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And 3 ½ Weeks in a Spanish Immersion school
Daily Raising of the Flag Proof I was at Monte Alban
I was trying to learn some Spanish on my own, but needed some incentive beyond cerveza and fish tacos from the Baja. I had been stashing up vacation time from work and thought it was time to use it all up on one big adventure. I was also 6 credits shy of finishing my BA from the University of North Dakota and was kicking around a crazy idea in my head. I thought about it for a couple of months and after surfing the net for more hours than I’d like to admit, I decided I could probably finish up through a month at a Spanish immersion school in Oaxaca, Mexico. I agreed with the Language department at UND to go one of these schools and take a placement test when I got back. I needed to pass out of first year Spanish to get enough credit hours to graduate. I never had a foreign language course in my life and didn't want to take one in a stale old classroom or by correspondence study. I borrowed a first year Spanish textbook called "Hola Amigos", Jarvis, Lebredo &Mena-Ayllon, D.C. Heath and Company, 1993 , and spent about 4 months studying all but the last three chapters.
Fun with the pigeons Another day of protest in the Zocalo
I think it's a pretty good textbook, but it doesn't substitute for the experience I was about to have. I also bought a Transparent Language CD ROM program called "Learn Spanish Now". It helped a bit with listening comprehension, but again it doesn't substitute for going to the source in Mexico. In-between studying and my job, I researched Oaxaca, did some trip prep, signed up for classes and got my plane tickets. By late October I was ready to hit the road, or Denver International Airport in this case.