MOVING ON TO PIMSLEUR

I slogged through the first lesson of Tell Me More. It was a challenge. More of a challenge than I need right now. I did finish that first lesson -- a lot of it was hit and/or miss. It starts out pretty easy and there is some fun stuff in it. Like puzzles to fit Spanish audio words into; voice graphs to help with pronunciation; good sound so that I could hear words and phrases. All in all a very good program. The frustration seeped in when I realized that the program was presupposing some knowledge on my part that I just did not have. Like the conjugation of simple verbs and like male and female nouns. The frustration became too much.

Back to the public library and back to square one. The librarian introduced me to Pimsleur Language Programs. One version comes in a little IPod type thingie called Playaway. It fits into the palm of my hand, has a headphone jack, and even comes with a spare battery. There are eight chapters and I am midway through Chapter 4. The verb conjugations and noun genders are worked into the explanation of the conversations. AND I get to take part in the conversations -- or so it seems. The 'how do you answer?' parts are especially good because they are repetetive. And the repetitive parts aren't boring, just consistent throughout.

The problem for me in this Pimsleur is that it is all audio. I don't get to SEE the words. SO. I have learned something new about myself. Well, it isn't new, it's old, just a new revelation. I learn visually as much as audibly. In fact, if I had to choose one, it would be the written word over the spoken word. I have always needed to write things down in order to commit them to memory. Perhaps my brain photographs graphics better than it stores sounds. Hmmmm... interesting.

One of the doctors at the office where I work speaks Spanish. She said she would help me practice. The think is that it is embarrassing to practice. I know I am pronouncing slowly, clearly and distinctly. I know this because the words on the audio run together. I hear the words singly and then when they are in a sentence they sound totally different. That is why I think it would be helpful for me to SEE the words. Don't know. AND it would be helpful to have others working and struggling with me.

I will struggle onward. It is exercising my brain. And when I finish this Pimsleur The Short Course, I will see if the public library has the "long" course and then I will go back to Tell Me More. There are a lot of options.

TELL ME MORE

"Tell Me More" is the name of a language program that can be accessed through some library web sites. The Darien Public Library, of which I have been a patron for forty six years, does not have the program -- or any other for that matter. AND they were reluctant to go to bat for me to gain access at the Norwalk Public Library. Their solution was that they might look into purchasing the program or something similar for our library -- the keyword here is "might" and that is not helpful to me.

I appealed, therefore, to the Norwalk Public Library and their director was gracious enough to gift me with a bar code so that I can access the program from their website. When I spoke with his assistant, I was telling her that I was going to try to get a group together at our church so that we could be support and encouragement for one another. She allowed as how I might not have great luck because the number of card holders to the population of Norwalk is fairly low. I find this strange. From the time our sons were first allowed contact with the general public we went weekly, as a family, to the library. In fact as a youngster in New Castle, Indiana, I biked all the way across town, on my own, to the public library. Being a library patron has been a part of my growing up process. And seeing as how am still in the process, it will go on for the rest of my life.

"Tell Me More" offers many languages, but for the reasons in the preceding blog post, I am interested in Spanish -- Latin American Spanish, there was that option. And so I began. It is very hard. My last language experience was in German in the '55'/'56 school year and I barely passed. In fact I think the passing grade was hinged on my promise to not continue into another semester. Latin in High School was a similar disaster. I surmised from these experiences that I was just not a language student. A LOT of years later, I am not willing to accept that surmise. My current reading about brain development and processing tells me that I can still learn.

As I said, it is hard. When I began I felt as though I had been plunked down in the middle of the beginning with no instructions. I floundered onward. I am used to text book and paper and pencil learning. This learning is through voice sound and seeing the words associated with the spoken words. Sound graphs show me how a word is and then when I speak the word it is graphed below that so that I can compare. Very hard. All this new technology in learning!

There are also fill the letter into the puzzle boxes in answer to a voiced word. I love puzzles, so this was a challenge and I wasn't too bad at it. I stumbled upon a vocabulary list during one session but haven't seen one since. That might be helpful to me -- or not. Don't know.

I do know that I am excited about learning something new. I am excited about the possibilities of conversing with our Latino friends, however simply. 'Hola" is good. It's a start.