Yesterday I came very close to crossing off number 24 on my 32 in 32 list. Since I arrived in Madrid a few weeks ago, I've made every effort to speak only Spanish with my Spanish friends, some of whom I became friends with as a result of language exchanges when I lived here five years ago. I have been eager to brush up my Spanish, because I have lost a lot of vocabulary and gained a bit of accent since I moved away. Most days since I've arrived about 95% of my interactions have taken place in Spanish. During the hiking trip, I spoke some Spanish and some English. I've spoken in English with other American Hispanists that I've run into here at the archives. I have a couple of American friends who reside in Madrid, and our relationships are in English. And M. and I have had a few phone conversations since I left.
Yesterday I went to the archives. As I was just about to arrive, a felt something wet on my hand and arm. It was bird shit (which is apparently good luck), and my first reaction was to curse. It was in Spanish. I only spoke Spanish in the archives and with the waiter when I took a break for lunch. I met up with a friend in the afternoon for a couple of drinks before I went to see a performance of some Baroque interludes at the Teatro Clasico. We spoke Spanish the entire time, and the theater had me feeling pretty good about my Spanish again.
After I got home from the theater and was unwinding for the night with an Isabel Allende novel (La isla bajo el mar), I was thinking that I could cross this one off my list. A few pages later and my phone rang. It was an American friend of mine (who is actually a native Spanish speaker but with whom I have a relationship in English), and without thinking I answered in English and we talked for a few minutes before I realized that I had just screwed up.
There will be another couple of opportunities to try next week, so I may still nail this one completely. I hope that I do. Otherwise, I may have to be satisfied with having gone a day speaking only in Spanish - minus 7 minutes.
I'm curious. How many of you readers speak a second or multiple languages? How fluent do you consider yourself? How do you keep your fluency when you live somewhere where that language isn't spoken?
Showing posts with label Spanish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spanish. Show all posts
Friday, May 25, 2012
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The Year in Yoga, Journaling, and Writing
In addition to feasting and relaxing over the past few days I have also spent some time reflecting on where this year has taken me and how I did with the goals that I set for the year. I have already recapped how I did with my 2011 running goals and my year on GAAD. My other goals for the year were related to various aspects of my fitness, career, and maintaining my Spanish. Let's see how I did with them....
Other Fitness Goals
Reestablish my home yoga practice. I would say that I have done quite well with this one. While some months and weeks have been a bit more consistent than others, for the most part, I have pulled out my yoga mat or my mysore rug and spent some quality time doing physical asanas and meditating at least twice a week. Plenty of my practices have been short 20 minute vinyasa sessions after runs, and I'd like to keep this up over the next year.
Maintain a food journal for the entire year. There were months when I kept my journal every single day and there were months when I did not. Overall, I did better in the second half of the year than I did during the first part of 2011. I still have a ways to go before this truly becomes second nature, though.
Professional/Writing Goals
Present research at at least one conference. I presented research papers at two conferences this year, so I can happily say that I accomplished this goal.
Publish. In terms of articles, I have made progress on this goal, but it will definitely be a continuing objective in the new year. I revised and resubmitted an article, but need to finish revising and resubmitting it to another journal after it was rejected by my first choice. I feel good about aiming high and coming close (although I would have felt much better if this piece had been accepted, of course). I'm hoping to get this article back out the door in early January and turn to other projects. I've made some progress on another article, but I'm not ready to send it out yet.
Nail down a book contract. I have made some progress on making decisions about framework for my book manuscript and I have talked to a couple of publishers informally. However, I sadly cannot say that I accomplished this goal in 2011. However, I have been working on a basic proposal and chapter outlines and plan to send them out to several presses early in the coming year. I'm very grateful to reader AL and my friend JC who have very graciously passed along their successful proposals for me to look at. I'm very hopeful that I can accomplish this in 2012.
Organize my files. If I had done my recap at Thanksgiving, I think I could have declared this goal accomplished. However, I have stacks of final exams and papers that came in during December that need to be organized and put away, and I let the desk in my campus office get into a state of disarray during the last week or so of the term. Overall, I have definitely made progress in organizing and keeping things organized in 2011, though.
Misc. Goals
Do more with my Spanish. This goal has been hit or miss. Sometimes I read El Pais. Sometimes I read a journal article in Spanish. Sometimes I converse in Spanish with a friend and colleague and write emails to friends back in Madrid, but I could have done more and been a lot more consistent with this goal.
Of my 11 goals for 2011, I would say that I accomplished five of them, came very close to accomplishing two of them, made significant strides toward accomplishing another two of them, and really fell short with two of them. I'm looking forward to setting more goals and making more progress with writing, running, and some other projects in 2012. How did you do with your 2011 goals?
Other Fitness Goals
Reestablish my home yoga practice. I would say that I have done quite well with this one. While some months and weeks have been a bit more consistent than others, for the most part, I have pulled out my yoga mat or my mysore rug and spent some quality time doing physical asanas and meditating at least twice a week. Plenty of my practices have been short 20 minute vinyasa sessions after runs, and I'd like to keep this up over the next year.
Maintain a food journal for the entire year. There were months when I kept my journal every single day and there were months when I did not. Overall, I did better in the second half of the year than I did during the first part of 2011. I still have a ways to go before this truly becomes second nature, though.
Professional/Writing Goals
Present research at at least one conference. I presented research papers at two conferences this year, so I can happily say that I accomplished this goal.
Publish. In terms of articles, I have made progress on this goal, but it will definitely be a continuing objective in the new year. I revised and resubmitted an article, but need to finish revising and resubmitting it to another journal after it was rejected by my first choice. I feel good about aiming high and coming close (although I would have felt much better if this piece had been accepted, of course). I'm hoping to get this article back out the door in early January and turn to other projects. I've made some progress on another article, but I'm not ready to send it out yet.
Nail down a book contract. I have made some progress on making decisions about framework for my book manuscript and I have talked to a couple of publishers informally. However, I sadly cannot say that I accomplished this goal in 2011. However, I have been working on a basic proposal and chapter outlines and plan to send them out to several presses early in the coming year. I'm very grateful to reader AL and my friend JC who have very graciously passed along their successful proposals for me to look at. I'm very hopeful that I can accomplish this in 2012.
Organize my files. If I had done my recap at Thanksgiving, I think I could have declared this goal accomplished. However, I have stacks of final exams and papers that came in during December that need to be organized and put away, and I let the desk in my campus office get into a state of disarray during the last week or so of the term. Overall, I have definitely made progress in organizing and keeping things organized in 2011, though.
Misc. Goals
Do more with my Spanish. This goal has been hit or miss. Sometimes I read El Pais. Sometimes I read a journal article in Spanish. Sometimes I converse in Spanish with a friend and colleague and write emails to friends back in Madrid, but I could have done more and been a lot more consistent with this goal.
Of my 11 goals for 2011, I would say that I accomplished five of them, came very close to accomplishing two of them, made significant strides toward accomplishing another two of them, and really fell short with two of them. I'm looking forward to setting more goals and making more progress with writing, running, and some other projects in 2012. How did you do with your 2011 goals?
Thursday, December 30, 2010
11 Goals for 2011
Last year I didn't quite accomplish all the goals that I set, but I attained some of them and made progress on the ones that I didn't quite knock out of the park. I have a few goals that I'll be working toward in 2011. I've divided them into Health/Fitness Goals, Career/Writing Goals, and Miscellaneous Goals.
Health/Fitness Goals
1. Run my second marathon. I'm not quite sure when and where it will be yet (in part because I'm not sure yet if I will remain here for another year or not), but I have two half-marathons on the docket for the spring and I'm gunning for 26.2 sometime in the late summer or fall.
2. Run 800+ miles. In 2010 I ran 540 miles, and considering I wasn't running very much at all during the first five months of the year, I think 800 miles is a challenging but doable goal for the year.
3. Reestablish my home yoga practice. In 2007 and 2008 I was practicing yoga regularly but in 2009 I fell off my mat and in 2010 I only practiced sporadically. I want to reintegrate this element of self-care back into my normal routine. In order to do so I'll be taking part in Yoga Journal's 21 Day Yoga Challenge in January and building from there. After the challenge, I'm planning on practicing 3-4 days a week, even if they are mostly short 15-20 minute restorative practices.
4. Run faster in 2011. In my training over the past year and a half, I've almost always just run for distance, and that has meant my pace on my long runs has been about an 11:00-11:45min/mile This past month I have started to mix things up with fartleks and tempo runs. I'm hoping to run closer to 10:00 minute miles on my long runs by the end of March.
5. Keep a food journal for the entire year. I wouldn't mind losing a few pounds, but I don't really worry too much about the number on the scales. But after starting to fit comfortably back into most of my clothes over the late summer and fall, I've started to move in the opposite direction since just before Thanksgiving. I'm not going on a diet, but I know that I feel better and run better when I'm eating more fruits and vegetables and fewer blocks of cheese and boxes of crackers. Writing down what I eat will help to nudge me towards making the right choices.
Career/Writing Goals
6. Present current research at at least on conference during 2011. I'd like to make this two conferences if possible but I'll commit to one for starters.
7. Publish! I have to get two articles for academic journals off my desk. I need to revise and resubmit an article for publication and finish drafting another article to submit for publication. This is one of those goals that is sadly carrying over from last year. I made progress toward both the revisions and the draft, but I'm not there yet. 2011 or bust!
8. Nail down a book contract. I have a couple of presses in mind, but I need to start mobilizing on getting a formal agreement and begin the process of revising my dissertation for publication as a monograph.
9. Organize my files and keep them organized. My computer desktop and my filing cabinets (at home and in my campus office) are in some disarray. I need to get drop box installed on my school laptop so that I can access updated files without constantly having to save to flash drive or send documents to myself in gmail. I also need to get calendar pages for my personal organizer or fully commit to using only Google calendar....
Miscellaneous Goals
10. I will not buy any new clothing in 2011. I'm going on The Great American Apparel Diet. This is going to be a serious challenge, but I really want to focus my financial resources in other directions this year.
11. To do more with my Spanish. Since I moved back to the states from Madrid three years ago, I have lost so much. I read Spanish documents and the occasional play or poem on a fairly regular basis for my research, but I need to be more aggressive in seeking out opportunities to speak the language. I also want to read a couple of Spanish novels for fun this year -- something that I did in 2008 and 2009, but I haven't managed to do this past year.
Are you setting any goals for the upcoming year? What are they? If you've done a post about them, feel free to leave the link in the comments!
Health/Fitness Goals
1. Run my second marathon. I'm not quite sure when and where it will be yet (in part because I'm not sure yet if I will remain here for another year or not), but I have two half-marathons on the docket for the spring and I'm gunning for 26.2 sometime in the late summer or fall.
2. Run 800+ miles. In 2010 I ran 540 miles, and considering I wasn't running very much at all during the first five months of the year, I think 800 miles is a challenging but doable goal for the year.
3. Reestablish my home yoga practice. In 2007 and 2008 I was practicing yoga regularly but in 2009 I fell off my mat and in 2010 I only practiced sporadically. I want to reintegrate this element of self-care back into my normal routine. In order to do so I'll be taking part in Yoga Journal's 21 Day Yoga Challenge in January and building from there. After the challenge, I'm planning on practicing 3-4 days a week, even if they are mostly short 15-20 minute restorative practices.
4. Run faster in 2011. In my training over the past year and a half, I've almost always just run for distance, and that has meant my pace on my long runs has been about an 11:00-11:45min/mile This past month I have started to mix things up with fartleks and tempo runs. I'm hoping to run closer to 10:00 minute miles on my long runs by the end of March.
5. Keep a food journal for the entire year. I wouldn't mind losing a few pounds, but I don't really worry too much about the number on the scales. But after starting to fit comfortably back into most of my clothes over the late summer and fall, I've started to move in the opposite direction since just before Thanksgiving. I'm not going on a diet, but I know that I feel better and run better when I'm eating more fruits and vegetables and fewer blocks of cheese and boxes of crackers. Writing down what I eat will help to nudge me towards making the right choices.
Career/Writing Goals
6. Present current research at at least on conference during 2011. I'd like to make this two conferences if possible but I'll commit to one for starters.
7. Publish! I have to get two articles for academic journals off my desk. I need to revise and resubmit an article for publication and finish drafting another article to submit for publication. This is one of those goals that is sadly carrying over from last year. I made progress toward both the revisions and the draft, but I'm not there yet. 2011 or bust!
8. Nail down a book contract. I have a couple of presses in mind, but I need to start mobilizing on getting a formal agreement and begin the process of revising my dissertation for publication as a monograph.
9. Organize my files and keep them organized. My computer desktop and my filing cabinets (at home and in my campus office) are in some disarray. I need to get drop box installed on my school laptop so that I can access updated files without constantly having to save to flash drive or send documents to myself in gmail. I also need to get calendar pages for my personal organizer or fully commit to using only Google calendar....
Miscellaneous Goals
10. I will not buy any new clothing in 2011. I'm going on The Great American Apparel Diet. This is going to be a serious challenge, but I really want to focus my financial resources in other directions this year.
11. To do more with my Spanish. Since I moved back to the states from Madrid three years ago, I have lost so much. I read Spanish documents and the occasional play or poem on a fairly regular basis for my research, but I need to be more aggressive in seeking out opportunities to speak the language. I also want to read a couple of Spanish novels for fun this year -- something that I did in 2008 and 2009, but I haven't managed to do this past year.
Are you setting any goals for the upcoming year? What are they? If you've done a post about them, feel free to leave the link in the comments!
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