Well I've officially had my last day of school. After four weeks I know what I don't know and that's a lot! It's been really good fun, hard work and frustrating at times but I can now talk to people, albeit slowly. I have a lot of grammar in my head but it is hardly intuitive yet, which leads to a lot of thinking and self editing when I speak. The number of words I know has gone up exponentially though and sometimes when a new word is described to me in Spanish I can understand what it's meaning is (sign language helps as well). I wish I understood the grammatical structure of English better as it would make understanding grammar in a new language easier! There are 3 forms of past (that I know in Spanish) and I think they all have English equivalents that I use without thinking about it!
I guess one measure of progress is that previously when I've been in South America I have carried my phrase book at all times. Over the last few weeks I haven't bothered to carry it at all and I've donated it to the South American Explorers Club, so it can find a useful home with someone else. I have however now got a medium size dictionary which was essential for class and which I will be carting with me over South America.
What I need to continue to do is talk Spanish a lot and I am a bit concerned that I won't as the international travellers language is English. But I really appreciate the effort that all those who speak other languages have put into learning them.
Now off to walk up some steep hills for 5 days to an Inca site called Choquequirao - pictures and itinerary are on the Chaska Tours site.
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