La Segunda Semana

My mother has always told me that learning styles are important. This week I realized that there are several aspects that must be present in order for me to fully enjoy and engage in a class:

1. Structured lesson plan
2. Clear and concise explanation
3. Real world application
4. Practice of the newly acquired knowledge  
   

My instructor this week is Carla and she is an awesome person and teacher. She seems to base her lessons on things we struggle with or questions we asked the previous class. Maybe I enjoy her class because the material we cover addresses my Spanish language problems, for example,  past perfect/imperfect subjunctive, conditionals, indirect/direct objects,  the proper use of gerunds, and the many uses of "se." 

In addition to hardcore grammar, Carla teaches us things we would never learn in a traditional Spanish class  and "Tiquismos" (phrases/words commonly used by Ticos). Like in the morning you can ask Como amanecio? Which basically asks how did you sleep and how was your morning all in one. We learned how to say "I did #2" in ways ranging from most crude to most formal and how to express your relationship with a significant other. ha! Stuff I can actually use. (btw I can't wait til I can teach Cherry all this stuff)

In the afternoons we do activities that reinforce the lessons. For instance, to practice subjunctive we each but two items in a bucket. In order to retrieve our belongings we had to fulfill a request from each person in our class. "Quiero que preguntes a la recepcionista por un tampax." "Ordeno que cantes "La cucaracha" en voz alta mientras estes de pie en el poyo." Good times... just let me say that. 

My classmates this week are much more interactive and we are evenly matched linguistically. Morgan goes to UI but is a die-hard TARHEEL fan plus she works with a local youth group. Caterine goes to U. Michigan, Jens in my class again and we have a girl from Austria named Claudia. Our discussions are classic. ha! Oh, and Carla served  on some of the reservations I'll be visiting through the Peace Corps. She's teaching me some common words for the Bribri. I'm going to miss this class... can't believe I only have one more day here at CRLA. =(