I am enrolled in the Official Language School of Barcelona (Escola Oficial d'Idiomes Barcelona Drassanes or www.eoibd.cat) which is run by the Catalan Government (Generalitat de Catalunya). My friend Gina, who has lived here for 7 years and had taken classes at the school, recommended it to us. Mark is taking classes in Catalan two nights a week at the same school. The school offers very well-priced intensive courses in many different languages, and it can be hard to get a spot since it is quite popular. I guess we both got lucky. The registration process included online registration, standing in line for over an hour, taking a placement test, then showing up again to pay and register, again standing in line and not having a lot of choice. But I am happy to say that it was worth it, because I just completed my level 2 exams, and I feel like I have learned a ton in the past four months.
My teacher was excellent, the textbook was good, and we did a variety of activities which encouraged us to practice speaking, reading, and writing. We didn't have much homework-- just enough, really. In addition to the almost daily immersion which is critical to language learning, I got to meet a nice assortment of people from around the world and make some good friends. My exams included a written test with listening and reading comprehension, and an oral test where we were paired up with another student and had to describe a photo and talk about it, relating it to our lives. The exams are pass/fail, and if one fails, you can repeat the same course. If you pass, you can register for the next level, and I think the process is much easier for continuing students. The facilites are nothing special-- a slightly run-down building in a slightly grungy part of town, but close to the main tourist area and completely adequate, with projectors in every classroom connected to a computer, and a big old-fashioned chalkboard.
My classes were Monday-Thursday 9:30am -12pm right off La Rambla near where Mark works. So usually the four of us left the house together, we dropped the kids off at school, and continued walking downhill for 20 minutes to Mark's workplace, and then I would continue another 5 mins to my class. It was great to have a routine that got me out of the house daily. Also Mark and I could meet for lunch once a week.
A lot of people here have commented that I can speak very well for only having lived here for four months. Comparing myself to my classmates, most of whom have already lived here for 2-3 years and still are having a hard time expressing themselves, I have to agree. I ROCK. And I owe it all to Mark. His Spanish is excellent by all accounts but his own. He studied it in middle and high school, he dated a Mexican-American in college, he worked in Argentina for a few months, and he did a research project in the Dominican Republic one summer. But really, he has a facility for languages and a passion for Spanish, so he has spent a lifetime listening to Spanish music, watching movies, and improving. I took two quarters of Spanish thru Stanford Continuing Studies back in 1996, which I really enjoyed, but it was once or twice a week. Ok, I got an A+, so obviously I have a decent ear for languages as well, but I didn't learn much more than a bunch of nouns and adjectives and some familiarity with the present tense.
When we were expecting Zoë, we decided that from the get-go I would speak to her in my limited Mandarin, Mark would speak to her in Spanish, and the rest of the world would speak to her in English. It was a grand experiment. We even started in utero with a pair of speakers that we would place on my belly and sing and talk to her before she was born. Crazy overachiever parents. It is not easy to speak to your child in what is not your mother tongue. Mark and I learned a lot ourselves just trying to stay one step ahead of our kids. We learned children's songs in Mandarin and Spanish. We read books to them, and we attended music classes in Spanish with them. And I listened to him every day telling the kids to wash their hands and talking about clothing and whatever else people talk about in daily living. I rarely spoke a word of Spanish, but I could read kid's books just fine. In a way, I have been studying Spanish for the past ten years.
So when I got here, I realized that I could understand a great deal (not TV shows because they speak really quickly, but at least 60% of conversations with people) but I couldn't form a grammatical sentence. I have a large vocabulary, but I did not remember the rules for conjugating verbs. In the last three months I have learned the simple past and the continuing past, as well as the present and future tenses. And with that, I am functional. I can go out alone and buy things, make bank deposits, go to the post office, and I have no fear of getting lost. Spanish feels really easy, in comparison to Mandarin. My pronunciation is pretty darn good if I say so myself, and now I have to work on increasing my vocabulary beyond the basic, commonly used verbs and add some more tenses, and I need to watch more movies and TV so I can train my ear.
Zoe's Spanish has always been very good. She has a knack for languages and as often happens, parents are more strict with the first child than the second. Before Trevor was born, she always spoke to Mark in Spanish. But once Trevor became verbal, the two of them were all-English, all the time. In addition, Trevor was slower to speak any language, and he had some speech issues, so we let him speak English to us just so that he would express himself. He's kind of a quiet guy anyway. Before we came here he had no desire to speak Spanish, and I was certain that my Spanish was much better than his. I could recall a lot more words.
BUT within one month of moving here, because he attends school from 9a-5pm immersed in Catalan and Spanish, and all of his friends here speak Spanish, now he corrects me all the time. "Mom, you said X when you meant Y;" or "You forgot the LO." It's AMAZING. We had him repeat second grade here, since he is already on the young side, and we weren't sure about the new languages, but in the first semester he got very high marks, and was even outperforming native Catalan speakers on some spelling tests, so starting in January he moved up to third grade and seems to be doing great. The first month we were here, before my classes started, I was already trying to think and talk in Spanish. Zoë was so embarrassed and annoyed by my butchering the language that she told me, "Mom, I would prefer if you would not speak to me in Spanish until AFTER you have taken classes." OUCH.
For the first month or two, when picking up the kids from school, I didn't really know any of the other parents, and I felt shy about striking up conversations in Spanish. It was kind of hard. Luckily some wonderful parents were friendly to me and they are patient with me when I take a bit longer to express myself. And now I feel much more socially comfortable, although there still is a language barrier. Spending the day with some local families is wonderful and exhausting for me, as my brain is working overtime to keep up with the conversation for hours on end. But I feel great satisfaction that I am learning and growing even in my middle age. :)
I have met some other Americans who have lived here for quite a few years already, but whose kids attend International School in English, or who work in an English environment, and thus have mostly expat friends, and they regret not having learned much Spanish at all. It certainly is possible to live in an expat bubble, since there is such a large community of expats here. I am glad that we did not choose to go that route, and we are integrating here.
I actually think learning Spanish is helping Trevor and Zoe with their English vocabulary because so many of the Latin roots are similar, so many words which are higher level vocabulary in English have a commonly-used cognate in Spanish. The kids still prefer to read in English, but they will read Spanish graphic novels and magazines willingly.
We haven't spoken or read in Mandarin for the last six months, since we got back from Taiwan. We were busy moving, and then we wanted to let the kids settle in with Catalan and Spanish. I was worried that they would forget the Mandarin which we have invested in for so many years. So we just started with once-a-week Mandarin tutoring for them, just to maintain what they have learned. Writing characters was the first thing to go. Yet I was pleasantly surprised that the kids did well in their first class, and even seemed to enjoy it. One benefit of living in a place where everyone is trilingual is that it just seems normal and expected. So different from the U.S.
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