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My Language Challenge

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

This week I was concentrating on Spanish – Castellano.
I can’t say I have succeeded in doing a total immersion as I have been speaking in English to friends and family and also was unable to resist the temptation to continue reading Pride and Prejudice on my phone.  But as the week went by I was able to speak a bit more confidently and also learnt some new words.   I spoke to loads of people on the street and even went into an estate agent and managed to explain our complicated housing situation.   Reading the newspaper was easier than before and I also watched a film in Castellano with no subtitles – El Viaje de Carol.

The Five Goals
Alongside the challenges that I feel are nipping at my heels at the moment (the dog fights, the ongoing search for a good vet,  my still painful fingers, feelings of uselessness because I am not working, driving the van by myself) I also set myself some goals for the week and here are the results

1. I gave acupuncture sessions speaking only Castellano
2. I had a lesson in Photoshop for almost two hours only using Castellano. We made the new header for the blog!
3. I took the van to be cleaned
4. I failed to do the intercambio – I have someone who will do it with me but somehow we didn’t find a day to meet. I also didn’t find a teacher for private lessons although I went and asked about it in one of the language schools in Granollers.
And the biggest challenge
5. Finally today I made the video of myself speaking Castellano and put it on YouTube.
HERE is the link if you would like to see it.  I know there are lots of mistakes and I sound very clipped and Scottish but the process of preparation and filming was very useful and I think I will make another in Catalan next week.   I absolutely hate myself on film so this last challenge was definitely the hardest and took me furthest out of my comfort zone.
Hopefully it will get easier as I do it more often.
Thanks to Pep for helping with the language, encouraging me to relax and for doing the filming.

Being taken to the Cleaners in Granollers

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

One of my challenges this week was to take the van to the cleaners.
There is a car wash business on the little square where the dogs go every day.
My indoor parking space is a few hundred metres down the same street.
So not such a big deal!
Well….. for me in my new state of anxiety about little things……it felt like something I had to build myself up to.  The hard parts are – getting the van out of the tiny parking space, knowing what to do in the car wash building – where to go, when to pay etc etc (A good chance to revisit that female discomfort when entering a masculine world), getting the van back into the tiny awkward parking space. And of course speaking all the time in castellano.

One of my lessons this week is ‘If there is an easy way, chose that one!’
So Pep came with me for the first part. I did all the driving and speaking but I felt more confident that he introduced me to the place where obviously they know him.
Is this the 21st century?  Are you almost 55?  For goodness sake woman!

Actually the bloke doing the cleaning jumped into the van to drive it onto the ramp and had to get out again immediately when he found he was in the passenger seat.  First time for him in a UK van.

They were all very friendly and it cost 15 euros for inside and out which I thought was reasonable.

They have a huge conveyor belt so no one has to drive the vehicle as it passes through.
The machine was called CHRIST

At the end there was a dryer which puffed out hot air as it raised up to let my van pass through.
I wished I had someone with me to share the joke – Christ is Risen, Hallelujah!

Great confidence afterwards so Bonnie and I drove to a further away country park, Mil Pins, for a peaceful  and green walk.