford and two piano soloists, Anja David and Julio Arancibia.
I generally enjoy choral music, but I have to confess that I wasn’t particularly taken with the choir’s performance. I don’t know whether it was the pieces they chose or the way they performed them, but the music just didn’t do much for me.
If you’re interested in hearing what they sounded like, here’s a one-minute clip from the concert.
https://youtube.com/shorts/2p4OpRlb8VU?feature=shared
On the other hand, I loved the pianists!
Anja David and Julio Arancibia each performed a couple of solos between the choral selections. Then, toward the end of the first half, they sat down together to play a piano duet.
And that’s when things got interesting.
I swear that when Julio introduced the piece, I heard the words “James Bond.”
I wish I’d recorded his introduction so I could confirm what he said. But I’m pretty sure I heard him correctly, because if you listen to the clip below, I think you’ll recognize parts of the James Bond Theme.
Or perhaps I’ve been watching too many Bond movies. After all, one of the classes I was taking this semester was “The Lives of James Bond” where we watched a movie every week (it was great. Leaving my classes was the only hard part about leaving Boulder for this trip).
In any event, it was wonderful to get out of the apartment and hear live music. Hopefully, we’ll have more opportunities to do that during our stay in Arequipa.
By the time we got home, it had been a very L O O O O O N G day.
But a very nice one.
And here’s something I wouldn’t necessarily have predicted after yesterday’s class: I’m actually looking forward to going back tomorrow.
We’ll see whether the medication helps my concentration. More importantly, I’m pleased with the attitude I’m bringing to the experience.
Learning Spanish may be difficult, but I’m not ready to give up.
Not by a long shot.
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