How's Your Spanish?

For the last 8 months we have been attending the Spanish Language Institute in San Jose, Costa Rica. Since The Institute is Biblically focused, missionaries from various denominations from around the world attend. Classes are small, approximately 10 students per grammar class and 5 per language class.

Our typical school-day runs from 7:30am – 12:10pm. Afternoons are filled with tutoring appointments and conversation practice with neighbors while we take turns caring for the boys. In the evenings we have plenty of homework and studying.

The big question is, with two trimesters completed and just one left to go, What Have We Learned?  This can be a difficult question to answer as language learning is a process but we think we’ve found some practical examples of our progress.

	When we first arrived	Now	We Have Yet to Achieve
Conversation	We could converse in broken sentences using some verbs but only in the present tense.	We can converse in complete sentences using many verbs in present tense, both past tenses, and future tense among a few others tenses.	The ability to tailor our vocabulary and style to our audience as we do in English.
Translation	We consulted the Spanish/English dictionary multiple times each class.	We are ready to start using a Spanish/Spanish dictionary for new words.	The ability to serve as an oral translator at a social or professional function.
Reading	We would read the newspaper headline, understanding some words and maybe the main idea.	We can understand every word in the newspaper headline, read the article and understand 95% of what we read.	The language level where we can read in Spanish for pleasure.
Music	We would hear songs in Spanish and occasionally catch a few words that we recognized.	We hear songs we recognize in the grocery store…and can sing along!	A broad vocabulary.
Church	In church we had to listen intently to catch the book of the bible being preached on or risk being completely lost the rest of the service. We often had to look at the Bible of the person next to us to find out which verse was being read.	We understand the book, chapter, and verse as it is announced. Sometimes the old lady who sits next to us misses it and asks us which verse.  We are able to respond to her in Spanish with the correct answer.  We can also understand the majority of the sermon.	The ability to discuss the sermon at length as we are still learning to express opinions and back them up.
Spiritual Life	We could pray memorized prayers.	We can pray briefly, tell simple Bible stories, and tell how we became Christians.	The language level that would allow us to counsel another person.