So, after my first 1 week of orientation with CIEE, I moved
in with my host family and, the next Monday, I began taking Spanish classes at
CLIC Language Academy.
Everyone from my program arrived early on Monday morning to take
a placement test for our level of Spanish.
The levels included Absolute Beginner (A1), Pre-Intermediate (A2),
Intermediate (B1), Upper Intermediate (B2), Advanced (C1), and Superior
(C2). All of us from CIEE were sorted
into levels A1-B2.
I was a little nervous for the “test” just because I was
afraid it would tell me that I didn’t really know any Spanish at all and that
the time I’d spent studying it in college was completely insufficient, but luckily,
it didn’t turn out that way. Instead of
crushing my Spanish-speaking spirit, the test validated it. I was placed with a group in level B2. Whew.
During the first few classes, however, I felt a little
overwhelmed. It was hard to keep up and
I couldn’t remember a lot of the grammar.
This feeling didn’t last too long though and it became more of a daily
roller coaster, undulating between feeling like I was in exactly the right
level and feeling like I’d rather be reviewing the grammar with one of the other
classes.
BUT, it all worked
out okay and I learned some valuable lessons about the Spanish language and
culture (for example, did you know that, in Spain (or at least in Seville), it
is considered rude to stretch in public?
And, to order food/drinks at a bar you don’t ask “Podría darme
(food/beverage),” or a variation thereof?
It’s: “Me pone un…(insert food/beverage here)… por favor?”).
Among the things I really enjoyed about the classes at CLIC
was that the students were so diverse in age and nationality. In my class, we had 5 of us Americans, 1 girl
from Switzerland (Alina) who spoke several “foreign” languages, including
French, German, English, and now, Spanish (so jealous of her language abilities),
1 girl from China (Mali), 1 girl and 1 guy from South Korea (Magda—her Spanish
name—and Sangi), and, for a time, 1
(pregnant) woman from Italy (who also spoke several languages). Some of the other nationalities represented
in CLIC were German, Australian, French, British, and Belgian, to name a few. It was really neat to be in the main lobby
and be able to hear so many different languages being spoken at once.
Another great thing about CLIC was that they organized
several cultural excursions every week. I traveled with them to many sites within
Seville, including Triana (a famous neighborhood), a church – Santa Maria de la
Caridad – a flamenco show in Triana during the
Bienal de Flamenco (a famous flamenco festival in Sevilla) that started at 10 and lasted a few
hours… I was, unfortunately, falling asleep during parts of it, and Casa de
Pilatos in Sevilla center. I also traveled with CLIC to
other cities nearby, including Ronda, Granada, and Cordoba.
 |
| Cordoba |
 |
| Granada |
After my 4-week course at CLIC I received a pretty
certificate with my level on it, signed by my 2 profs. It’s nice. I like it. J And perhaps later this year I will sign up to
take the DELE course with CLIC so I can have an official fluency score. – The DELE is an official test to measure one’s
Spanish fluency and could be useful for future employment. – We’ll see.
Hasta pronto,
Rach
No comments:
Post a Comment