John Simons

Spanish and Me - a History

Since I am preparing to head to South America, I have come to realize that my Spanish has gotten very rusty. Once upon a time, I could speak and understand Spanish fairly well, even if I was never really fluent. Of course, before that I really hated the Spanish language.

For starters, my mom was a high school Spanish teacher. She even went and did an exchange program while she was teaching. She went and spent a month (I think) living with a family in Saltillo, Mexico to improve her Spanish. My dad knew a little Spanish, but really not very much. My mom always wanted my brother and I to learn Spanish, and I can remember her giving us impromptu lessons while she cooked dinner, or at other times during everyday life. At that point, neither my brother nor I were particularly interested in learning a language that we didn’t see much need for.

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Tags: English, Language, Paraguay, South America, Spanish, travel

Mission Trip - Language Barrier

Josh has begun compiling information about the Guaraní language. According to Wikipedia, Guaraní is an exception in that it is a native language that has not succumbed to a European colonial language in prestige. In fact most Guaraní-speakers are not of indigenous ethnicity. You can even browse the Guaraní language Wikipedia, if you are so inclined.

Josh is going to compile a list of phrases in Spanish and Guaraní to help us communicate with our hosts. However, I plan to rely on the translator for most of my communication. Beyond that, I will have to hope that my rusty Spanish will be enough to communicate the basics. I have a long, and not always pleasant history with the Spanish language. But that is a story for another time. . . .

Tags: Guarani, Language, Missions, Paraguay