I have my bookbag ready and packed with my pen and notebook. I’ve been listening to my language cd’s. I’ve been taking every opportunity to talk to neighbors. I am even working out sentences as I fall asleep at night!

So, yes, I am ready to study Spanish!

Tomorrow I start classes, finally. Paul started in December but since we couldn’t both be away from home at the same time while so much work was going on at the house, I elected to start in the next session. Paul is doing great – gets extra work every week because he is doing so well.

Our teacher was recommended to us by a number of people. The main thing we heard is “if you are serious about learning Spanish, he is the one for you.” And we are most certainly serious.

The classes are small – four or five people – and take place at the teacher’s dining room table. You dive right in with necesitar and querer as those verbs can be used to make a multitude of sentences without learning the conjugation for a zillion verbs. Vocabulary is huge. The class is spent going around and around the table, translating sentences. Proper pronunciation is stressed.

I know all of this through conversations with Paul and others who’ve taken classes from this teacher, of course. But tomorrow I get to find out for myself!

I had a conversation with my neighbor yesterday. I think I did pretty well communicating – but I know my speech wasn’t always perfect Spanish, to say the least. We talked on a variety of topics, and I promised him that in one year we were going to be able to have a much better conversation! He laughed and said “Bueno, bueno!”