no.41 130610 Thank you for this opportunity to learn Spanish

Learning Spanish!

In preparation for my mission trip, I am studying Spanish on my own. I didn't think it would be hard to learn a new language without taking a course, but it is quite the challenge. I am following a book that my sister bought a couple of years ago, when she wanted to study the language.

Last year, I attempted to study Japanese on my own, but I wasn't too successful. I always liked Japanese cuisine, dessert, tea, candy and other cute knick knacks, so that was my primary motivation. Meeting non-Japanese people who speak Japanese fluently challenged me to learn this language. My dad always told me how easy for Koreans to learn Japanese because of the grammatical similarity in the two languages. Anyways, I kinda stopped studying because you need to know 'kanji' - a Japanese term for Chinese characters. I have a very little knowledge of 'hanja' - a Korean term for Chinese characters, uses Korean pronunciation. I learned 'hanja' when I was in elementary school in Korea. I'm not sure about now, but when I was in elementary school, it was mandatory to learn 'hanja' up to a certain age.

Back to Spanish. It's been only a few days since I started studying this new language. I'm hoping to reach to a level where I can do a super basic communication with the locals in Mexico. I'm also going to master certain expressions and words that I think are important while I stay there. For instance, 'no quiero cilantro' which translates to 'I don't want cilantro'. I need to remember this if I want to eat in Mexico since I can't eat coriander. Anyways, I am thankful for this opportunity to learn basic Spanish.

Lastly, I want to share a beautiful song that I like, which is in Spanish. It's by one of my favourite groups. The song is called 'La Soledad' by Pink Martini, in their first album. I didn't even bother looking up what the title meant until today - it means 'the loneliness.' The song starts very subtle with Chopin's Andante Spianato, and then it changes to Latin style in a minor key. I was hesitating between this song and 'Donde Estas Yolanda' to share on my blog since these two are my favourite Spanish songs by Pink Martini. I guess I can share them both. Oh, I'll be going to their concert by the end of the month and I'm counting down the days! It'll be my second time seeing the group perform in Toronto!

¡Hasta mañana!