The language barrier

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Before coming to Cochabamba I believed the 'language barrier' to be a thing of myth, legend (like big foot, that giant snowball/man thing which lives in the himalayas etc). Everywhere else in the world that I have visited : France, Spain, Chile, Guyana, Sao Paulo (briefly) and Portugal (along with a few others), I have always been able to get by, be understood and get on with life. But for the first time in my life I am having to rely heavily on sign language to convey my meanings across, Latin American spanish is a very vague term....each region has its own style, words and phrases used in everyday life; Especially seeing as the majority of the population in Bolivia are indiginous peoples for whom spanish has been forced upon. Anyway thats all the negatives out the way....I am combating all this with a 1 hour spanish lesson each day to get to grips with the linguistics and grammar of the language and the culture of Bolivia.
My spanish teacher, named jorge, speaks about as much english as i do spanish which makes things interesting in class but needless to say we are flying through the conjugation of verbs (both regulares and irregulares!!). So far we have done most tenses, bolivian geography and a little on conversational skills!
Tomorrow we will be joined by a pronunciacion (spelling in english anyone??) specialist for half an hour....story behind this is conveniently she is publishing a thesis on foreigners and spanish and needs guinea pigs. I am a guinea pig!! well im going to be her test subject til february, which is nice. I hope she isnt a strict disciplinarian....
Well I should probably mention something about my companion, Tea Bag, at this point or Senhor Bag as he likes to be referred to... He doesnt speak spanish, nor does he need to because I feed him, carry him and have now become personal translator! I think he is taking this volunteer trip too much like a Holiday! Well I am going to leave it for today because its getting late and I am the only one left here but as soon as I can (and as soon as I´ve learnt everyone´s names at work!) I am going to update the world on what I do at work.....its differed over the last 2 days, and we dont talk about the first but I will explain that story in my next publication..... Hasta luega X

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Comments

[Ma]

And all those cd's
And what did you do with the Spanish CD's I bought you in October in preparation?!?!? Keep learning....

[Lynda Garnett]

Pronunciacion
Hi Alex - its the lovely Lynda and Christine here (mums overworked and underpaid staff!!! in Leeds. It sounds like it is all go there especially with the sign language. We don't understand the bit about the Tea Bag? Pronunciation is the correct spelling and what about Senhor..... should be Senor (we think.....). It is probably quite warm - here it is cold, wet and miserable. We are willing it to snow. Take care and enjoy yourself. Lynda and Christine x