Who's the teacher here?

On Friday I had my first "intercambio" with the husband of one of my business students. She had mentioned to me that has was looking for some English lessons, and since I was also in search of some language improvement myself, in the end we decided the best way to approach the situation would be with a language exchange. He completed his masters degree in the US several years ago and was looking to brush up, and I was looking for someone to help me in a more academic capacity, and who better to do that than a college professor himself.
I'm looking at several job opportunities in the US that would require me to have a formal language evaluation, and where I need to improve my skills is discussing more academic topics at length. I haven't had formal practice with this for years, and although you can often practice this naturally in social situations, I tend to be more of a listener in large groups of Spanish speakers and haven't yet reached the comfort zone where I jump in to give extended length opinions on social or political topics.
What's also important is that my partner knows "correct" Spanish, so he has already helped me a lot with little suggestions to tune a few things up, knowing that my ultimate goal isn't to learn Chilean Spanish, but to use "proper" Spanish in a more academic context.
He also gave me a lot of homework, I have to give a presentation the next time I see him, something about how we attribute archeological studies to the value of a culture. He doesn't mess around, and while I speak he writes things down in his little notebook to give me feedback.

So much for meeting at a cafe to drink coffee and chat, my teacher is strict!

Language Practice Ideas

Today I thought I'd share some general language learning tips. Yes, I speak Spanish, but I'm always working on improving my level of fluency. It's easy to hide out as an English teacher and miss out on the many opportunities that surround me to practice, and I realize that some days can pass and the only Spanish I spoke was to order food or have a brief conversation with one of the secretaries at the institute. I see some of my friends here really putting in such an effort to learn Spanish and it makes me realize how fortunate I am to have come here with such a strong base and it's up to me to really make an effort to further my own learning.

1. Listen
Turn on the TV or radio whenever possible. Become an eavesdropper. I don't have a lot of Spanish speaking friends here in Chile, but I spend a lot of time out in public and on the Metro without headphones on, just tuning in to other people's conversations. I also listen to the news in the morning while I get ready and watch Spanish programming whenever possible. Many of my current students have learned a ton of vocabulary just from watching the English programming that is available to them. Who doesn't enjoy some re-runs of Friends, Two and Half Men, or the New Adventures of Old Christine? To any of my students back home who might be reading this, practice your listening! Even just a few minutes each day really does help.

2. Read
Pick up any free reading material that is offered anywhere and give it a look. I read whatever free newspaper is handed to me on my longer Metro trips, and pick up random free magazines around town when I'm out and about. I also occasionally visit the "magazine man" who sells some of the magazine inserts from older newspapers for 100 or 200 pesos.

3. Find a conversation partner at your level
Here in Santiago there are expat groups and a Spanish/English Meet up group that meet on a weekly basis. Check out this website to find a group in your area. There are also individuals who are always looking for one on one practice. It's helpful to split the time and spend 20-30 minutes speaking one language and then switching to the other. It also helps if your second language abilities are similar so it's more of a conversation rather than a translation fest.

4. Use new vocabulary
I've learned a lot of random Spanish vocabulary from my current students and I've been recording it in my little notebook so I can refer back to it. In addition, I've shared some chilenismos with my colleagues back home. I really make an effort to repeat and reuse these words whenever possible to make them my own.

5. Get out of your comfort zone
Don't be too shy to ask a question or attempt to put a sentence together in your second language. If you're out in a situation where someone needs to approach someone and ask a question, be the one who makes the effort. If someone uses a word that you don't recognize, ask them to explain to you what it means. People are usually happy to meet you halfway if you make the effort.

6. Imitate pronunciation
Pronunciation is very important. I misunderstand my English students a lot since so many English words sound similar. (sheet, sheep, cheap, cheat...) My ears got really tuned into "gringo" Spanish pronunciation from years of working as a Spanish teacher, but now that I'm teaching my first language I realize how easy it is to misunderstand certain sounds.

7. Use the Internet
There are so many resources available online that offer anything from grammar practice activities to pod casts to online pen pals. Take advantage of whatever free resources you can find.

8. Keep a positive attitude
We are always our own worst critic when it comes to judging our language abilities! Keep practicing and soon you WILL notice an improvement!

My Spanish...oops

I spent a great deal of time during my spring break reading blogs, researching, and basically doing anything and everything that I could to prepare myself mentally for my move to Chile.  I'm trying to be proactive about tuning into Chilean Spanish so that it doesn't take me 6 months to finally understand what people are saying to me.  As one of many millions of fans of "The Office", I was thrilled to discover clips on You Tube of "La Ofis" (the Chilean version) and wasted a lot of time watching those and trying to convince myself that I could understand everything just fine without the English subtitles.  Riiight. 

Another one of my bright ideas was to try to find podcasts to listen to since I am huge fan of using these in my classroom, especially Notes in Spanish.  I stumbled upon the opportunity to stream Chilean radio stations and spent hours listening while packing boxes and lingering near the computer waiting for the music to stop playing so that I could hear some callers engaged in actual conversations.  I mean come on, it's kind of embarrassing to be a Spanish teacher going to a Spanish speaking country and then be like, um, yeah, I don't understand your Spanish!

Great idea Heather, I'm thinking that one of the many pop-ups that I allowed was infected with some vicious malware that slowly started taking over my school computer.  By the time I was back at school the second week after spring break, I had to throw my hands up, hand it to the tech guys, and wish them luck. Outlook is crashing, Word is saving nothing, Internet Explorer is closing every two seconds, I swear, I wasn't looking at anything bad!  So, I guess I will stick to my harmless blog reading and learning from all of the blogger experts out there who are a few steps ahead of me on this journey.