26th September 2010
I haven’t written in my blog for awhile because I had a real nasty worm eating files in my computer. I had to have it taken to a shop, backup files made, computer reformatted and then my files reinstated. Bit of a mess and expensive but it needed to be done which it has now. Thank god for Diego and Alejandro because I couldn’t do this by myself.
24th September 2010
LETTERS / PEN PALS
I gave the letters of our NZ students to a class at San Ignacio. It is a catholic school but the students experience more of 'life' than some of ours would. They are outgoing and in the third year of high school (2nd Media A).They are 15 - 16 years old. They are happy to write to us in English and for us to reply in Spanish. I have a photo of the class which I will post later as I don't know all their names yet.
I regularly attend this class and the students are quite good. They have been studying English for 10 years of schooling but there are still some errors in what they have written as I asked the teacher not to correct their English so students could see their true level. There were more students in this class than ours so some of our students may have more than one letter each. Some students may not have a name that they have replied to, but would like a pen friend. I also asked the students to add email addresses and some have also added face book contacts if they are interested.
The topics they wrote about were similar to what we had. I asked them to ask questions of our students - What did they want to know about NZ and also any festivals that we have just had here in Chile i.e. the Bicentennial celebrations. I have posted the letters today 24 Sep 2010. It should take 10 days to arrive to NZ but other mail of mine has taken over a month to arrive here in Chile.
The letters my year 9 Spanish class wrote are having replies written this week coming. So they will be on their way soon.
23rd September 2010
PRIMARY SCHOOL
A lot of High Schools over here have primary schools attached to them or just down the road. This is fantastic for foreign students or teachers like me. The schools have now arranged for me to join junior Spanish classes at the Primary schools. I am attending classes with Segundo basic. The students are 7 or 8 years old. When I sit on the chair and they stand next to me I am still taller than them. They are really cute and interested in me. I had a look at their text books and their level of Spanish is higher than mine. They use a lot of verb conjugations that I recognize but am unable to make myself accurately without help or grammar books. They are also a lot more reliant on vocabulary that I don’t yet know. However in saying this they have 6 or 7 years of Spanish more than I do. I was really interested in the classroom signs so have included some shots for you.
22nd September 2010
WALK AROUND VALPARAISO
Went for a walk around Valparaiso today for about four hours. I thought that I would follow the tourist trail and search for the Ascensors – most were closed. I started at the Ex- Intendencia (Blue building) and found my way to Ascensor ‘3’ It was short but had very steep steps going up the side of it. On most of the platforms was a concrete bench seat for people to use. I then tried to walk to Ascenor ‘4’ but it was closed so I walked back down the hill. On my way I took photos of the café I saw as well as some of the street art. I then turned up the wrong side street but found a really old broken down house that I took a photo of. So I turned around and at the base of the hill was a cultural museum. Because it was the weekend of the bicentennial they had a display of kites that people had made. I think the one with the dog and the people summed up Valparaiso very well. I had to walk past the court to access the side street back up the hill again as I couldn’t find the beginning of Ascenor ‘5’ so I walked up the stairs. One of the side streets had a Museum ‘Lord Cochrane’ that I couldn’t resist visiting. It had some really cool photographs of Valparaiso and a viewing platform. I could see down into one of the main the town squares and across to the Palacio Baburiza (green building). I continued my walk up the hill and discovered Ascensor ‘5’ at the summit, how ironic lol. There was a pink house near Palacio Baburiza that was being repaired so I took photos of this and then made my way to Casa Crucero (White). I walked back down the hill and found Reloj Turin which is a big clock tower but again couldn’t locate Ascensor ‘6’. I had very sore calf muscles for about 4 days afterward all this walking. So much so that I haven’t attended Salsa classes since the weekend
20th September 2010
LANGUAGE
Has my pronunciation improved?
No. Your pronunciation is pretty good with a few small errors.
How well can you understand what I say?
Good enough. Generally we understand what you say but there are still times when we don’t
Is my use of the language idiomatic? (use of formulaic expressions) etc
Starting to make my own sentences. Need to learn set phrases to build a base of your language
Do you have any other comments about my use of Spanish?
Your level is about a 3 or 4 year olds. Talk more – formulate questions. Read more newspapers front pages – make summaries of them. Watch movies TV in general.
TOILET PAPER
It was late in the evening and I needed toilet paper. I didn’t know how to say toilet paper in Spanish so I said to Alejandro ‘baño papel’ Both him and Ana were amazed that I could communicate my needs very clearly in just two words. They constantly say to me that English is a very concise language where the way words are put together gives an instant image or idea of what we mean or our intentions are. They say that in Spanish you are unable to get these ‘crisp’ meanings and that you need a lot of vocabulary to explain concepts. Alejandro and Diego went to a conference in New York called ‘Design Thinking’. This means a ‘structure of thinking, or concepts’. You cannot translate this directly into Spanish - ‘thinking about design’ as it does not have the same impact as the English version. What I should have said to Alejandro was ‘Necesito papel hygenico por favor’
DON”T LIKE - DON’T EAT!
For various reasons now I have made two meals that have been inedible for my host family. Ana sat at the table and tried to be polite and eat it because I had made her and Francesca dinner. In the end I turned to Ana and said Don’t like - Don’t eat ‘No te gusta, no comer’ Now in English this is rude to say this to someone in this way and I felt pretty bad saying it but my level of Spanish is not good enough to be polite yet. What I wanted to say was ‘if you don’t like it you don’t have to eat it’ I should have said ‘No te gusta, no lo come’
PEUMO CONTRYSIDE
I took these photos on the trip back from Peumo to Santiago. I love the way the sky looked that day. One of my favourite photos is the white flowers of the orchard in the foreground and the white snow of the mountains in the background. On the highways you are allowed to go 120kmph.
19th September 2010
MY BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS
I had the privilege of going to Daniela’s Aunts Farm to celebrate the Bicentennial. On the way there we saw many wooden waterwheels and I was fascinated by the way they worked. It is one of the few times that I have had my photo taken in Chile. I also took a photo of Daniela’s parents next to them as well. As you entered the farm you crossed over an irrigation system by bridge and alongside this were beautiful cacti and the remains of an old wooden umbrella. They have orchards of lemons and oranges and grow crops as well. However what kind of crops they grew is unknown. We went to the outhouses on the farm. Inside the floor was inlaid with rounds of trees of differing sizes. We made and baked empañadas. I of course made some vegetarian ones and put a ‘v’ on the outside. ‘V’ for vedura (vegetables) or vegeteriana which ever way you want to look at it. The family drank Pisco (a type of rum) and danced Cueca.
17th September 2010
FONDA
A Fonda is usually an enclosed area or inside a building where you dance Cueca.
A Ramada is usually an outside area were you dance Cueca. Later when I was talking to one of the teachers at school she said that a lot of people don’t know the difference between a Ramada and a Fonda and often the two ideas get mixed up.
Daniela and Diego and I went to a Fonda which was outside and was like a gala or fete day. They had lots of little enclosed areas where BBQ’s were being cooked. Usually they sold meat of some kind, empañadas or other kinds of traditional foods and drinks. One drink that I wanted to try was called the teremoto (earthquake) but they weren’t selling it in this area so I missed out on that. The following night we did have an earthquake in Peumo but it was only small and I didn’t feel it.
In one area they had a band playing and I took a photo of the people in the kitchen dancing away to the music. Around the sides were lots of stalls selling products such as sunglasses, jewellery, sweets and ponchos for dancing Cueca. They even had a tent setup for fuzeball. Some of the other games were to throw darts to pop balloons and earn a prize, fish for a prize within a time limit using the rods given, throw rings over pegs to earn prizes and spin a wheel to earn a prize.
9th September
SAN DOMINIC BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS
I seem to have the dates all wrong for this. The week before the bicentennial holiday (18th September) the school had their own anniversary celebrations. Then, last week San Dominic were on holiday as part of the national holiday plus one week. Not all schools have the same holidays at the same time it depends on the school, so I still attended San Ignacio.
On the Thursday before the school closed they had a ‘movie night’ I thought this would be showing movies in Spanish, so I was really surprised when I turned up to learn that the students had chosen a movie and made a short musical clip about it. Once all the houses had presented the students then moved onto the next theme of the night – this was music videos. The students had practiced the dance moves of a music video and were miming the words. Both the primary school and the secondary school were involved in this so it was really interesting. Sorry but I have to bring these clips back to show you as I can’t you tube them all.
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