5.16.2009

Scrambled Brains

So my brain is consistently mixing up the two languages these days. Like I speak Spanish to my students and I speak English to my tica mom... without thinking! Oops, I need to keep my mind straight. 

I made a pact with Judit that during lunchtime with my students I would only speak Spanish as I was complaining to her that I don't have many opportunities at school to speak Spanish. We brainstormed ways that I could incorporate more Spanish into my day, and this was the conclusion. So I've been speaking Spanish with my students at lunchtime (it is allowed for me to do this at lunch but not for the rest of the day) but then Friday I spoke in Spanish during our Writing lesson as well! Whoops, the students were quick to let me know that I was breaking the rules! 

Then Judit and I have been doing language experiments... She speaks only Spanish and I speak only English. We both gain confidence in our abilities to understand the other language without the extra burden of formulating our own words in that language. So tonight we were in the grocery store and attempting our language experiment, but I kept switching back to Spanish! It was like I couldn't think in the two languages right then! So finally I became accustomed to listening to her in Spanish and responding in English (you should have seen the look on the cashier's face as we were talking in line! haha, we were laughing on our way out of the store!), then we arrived home and Blanca spoke to me in Spanish of course and I responded in English! She speaks phrases but not much English, so I quickly switched and translated. AAAAHHH! My brain is so confused! 

1 comment:

Jill said...

Oh, I can't imagine how hard this would be! My brain is scrambled listening to you being scrambled. Ha!

(Obviously, I'm a little behind on reading your blog... but I'm catching up!)