21 August 2016
Here is a brief update on our language learning here in
Arequipa. Each day Jake, Sam, Isaac and
I attend language school ABC Español in the suburb of Cayma. We live in the suburb of Asvea which is about
a half hour trip on a usually overcrowded Combi (the Peru name for a small
bus). Each bus route is owned by a
different company and we had to learn which one goes where as there are no maps
or schedules available. The irony is
that one has to speak Spanish to know how to get to Spanish school! J Seriously we had one of the teachers help us
on the first day which was necessary for us to get there.
 |
| A typical combi (bus) trip to / from language school – here standing with some of our fellow missionary students. The bus can be a lot more crowded than this as there are no capacity limits. |
We arrive around 8:30am and classes go until about
midday. We then head home for lunch and
then homework in the afternoon and/or the evening. More often for me it is the late evening – as
I have many day to day things to do plus I need to work at language harder than
the boys (making no mention of the fact that it has anything to do with my
age!).
But despite the difficulty I face with learning a new
language (and yes I am finding it really quite challenging to say the least),
one positive aspect is that I get to sit in the same class as my three eldest
boys. Where or when else would this
happen in life? It is such a privilege
on the one hand, but on the other it is humiliating as I find them much more
adapt to learning (expected but my pride has been well and truly cut down).
 |
| A privileged (and also humbled) dad in school with his three eldest sons – here in ABC Español grammar class with teacher Annalú |
Although I am understanding more and more words amid
sentences, I believe Spanish is a very mature language like English, and so
there are seemingly endless different ways and words to say the same or similar
things. The learning aspect in favour of
Spanish is that you always pronounce every letter and in the same way – unlike
English where we have endless exceptions and merging phonetics depending upon
the word (I have in fact learnt a lot about English which I previously took for
granted!).
In my limited experience with Spanish it is a language
centred on verbs for which each needs to be conjugated (changed in some way)
depending upon the subject or tense largely on rules but with many exceptions
that must be simply remembered. There
are also many words and tenses we don’t have in English, plus the construction
of the sentence is different (e.g. subject then verb then compliment). Then there are plural verbs and matching
gender alterations throughout each sentence.
I think this is what I am struggling with the most along
with just remembering a large vocabulary of new nouns.
Moreover I have reassessed my progress in recent time with other
missionaries of my age and conceded that I need to stay on an extra 2 months (from
original plan of 3 months). I believe I
need this before I am proficient enough in constructing sentences in Spanish. It would seem that 5+ months (up to 12 for
some) is the norm for people in my category. Dr Klaus John also agreed and hence we have
adjusted our stay in Arequipa until November before moving to Curahuasi.
In the meantime I have been working from Arequipa with Klaus
on the Curahuasi broadcast project (i.e. in addition to language school, which
makes it a bit tough some days going into early mornings to fit it all
in). Some parts of the project cannot
wait until November primarily for licensing reasons. Such as designing the satellite network and
selecting key hardware for purchasing.
We are after a home tutor for Sandi and the girls + Solomon
at home. We believe this is the only way
we can function as a family. Although we
have not found anyone as yet. Sandi and
the kids are being adventurous and most days venture out shopping, to markets
or to a park, learning about local life as they go. We also watch some movies and familiar
programmes in Spanish such as Peppa Pig (for the littlies) via YouTube and
listen to the local Christian radio in Spanish.
For example we went and saw Disney Pixar’s La era del hielo (Ice Age).
 |
| Sarah, Georgia and Jessica at the movies posing in the “Buscando a Dory” (Finding Dory) photo promo set. |
Another aspect of the ABC Español school is church. It is one where all the students and teachers
attend. In fact one of the two directors
of the school (Pedro) is the pastor!
Worship is great (often familiar tunes and always with words projected
on the wall) but I am yet to get much from the sermon as it is of course all in
Spanish!
Importantly both Jake and Sam have joined the music
team. It is a lot smaller scale than
Lifesource Church (from which John McLennan and team helped prepare them for
this opportunity), but none the less is building them up amongst some also
extremely talented musicians.
 |
| Our Arequipa Church consisting of ABC Español people – here with Jake and Sam on their debut with the worship team. |
So in a nutshell – that’s language school and church for us here
in Arequipa. I will write more about
life here in another blog (as there is much to fill you in with).
For those praying for us with language learning – please
believe with me that that I still get this language supernaturally as there is
urgency to get on with the job we came for at Diospi Suyana!
Thank you all for your support in helping us prepare for our
work ahead.
Chris
No comments:
Post a Comment