"The Terrible Two's"

We met this incredibly interesting young women here in Xela who is an anthropology major at Stanford University; I believe her name was Julia. So, Julia explained to us that children who are developing their language skills often know what they want to say well before they can actually say it. This explains why children who have entered their "terrible two's" tend to act out. They just can't communicate to those around them and they are frustrated. Hmmm.... OK, fast forward 28 years, add one Spanish language immersion, and only two weeks of classes. Hey, wait a second...

This week I changed teachers and started fresh with a new maestra. Her name is Miriam and she would be the ideal character for the reality TV show Nanny 911--Xela. Picture Mary Poppins, got it? OK, now think shorter, stockier, more strict, and with a thick Guatemalan accent. Love her.

Monday morning, Miriam and I started at 8:00 am on the dot without wasting any time. We covered regular verbs, irregular verbs, prepositions, interrogatives, and much more. My head was spinning; I desperately tried to absorb, process, and regurgitate all the information correctly. Needless to say, it was muy dificil. She gave me about two more hours of homework and sent me on my way.

Tuesday morning, Miriam and I started at 8:00 am on the dot without wasting any time. We covered contractions, sentence structure, gender of articles, and much more. At one point, we took a break so that she could go to el baño. To avoid wasting one second of instruction time, Miriam RAN across the courtyard to the bathroom and ran back. The woman was a machine. Once again, I tried to absorb, process, and regurgitate all the information correctly. She gave me about three hours of homework and sent me on my way.

Wednesday morning, Miriam and I started at 8:00 am on the dot without wasting any time. We tried to cover reflexive verbs, adjectives, and vocabulary. Miriam sensed that I was a little overwhelmed and she quickly changed the plan for the day. I was going to work on pronunciation. She asked me to read a few paragraphs to her. At first I did well, but slowly my mind couldn't distinguish between English and Spanish pronunciation and finally I found myself stuck at the word contribuye. It was so difficult to read that I completely stopped at the word. On my first attempt I completely butchered the pronunciation. Miriam giggled and asked me to try again. No luck, butchered again. She slowly read the word to me and I desperately contorted my mouth and tongue to create the correct sequence in Spanish, but with no avail. I had actually lost the ability to speak. And in my regression found myself turning red, holding my breath, clenching my fists, and wanting to cry out. I was trying so hard. I knew what I wanted to say, but just couldn't do it!

Miriam, being the excellent teacher that she is, asked me if I wanted to take a walk. Wow! I must have really looked frustrated to compel Miriam to waste any class time. She went to the office grabbed a book and we walked to the park nearby. When we reached the park, Miriam pulled out the book for me to use. At first, I thought she may have been kidding, but when I saw her face, I knew this was no joke. The book was very small and the pages were made of thick corrugated cardboard. The words were written in brilliant colors and the letters must have been at least a 20 point font. Each page had one letter of the alphabet and four words to demonstrate the sound of that particular letter. It was one step away from being one of those waterproof books that babies can bring in the bath with them. I spent the next hour, at Miriam's insistence, practicing the pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet. As I read the letters aloud, I couldn't help but wonder what the other people in the park were thinking. The thought was so amusing that I wanted to laugh so badly, but didn't for fear of upsetting my no-nonsense teacher. There I was, 30 years old, reading the alphabet in the middle of a public park in Xela. I have had many humbling experiences during our travels, but this was absolutely hilarious.

I hope I take away a very important lesson from Julia and my experience with learning a new language. When Robert and I do become parents some day, I hope we recognize that there will be many times that our children will be just as frustrated trying to communicate with us as we are with them. I would love to hear more opinions from the many new and experienced parents that read our blog.

Best,

Humbled in Guatemala