Learning Spanish

There are two aspects to language learning in Ecuador. First, life will be enormously more complete and easy if you learn Spanish. “One on one” lessons are $8 an hour here which makes it very economical to take long term lessons. It will be quite a challenge to learn Spanish well but, having been here for seven months, we have already picked up a lot though I’m sure it is quite crude. The pronunciation is the most difficult part as words similar to those in English are pronounced differently. As an example, our word “President” is pronounced “Pres eh den te.” It should be simple as there are about 850 words that are identical in both languages but it takes hard work. There are so many dialects, one for Guayaquil, one for Quito, one for Cuenca and others for people from Peru or Columbia or Argentina. All are so different that I personally have a much more difficult time “hearing it.” We will start our “one on one” lessons soon and, I’m sure they will make our lives even more normal and useful. On the other hand, there is the almost universal desire for Ecuadorians to also know how to speak English. Schools, both public and private teach English on some level. It is always interesting to find a family where the child is the one who does the translating for the family. Our child, Jonny is almost five and is in school with all Spanish speaking kids. He is beginning to use his Spanish at school but uses very little with us. Children, who hear Spanish all day in school, are bound to pick it up quicker than adults who have lost that “ear” for language.