Once I decided I would never be fluent in Spanish unless I moved to a foreign country. So what did I do? I moved to the Spanish House. NOT a foreign country. I'm STILL not fluent. But it helped and it was fun.
This was in college, and they had houses where you could only speak certain languages. Actually, apartments. And there was one native speaker in each apartment. You had dinner together and activities together, giving you all the opportunity you could ask for to practice the language. Church was even in Spanish.
One night at dinner, I volunteered to give a blessing on the food. I was nervous--the audience was big. It all went fine until I said (in Spanish), "We are thankful for the food, and that we have friends we can eat..." WITH! When I got to the end of the sentence, I realized that it was too late for the "with!" I had forgotten to phrase the sentence the ONLY way it works in Spanish, which is "with whom we can eat!" You can get away with saying the "with" at the end in English, but NOT in Spanish. HORROR.
But at that point, there was nothing I could do. So I just had to leave my cannibalistic declaration and move on.
When I was finished, a girl down the table (who I later came to think of as my arch nemesis)/ (of whom I later came to think as my arch nemesis)/ (of whom as my arch nemesis I later came to think) said quietly to her friends, "Did you hear that she said 'friends we can eat'?"
I never volunteered to pray at the Spanish House again.
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10 comments:
Oh, so something I would do.
hahahahahahahahahaha I love you.
THank you for not eating me after having you over for dinner all those times!!
That is so FUNNY!! I needed a laugh!
My sister lived in the FLSR her whole BYU career. When I went to visit her we spent a lot of time in the common room because her languages evaded me.
Dani,
I can picture this whole scene in my mind. haha
I always do dumb stuff so unfortunately I don't pity you... like remember when I tried to pretend I heard you when I was completely spacing out and then answered completely weird? Yeah sorry about that.
Miss you guys already!
That is SOOOO funny!!! Reminds me of the time I offered to pray in my 300-level Spanish class (which I was not good enough for) and got so muddled and befuddled that the teacher had to prompt me phrase by phrase. Like a 5 year old. I dropped that class.
So funny...I think that is why I never wanted to live in the french house - then my arch nemesis would be snickering with an even bigger attitude!
I probably would never have noticed! But then I am a little ADD!
Somehow I lived in Spanish house and avoided praying over meals, and I am glad.
Thanks for responding to my punctuality post! I'm oh-so honored. I just wrote such a long response that I made it a whole new post. This is just for you, Dani!
http://www.lizlambson.com/2010/01/response-to-response-on-chronemics-and.html
Once in germany when a lady said "ich muss mich umziehen." (I have to move) I blurted out "wir koennen helfen" (we can help) before anyone could stop me... or tell me that the 'mich' made the sentence reflexive and that instead of moving she had to change her clothes... whoops.
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