Dear Mrs Dickson,
I’m so sorry for sleeping, texting, skipping, or just not paying attention in your class. I had no idea that I would be living in Chile 5 years later.
But! I’m no lost cause!!
Thank you for teaching me what I do remember from your class!! I’m a pro at reading but speaking is a whole other ball park. As I spend my time here and encounter new people daily, I’m learning how to become an expert in Spanglish. With the combination of Spanish verbs and pronouns I know, many hand motions, and many many English synonyms, I can make it around!
I vividly remember the conjugation chart you taught and use that to my best ability! It’s way fun when i can step up from my group and take a shot at translating!!
Yesterday, i got to get to know a man that works at the school we volunteer at as well as the mother of our hosts wife!
Robert, who has been around for four weeks now, came up to chessie and I and asked me to scoot over on the bench at school. I was surprised and didn’t know what to expect. Yet!! He was so nice and really wanted to get to know us and what we were doing. To my surprise with my poor Spanish and his small knowledge of English, we talked each others heads off for 40 minutes! It was an awesome time struggling through our words and trying without google translate (which is always a huge help). He was so friendly and was excited we were here for the Lord because he told us how religious he was. I’m eager to go back to school on Monday to see my new amigo!
Lucia is the mother of Jessica, our host’s wife! I was frying so so many French fries and around halfway through she came into the kitchen and started helping around and watching me. I was super intimidated and expected her to shoo me off and say i was doing it wrong. Then! To my surprise, she asked if i knew Spanish in Spanish and because I’ve been able to pick up key words I replied Quick and easy. She then got excited and asked me so many questions! I got to talk about my sister and where i was from. Then at the end of the night she brought a cake and was eager for me to try it. Then when I was able to compliment her in Spanish she was very pleased. Plus the cake was SO GOOD
With using my Spanglish, I can pour into people that are eager to practice their English with me. It’s so great being able to show anybody and everyone the fathers love even if all that means it’s nodding and pretending I know Spanish! But the hard conversations, that get frustrating when I feel like I’ve used every synonym in the book, sometimes end up being the best because we fought for the conversation! We made it happen and it ends up awesome! It’s so fun just laughing through our words. I love chit chat conversation and learning peoples names, how many siblings, and favorite colors!
So, thank you Mrs Dickson for all the phrases, words, and conjugations I remember! You were the best Spanish teacher back in the day and I wish I would have continued to practice and learn. But hey! Now I’m here and I’m coming back fluent!! (Probably not but hey shoot for the sky, am i right?)
Sincerely, I wish I paid more attention in class,
Abby Moore
