The langauge barrier - Quito, Ecuador

So I changed my mind on having a blog. Puede ser, far from friends in an alien environment, it can be an outlet to express myself.

The journey here, although long and tiring, went fine with no problems. So here I am, in Quito, Ecuador - with 5 exciting months on this amazing continent ahead of me.

I'm not sure why I have this drive to set myself challenges. This language barrier is not going to be an easy one, but there really is no backing out of it now.

My expectations of what Spanish I had already learnt, and the rate at which I would progress were probably a little over optimistic. But one guy arrived here two weeks ago without a word of Spanish - and from what he says I’m fairly glad I didn’t attempt that! I can usually express myself on simple matters, but struggle to understand most of what is said back to me.

I've only had two days of lessons, but I can see that even with an easy language such as Spanish, there are no shortcuts, and no substitute for time and effort. I've upgraded to the intensive course with 6 hours per day - this is what most others seem to be doing. I only have a month, and I have a lot to learn. I’m hoping that even with this there will still be plenty of time to explore Quito and its environs.

“Solo Espagnol” is the mantra of the college. Whilst I understand the motivation behind this it does create some difficulties. The mantra applies to administrivia too and on the first day this left me with a feeling that I might be missing some important information! In the lessons I sometimes feel that time is wasted trying to explain new words with charades or roundabout descriptions using existing Spanish vocabulary. As a scientist, I think the way I learn requires an understanding of the how and why of things – and for now it can be difficult to get to the bottom of complex questions in Spanish. So whilst I appreciate Spanish only philosophy, I question whether for me, at my level, it is the ideal approach. However, I know it will only get better as I progress.

Despite the above gripes, the college, students and teachers are great, and I am sure my Spanish will come on leaps and bounds. It probably already has – though it may be hard to see this at the time. I seem to know more grammar than the other students in my group. But I have a lot of vocab to learn and I am wondering whether I this may be a weakness of mine. New words don’t stick as easily in my head as I would like. But perhaps there are just too many too quickly, and my expectations are again too high. I hope to find a procedure for fixing new vocab (suggestions welcome). Reading through lists doesn’t do it – I think it has to be used in context, repeatedly.

The language college has a great international feel with Swedes, Swiss, German, French Canadian, Americans, Australians - but no other Brits. I think perhaps this indicates something about our nation's attitude to languages.

Outwith lessons, English is the lingua franca between the students. For most of them it's not their first language and so they get some educational benefit by using it. For me, of course, using English is a hindrance to my progression in Spanish. In my first 48 hours I spoke no English to anyone. Not having any outlet to express oneself is mentally quite challenging. I think realistically, for my sanity, with my current and foreseeable level of Spanish, I will be using English with Los Gringos (and yes, Ben, I accept your disdain).

The family are nice, but there are not many opportunities to be social and practice my Spanish with them. They don’t naturally talk down to me - so I expect to be using “¿Peude abla mas despacio, por favor?” plenty more times! It’s a lot easier to understand the Spanish of the students, even those much better than me - so I must the effort to use Spanish with them whenever possible.

After reading the Lonely Planet’s over-cautious section on crime in Quito, one might be reluctant to ever set foot outside the front door - or travel on the buses, or visit the town center. Thankfully I got past this and with a little vigilance and sense am now confident enough to explore, though I have not had much time to do this as yet.

The person next to me in the internet café just googled “manifesta communista” – but of course it would be foolish to read anything about south American politics from such a single anecdote.

Quito is a great place from which to make excursions out. A number of plans are in the offing, and there will always be people up for doing stuff. It may even be possible to find a companion for the overland journey down to Lima.

Comments welcome, then I will know someone is reading this! I don’t expect later entries to be quite this long!
Asta luesta.

FC