Learning Spanish Take Two

OK, I knew I'd have to pay for my cockiness the last time I wrote about learning Spanish...

Let me just say that the honeymoon is over.  Level 3 is a real step up from level 2.  I am encountering lots of new vocabulary, and many of my classmates speak quite well, while I often feel tongue-tied.

It doesn't help that I arrive late to class twice a week because of my dance class schedule, and I leave early on Mondays in order to take Trevor to guitar class.

I seriously feel like I speak worse now than when I just arrived.  Mark says that isn't true, and he thinks I am improving.  But I feel more embarrassed now than just two months ago hearing myself butcher the language every time I open my mouth.  I think at first I was just happy that people seemed to understand what I meant, and I didn't know how to speak grammatically, so I just said whatever came to mind and didn't worry about it.  Now I know when I have used the wrong tense and I have to pause in the middle of my sentences to figure out how to form the verbs correctly, and I see the slightly strained look on the faces of the people I am talking to and get even more self-conscious.  It's not good.

My brain is full!  Suddenly words which I know that I know are harder to recall.  Have I been drinking too much wine?  Listening exercises have become more challenging.  I cannot understand people with Andalusian or Caribbean accents.  I get the general idea, but miss the subtleties because they are talking so damn fast. I hate that I can't understand jokes, and it's hard to make jokes.

Now that I know 4 different kinds of past tense, I not only have to figure out when to use them, but also how to form each verb in that tense, depending on whether it's first person singular, second person, third person, first person plural, second person plural, or third person plural!  Should I use the preterito indefinido (distant, completed past) or the preterito perfecto (recent, continuing past) or the preterito imperfecto (describing the past), or the pluscuamperfecto (past tense of the past)?  Telling one story often requires switching back and forth between all of these.  Yikes!

In addition to the present tense, we have the future tense, the imperative, and the subjunctive, each with their own sets of irregularities.  Adding to the complexity of verbal conjugation, once must consider, is the verb reflexive?  Because the meaning changes a lot if you leave out one tiny pronoun.  For example, cambiar means "to change," but cambiarse is "to change one's clothes". Quedar is "to meet with someone," but quedarse is "to stay in one place for awhile."  

If I manage to get the verb right, I still have to worry about matching nouns, adjectives, and articles according to the number and gender of the object, which sounds easy at first glance, but there are enough exceptions to make it complicated.  La mano and el poema are masculine, but el agua and la foto are feminine, while el paraguas and el microondas are both masculine and singular!  Argh!!!

One of my least favorite things are pronouns, which vary depending on whether they are subject, direct object, or indirect object, male, female, singular, or plural.  Do they go in front of the verb or behind it?

I also have a hard time with prepositions-- those tiny linking words which you just have to hear enough times to have a feel for what sounds natural.  Should I use de or a or para or por or con?  They all can mean "for/to/with/at."  Finally, there are those pesky accent marks.

*sigh*

Can you tell I'm a little frustrated?

Sometimes it's not good to have high expectations of yourself, I guess.

I have about a month to review and prepare for my exams.  Wish me luck.