Laca laca laca

I just wrote to Broshat that I’m three weeks into my nine week Spanish-intensive summer program, and it feels like Spanish boot camp. But a few guys actually liked boot camp because what are they gonna do, send me to Vietnam? (This was back when I actually was in boot camp and they did send everybody to Vietnam. I wasn’t one of those guys because this is a metaphor which starting getting away from me about three lines back. Who enjoyed boot camp? is what I’m saying. They did send me to Vietnam, and I didn’t enjoy that either.)

I am, however, enjoying my class very much, though it's taking it's toll.

I work mostly all the time the four days a week I’m living in our trailer near school. Weekends home I work about half-time and spend the rest doing a few things around the house and trying to spend quality time with Mary. The old “quality time" thing, which is what you call it when you know you’re preoccupied and being something of a pain in the ass.

We change teachers next week since it’s technically three courses in sequence. I liked Lady Vanderlip well enough, although over the last week she slipping into speaking mostly ingles in class, something I think would take great discipline not to do. Manipulation of body language and facial expression by students can get a teacher to do about anything including delivering lectures wearing a swim mask and flippers, so foreign language teachers have to accept that when they’re actually speaking the language they’re trying to teach, students will often look at them like they’re from what used to be the planet Pluto. Also, the three native speakers I’ve had as teachers seem to need to share a lot of detail about growing up in their native countries, which is certainly interesting but, hey, I’m trying to learn Spanish here. I’m not signed up to learn about growing up in Panama.

The new teacher starts next week and I understand he’s not a native speaker but almost never speaks ingles in class. I’m hoping the new drill sergeant will stay on-task.

I’m making good progress but still basically a beginner. When I overhear real Spanish, my reaction is “Hey, that’s Spanish!" but beyond that I’m mostly in the dark. Also, the subjunctive was invented during the Spanish Inquisition as a way to torture heretics and it somehow caught on. It’s complicated as hell and serves virtually no communicative function as far as I can tell. I’ll bet the first thing L.L. Zamenhof did when he developed Esperanto was dump the subjunctive. Esperanto itself, btw, in a very interesting story which you can find with a quick Wikipedia search.

“Laca laca laca” means “blah blah blah” I learned this week, so that’s become my goal, to be able to laca laca laca in a language not my own and which I started to study after I turned sixty. Also, btw, I’m the only student in my class over twenty-two, I’d guess, so talk about wearing a swim mask and flippers. They’d probably warm to me faster if I wore a burka, but finally the chill is wearing off and a few students have actually said a few words to me before class starts.

Laca.