My first act in Valladolid after resting in the cool of my room until sunset was to join Trevor, the owner of Pulpo Hostel at his bar and get acquainted during his ongoing happy hour which consisted of two beers and a shot of tequila for 45 pesos. Trevor is from the US but has been in Mexico for four years and spent some time teaching English at a school in Tulum where he met Sarah who is the owner of Meztli Spanish Language school in Tulum when her daughter was his student. He knew the teachers at Meztli and the town. Small world! I was really excited to have that common connection.
Trevor was fluent in Spanish and we spoke both English and Spanish together. I can usually understand non-native speakers better than native speakers ( I guess because they are coming at it from the same perspective as me, but I still gave him the deer-in-the-headlights blank stare when I did not understand what he was saying, and then he would translate). His partner, Jafet was from Tulum and spoke no English.
There was another hombre at the bar during this first happy hour session who was also local, but was learning English, and I had a good time telling my story in the best Spanish I could muster and asking questions, hoping to understand the answer.
I learned about what would be my free-time recreation: Cenote Zaci. Cenote Oxman, Zentik Project, música en vivo ( see Valladolid - Cenotes, and Missing Mike in Valladolid).
I also learned there was no Spanish language school here in Valladolid, but everyone voiced the suggestion that I'd already heard numerous times: "The best way to become fluent is to immerse yourself in it. AND it helps if you have a love-interest partner" (actually a more accurate retelling of the suggestion is to "Take a Spanish Lover"). That is what Trevor did. That is what Eric did. Hummmmmm.. I was thinking more along the lines of attending a school. Like Meztli in Tulum.
So after my two beers and the shot of tequila I headed out to find dinner and some more people to talk Spanish with. Imagine my surprise when between Pulpo Hostel and the central plaza I passed a sign that said EuroLanguage School. Italiano, Frances, Alemán, Portugese, Ingles. But no Español?
I was feeling brave and juiced by my recent tequila and Spanish conversation, so up the stairs I went to see what I could learn. I found the office. I was welcomed in with " Bienvenidos ". I sat down and explained in Spanish that I was looking for a Spanish school. I had a five minute or so conversation with Allen, el maestro. Almost every conversation I have in Spanish with a new person goes something like this:
Me llamo Denise. Soy de California. Mi hijo, Eric se casó una chica, Claudia, de Cancún. Después la boda hace dos años, yo empiezo aprendiendo Español con mi celular y Duolingo. Estoy aquí in Mexico por ocho semanas. Voy a Isla Mujeres, Bacalar, Tulum y Isla Holbox. Estoy viajando solo porque mi esposo se murió in deciembre. Yo sé muchas palabras, pero todavía tengo mucho que aprender.
Since this post is about learning Spanish, you will need to put this in a translator program if you are interested in translating what I just said in less than perfect Spaniah - (that is why I'm looking for a school:) I use the SpanishDict app on my phone for a translator, but I saw Paty and her daughter Valerie in Tulum use Google translator. There are other options.
Allen confirmed it was true, they do not offer Spanish classes, but he could give me private lessons - one hour per day for five days. OMG! That is perfect! We start tomorrow at 11:30. This is Allen and his wife Patricia on my very last day, but their picture deserves to be right here. They were AWESOME for taking me in.
Class #1. One on one in an empty (except for Allan and me) classroom. Review of conjugation of verbs. I was able to convince Allen that I knew the rules, and he pointed out that I needed to memorize and practice those rules so I could used them in conversation without having to stop and think between each word.
Class #2. One on one in an empty (except for Allen and me) classroom. Allen added two more tenses to be conjugated. I already knew the rules. DuoLingo is an effective teaching tool for my learning style. But I know I need to memorize and practice. Then we read aloud from a story he provided. That exercise lead to lots of questions and the discussion/lesson of word order in Spanish sentences and conversations which is often exactly opposite of how we talk in English. Enough said on this topic because you are not here to learn Spanish ( and I am not qualified to teach!) but you should just know that I was very excited about the whole experience.
We finished at 12:45. During our lesson, the subject of French people's love of wine and Spanish speaking people's love of tequila came up. So when it was time to go Allen offered a shot of tequila. I always have trouble in situations like this - you know, is the offer for business or pleasure? But it was Friday, he is a married man, he already knew my story, and I didn't want to be rude, so "What the Heck? He apologized for not having lime, salt and a shot glass, but he did have tequila! We each had a shot out of big red plastic beer-pong style glasses. I'm sad I didn't take a picture of this moment.
Class #3. When I showed up at school on Monday morning at the normal hour no one was there. I came back later in the day and Patricia told me Allan was called away for work, she was very sorry, and we would meet tomorrow at either 9:30 or 1:30 - I was not sure because she spoke no English. She said she would confirm by phone and we exchanged numbers. I got no confirmation.
The next day I showed up at 9:30. No one was there. I returned at 1:30 and Patricia told me Allan was teaching at the university but would be here at 4:30. This was the day I had the bad food on my way home from school. ( see Valladolod - la comida). It rained hard all afternoon so I stayed in my room and knitted. At 4:15 I put on my water safe shoes and street appropriate swimwear and walked to school in the rain. I was committed! I was pretty wet by the time I got there, but it was warm wet and I had a dry shirt to add to my outfit. The streets were flooded. ( bad photo of the view of the wet street from the school's office door).
It was still raining when I got there but no Allen. I met Julio, a young man who I spoke to in Spanish for quite a while during my wait. Julio told me he lived in Valladolid, had been a student in this school to learn a bit of Italian and so much English that he was now teaching English in this school to others. In fact, he was going to be teaching a class soon. Allen was not here. I was welcome to sit in on his class. So I did.
Julio took this picture of me with his other two students. The lesson was about body parts and other physical descriptions. I inverted all the lessons to study the Spanish version of the English words he was teaching. He asked me for word and pronunciation help in English. It was not exactly a one on one class, but I enjoyed the experience counted it as a valuable class.
Class #4. Julio is now my teacher. We had a one on one session in an otherwise empty classroom. I showed him the sentences I wrote out unbidden by any teacher and asked for corrections. That led to him explaining again a concept that I do not yet understand but am aware of. A concept I learned first with Study Spanish, the app I moved into after completing DuoLingo. A concept I learned again in private lessons at Meztli. A concept my 60 year old brain has trouble with recall and implementation, but not with determination.
Julio and I exchanged numbers because he was not sure if there would be class tomorrow, but I wanted my fifth class, so he had to ask Allan's permission. Permission came muy pronto via What's App, the preferred communication app for cell phones here in Mexico.
Class #5. Julio and I showed up at the agreed upon hour - 9:30. The school was still locked. Nobody there. I invited Julio to the coffee shop on the corner that I had been to several times already. He accepted, but immediately after our caramel frappaccinos arrived, he got word via What's App that Allen and Patricia were now at the school and Julio asked me what I wanted to do. I said "Quiero quedar aqui". I hoped he was not in trouble. But after a phone call he gave me an "all clear" smile and we finished the final one hour session at Las Cabañas over frappaccinos. Perfect!
This picture is dark due to backlighting. Darn! I really enjoyed talking with Julio. I told him about this blog and gave him the address. He showed me his pencil sketches in a hard bound sketch book. He is a really talented drawer - I saw sketches of eyes, entire faces, and a horse that were extremely realistic.
After class I walked back up the school office and took the picture of Allan and Patricia at the top of this post. I feel really fortunate to have had this experience, because I know I was unusual in their world. I feel like they let me "audit" the class and make my own rules. I learned a lot and most important, had good practice speaking and had a good time doing it!
That is the end of my "formal" Spanish education, for this trip, but there was so much more informal experience during my time in Valladolid especially because it was near the end of my trip and enriched by all the other talking experiences I've had so far during my time in Mexico.
I was in a non-tourist town where not everyone spoke English. I engaged with every person I spoke to in Spanish. When asked if I wanted English, I said "Español, por favor, estoy practicando". I was able to get my message across and get the information I needed. After my opening statement I often said "mi español es muy mal pero mejor cada día". I received confirmation from taxi drivers, restaurant workers, shopkeepers, hotel clerks and other Spanish speaking tourists that yes, my Spanish was understandable and they were complimentary that I was trying.
Very encouraging - I guess I'm learning Spanish!
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