Keeping up with Spanish

No real surprise that I’ve found it difficult to keep actively learning Spanish since I’ve returned from Mexico.  I try to meet once a week with my conversation partner Leticia, but an hour a week is lame compared to the five hours a day I spent in class in Guanajuato.  Not to mention that when class was over—hello!—I’m in Mexico and almost no one speaks English.

What seems to be working the best right now is watching Spanish-language television, which is actually the place to go for many immigrants trying to learn a new language.  I can say that my listening comprehension has improved dramatically.  I thought I would never be able to understand much unless the speaker slowed down for the Gringo, but it seems that a combination of concentration and passively letting the language wash over me has its good effect. 

I try to watch one or two news programs a day, but my favorite two programs are ones I would never watch in English.  Caso Cerrado (Case Closed) is a mock courtroom where litigants come before a faux-judge and present their cases on any possible conflict they might have with each other.  These can be tragi-comic, but the program seems to bring a bit more dignity to the proceedings than some of the US programs of the same general format.  Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry.

The other program is Una Familia con Suerte (A Lucky Family), a soap opera/sitcom with a great cast. Here I only laugh.

My comprehension ranges from mas o menos to nada, but I find that the more I watch, the better I understand.  Fortunately, there are so many Spanish/English cognates that I can often generally follow dialogue that I would otherwise completely miss.  I could never learn a non-Romance language, like, say, Urdu. 

The other good thing about TV is that it’s fun, whereas memorizing vocabulary and practicing verb tenses isn’t.  For now, it’s the only source of daily practice I have.  The other strategy one of my guidebooks to Mexico recommended—get a Mexican girlfriend—is not an option for me.