Double your pleasure by being bi-lingual

Two lessons were learned or reaffirmed yesterday.  Cuenca is really just a small town and being bi-lingual is a gift not to be ignored. It was Loretta’s birthday and the three of us drove up into the Cajas National Park to our favorite restaurant, Dos Chorreros, where we often go to celebrate a holiday or special event. It was a perfect day, bright sunny skies filled with powder-puff clouds, the weather warm and clear.

The twenty mile drive up and into the mountains passes through spectacular scenery with waterfalls, cattle grazing on steep grassy slopes, indigenous families waiting by the roadside for the frequent busses,  and the sensation and the reality of climbing, constantly climbing upward.

At about 12,000 feet we pulled off the highway onto a dirt and gravel road, past trout ponds and tumbling brooks until we came to the restaurant where a dozen or more llama were grazing on the grass.

On entering the restaurant, we encountered a couple from Cuenca who we had spent the day before with in Yungilla at another friend’s farm. It had been something of a home warming event with a busload of Gringo’s arriving at the farm for an all day picnic. We chatted a bit about what fun the previous day had been.

 On going to our table, a man called from his table. “Is your name Bill?”  They were a visiting family from Michigan who identified us from the photo on our blog. Jonny tore off with their 6 year old daughter to play outside by the tumbling creek that runs by the big glass windows of the restaurant while we talked. They ran and jumped over the creek and became instant friends sharing their exuberance in English. We chatted about the family's adventures visiting Cuenca until they left.

After seating ourselves at our table, Jonny noticed a boy his age at the table next to us. He went over, introduced himself in Spanish and he and the boy went out to play. It turned out they were a French family and the boy spoke only Spanish and French. The mother knew Jonny from the Cedei School where she had taught French in the upper school. They had moved here from Tasmania and bought a farm outside Cuenca. Jonny and his new friend spent most of our dinner time talking in their common language, Spanish, and playing in the woods and creeks until they returned soaked to the waist.

On the way to our car after feasting at the desert table, a teen age girl said, “Hi Jonny.” in English. She had known him from summer camp and was quite proficient in English as are many of the Ecuadorian students who go to private school.

Are there some lessons here? We think so. Cuenca is a city of approximately 500,000 people yet a day does not pass that we don’t run into someone we know. And, we are not unusual. It is a common observation of almost all of our gringo friends. For one reason or another, people are extremely friendly and go out of their way to express it. We have never had so many friends in our entire lives as we have here and we hear that from everyone. Secondly, having previously used only English, we would have been deprived of some of the friendships we have in Cuenca if we didn’t use Spanish. Jonny is growing up bi-lingual and thinks nothing of switching from English to Spanish depending on who he is playing with. Though our Spanish is still in the embryo state, his is vocabulary is exploding daily. We think we have given him a gift that will soon override all the trials and frustrations of living in a foreign country. 

Learning Spanish

We came to Cuenca ten months ago knowing no more Spanish than the few words learned by accident in the US. Neither of us had taken Spanish as a language requirement in high school or known any Spanish speaking people back in the states. We figured we would learn when we got here. So, we arrived with no more than a few rudimentary Spanish words, some good sign language, and our ears tuned to try to “hear” what people were saying. At this stage, we were surprised at the consideration most Ecuadorians gave when they tried to decipher our attempts to speak their language. We were often greeted with smiles and even occasional laughter at our atrocious pronunciation.  Even though it is ten months later, we have still not taken any formal lessons though we get along quite well.  A friend gave us a tape that we have used irregularly but we haven’t taken the “one on one” lessons we promised we would do as soon as things quieted down. One on one lessons run about $8 an hour or more depending on whether you employ an independent teacher or go to a language school. Cuenca has a reputation for having excellent Spanish language schools and there are many. It is also said that the Spanish form taught in Cuenca and elsewhere in Ecuador is purer and is spoken slower than in other Spanish speaking countries.  We have also heard that there are more than 1000 English words that are almost identical to the word in Spanish. This gives you a head start when you understand that you already know over 1000 words and didn’t realize it. Our lives have been such a whirlwind since we arrived that we have probably postponed the most important thing we should do, learn Spanish. Life would be measurably improved if we were able to have meaningful conversations with Ecuadorians. Jonny, who is five and goes to a school with all Spanish speaking classmates and teacher, is picking the language up rapidly. All Ecuadorian students take English at school but there are very few who speak it well. That said, it is often the grade school child who does the translating for a family. Grade school students are very proud of their English and seem to want to use it whenever they can. Every day, upper class students at school seek out our Jonny just to speak English with him.  But, other than eager students, you will rarely find Ecuadorians who speak English well, if at all. We have learned a huge number of words just by exposure, watching TV and listening closely. But we say them poorly. Yesterday, I asked someone for salsa and they could not understand the way I pronounced it. When we are in a situation like this where there is an impasse, the proprietor of a store or office will often find someone who can interpret. Our experience has been that, even though we don’t know the correct grammar, we give it a try. Our pronunciation is terrible and often, though we use the right words, we are often not understood. Sign language and making sounds that imitate what we are trying to say helps. Loretta caused hysterical laughter when she didn’t know the word for dog and said, “woof. Woof.” Many of the letters of the alphabet are pronounced differently in Spanish which is the root of our problem. We are not the ones to ask advice on this subject as we are only at the beginning stage of learning but we seem to get along amazingly well.  We shop at the markets and stores. We get what we think we ordered at restaurants. We talk with neighbors. We conduct our daily life with hardly any language problems. We struggle when someone talks rapidly in Spanish but we ask them to slow down and the meaning seeps in. Our conversations with Ecuadorians must be hysterical but they are generally understanding and try hard to help.  The only advice we could give is that your life will be dramatically better in Ecuador if you speak the language but, with a little patience and a lot of practice, the words will seep in and, before you know it, you will be speaking decent Spanish and sharing your life more intimately with Ecuadorians. 

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.