Learning the Lingo

It's getting cold here. Really cold. Far too cold for this poor Australian. In truth it's probably not all that bad, but in contrast to the pleasant, shorts and t-shirt weather of the north from which I recently returned, this is quite a shock to the body. My body's immediate reaction was to come down with a pretty uncomfortable case of the flu. I'm slowly recovering but I'm still a little under the weather and have been able to mooch a day or two off school from my (mostly) sympathetic family. Elsa's natural tendency as a mother and doctor is to take every possible precaution and check up on me several times a day, but they have all found my reaction to the weather to be quite amusing. Yesterday my host family was joking about sending me off to a warmer climate e.g. Brazil, in exchange for a slightly more accustomed exchange student, e.g. a Norwegian.

I find that sometimes even  the car trip to school in the morning can be quite a way out of my comfortable temperature range. Perhaps watching the reading on the outside temperature gauge drop to -5oC doesn't help. However, I gained a greater appreciation for the luxury of the car when my host father had to leave early this morning to get to a course in Neuquén and my host brothers and I had to layer up and brave the icy roads on foot. Thankfully when I arrived at the school library, the staff were ready and waiting with some nice warm mate. I'm currently awaiting a care package from home containing some extra clothes so that I can get some more layers happening as the weather cools off even further. I can't say I'm super excited about the mercury dropping a further 10 degrees over the course of my stay, although it will be a new challenge for me and I look forward to the promise of snow, quite likely in the next month! For someone who has, much to the amazement of the locals (and probably most overseas readers of this blog), never seen snow falling from the sky, this is a new experience that I will willingly endure the cold for! Already, a light covering of snow can be seen atop the mountains towards San Martin and our friendly local volcano, Lanin, has taken on more of a stereotypical 'volcano-y' look, with the top half covered in a thick layer of white. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of Lanin sporting this look.. I do however have some of it bearing a bit of a snow-covering. I took these pictures on my latest 'walking group' expedition with Luis. 

This walk wasn't anywhere near as spectacular or challenging as my first two experiences, but having just returned from our trip to Iguazu, I happily welcomed the light weight trek to get me back into the swing of things. This time we didn't have to drive to begin our hike, simply setting out from town. We covered a great deal of terrain that I had previously covered on runs with Luis earlier in my stay and it was quite interesting to see the dramatic changes in the scenery. While many of the spectacular greens, blues and brilliant yellows have now been replaced by oranges, browns and a far more pale shade of yellow, in my opinion, my surroundings have not become any less beautiful. I look forward to seeing what else the landscape has in store while I'm here.

At about the half way point in our walk we stopped by the river to have a nice asado lunch - chori-pan - the Argentinian equivalent of sausage sandwiches. However I feel that this description probably does them a bit of injustice, they were delicious!! Everyone was of very high spirit and it was lovely sitting around by the river sharing mate, stories and a few laughs. Our group had grown quite considerably since the last hike - I think we numbered around thirty. Whether this was due to the promise of a less demanding walk and a bbq lunch or simply word of the group spreading, I cannot be sure. I like to think that I have had some effect on the growing numbers, with people eager to meet the lovely Australian boy with his stilted yet creative take on the Spanish language.

My Spanish (they prefer if I call it Castellano here) is coming along really well. Before leaving for the north, I was feeling that my language had come to a bit of a standstill. Motivated by the progress of my fellow exchange students, on my return, I endeavoured to make a greater effort to participate in conversation in Spanish. This I am modelling on the English of some of my friends who speak it as a second or even third language. They just throw themselves into it, unafraid of whether they use the right tense or correct grammar and unperturbed if they are not fully understood, simply learning from each conversation and making rapid progress. While we sat to eat our lunch on the walk outside of Junin, I made the effort to chat with some of my fellow walkers, but was soon overwhelmed as those nearby moved in to ask questions and share their own opinions. On the return leg of the trek, however, I walked alongside my host mother and eventually decided to strike up conversation and see how long I could keep it going for. We ended up speaking non-stop all the way back to town. I was always able to convey my intended meaning and maintain her interest in what I was saying. My grammar was probably quite poor and I didn't feel all that fluent but I felt a massive improvement in both my speaking and understanding in the hour that we conversed for. Who would have thought that the best way to learn to speak a language would be to talk..

It appears that my Spanish teacher also got the memo about me wanting to practice my speaking. When I sat down for my first lesson since returning to Junín, she said something along the lines of "I think we've done enough grammar for now; it's time to put it into practice!" So we chatted for the entire duration of the lesson and then continued on for a half hour afterwards . By the time I leave Argentina she's going to be an expert on Temora and Australian history and culture. I've been trying to carry this conversational ability into daily life, but still prefer situations were I am speaking with only one or two people. It's a bit of a challenge after spending the first half of my time here preferring to simply listen and learn but, now that the words have started to flow, I doubt there'll be any stopping them. I guess it was inevitable that someone who likes to talk as much as myself would eventually tire of not having a say. I have to be patient though - now that I'm conversing more with people I've learnt the first unspoken rule of conversational etiquette when it comes to talking to foreigners like myself - the native speaker always gets the first say and right of way. In general, the Argentinians love to talk and I often just have to sit and wait for them to stop for a breath before I can have any input. I guess that's how people feel when they're speaking to me in English.. They're almost always very entertaining to listen too though and I'm finding that speaking in Spanish is now less of a chore and something that I really enjoy.

I've also had my first instances of not being understood in Spanish simply because of my accent. Even if I know that the sentence I've formed makes perfect sense, if I'm a little lazy in toning down the Australian accent I'm likely to get the same bemused expression as if I'd just spoken a phrase of Aussie slang. Thankfully Agus, who is much more accustomed to my accent, is often on hand to 'translate'. An improvement in language has also led to an improvement in my joke-making ability, much to my delight and I'm sure to the delight of my host family.

I am still encountering the occasional person really eager to try out their English, particularly younger people. Some, like the occasional kindergarten-aged kids that I meet when we go to get-togethers, are content just hearing me speak in English - even if it's something as simple as telling them my name and where I'm from.  The usual response is wide smiles and a few giggles, but every now and then there will be a wide-eyed child sitting in stunned disbelief that someone can so easily rattle-off some English. I had one amusing encounter at the CEF where I play futbol, when a twelve-year-old refused to believe that I was from Australia and that I spoke English as a first language. 

I often wonder to what point my language will progress before I return to Australia. While being 'fluent' is currently far beyond consideration, I've already come a long way and hope to make much greater improvements before my time here is up - a point in time that doesn’t feel all that far away now that I've passed the half way mark in my little adventure. I'm struggling to come to come to grips with how quickly time has passed and how much I've managed to see and do so far! I'm sure I'll be heading home before I know it, however I can also be certain that I have plenty more awesome experiences ahead of me here in Argentina.