Valencia - ¡Hablamos Español!

Over the past week, our trip has shifted dramatically from non-stop tourist jaunt to fully integrated cultural experience. We arrived in Valencia last Sunday with the plan to stay here for 2 weeks. Rachel had been doing some research on Spanish schools in the area and found a good one about a mile from our hotel. While the idea of taking 4 hours of class, 5 days a week originally didn't sound like the most fun activity, I quickly warmed to the idea.

The next challenge was actually enrolling in class. Most people enroll well in advance of their trip here because they have a schedule and a plan like normal people. We just decided to show up unannounced 30 minutes before classes started on Monday and told the folks at Taronja (our school) that we wanted to enroll. The team at Taronja could not have been any more accommodating. They gave us a placement test right away, and as soon as we finished, they had 2 teachers (one of whom is the head of the school) interview us to determine our Spanish competency. After the interviews, Rachel and I were placed in the same class and were told to show up at 3:00 for orientation. This whole process took less than an hour. Nice.

 

The classes we are taking are taught entirely in Spanish, and all of the people at the school speak nothing but Spanish. It's a bit intimidating at first, especially since I haven't taken a formal Spanish class since 2004, but after spending a few minutes in the classroom, you feel immediately at ease. All classes are no more than 10 students, are taught by young teachers (no one over 40, most under 30), and include students from all over the world who are in Valencia to learn Spanish. In our class alone, we have 3 Swiss, 2 Germans, 2 Americans, 1 Kiwi, 1 Canadian, and 1 Brit who works in Philly and has lived in SJ for 30 years. Who knew!

The classes last for just shy of 4 hours per day Monday-Friday, and everyday there are different social activities that you can participate in at your leisure. This week we had a paella cooking class, a beach party, a pool party, a swing dance class, a flamenco performance, and Cuban concert. While we didn't participate in all the activities, we had a great time meeting people from all over the world and practicing our Spanish when we did. The classes also focus on real world learning. We're not sitting there all day learning conjugation and and different tenses. We're having conversations with each other and learning important real world vocabulary like how to say:

Drunk - borracho

Tipsy - estar piripi

Fuck - joder

Clumsy - torpe (a must have when your wife is as 'torpe' as Rachel)

Bald - calvo (Rachel's favorite)

These classes are really fun and don't feel tedious or boring like Spanish classes I've taken in the past.

 

The experience has also been awesome for Rachel and me. Rachel and I always like to have a project to work on together. Whether it was planning our wedding, figuring out this trip, searching for a house, etc, it's fun to have a common goal to work toward together. Up until now, we had a bit of a vacuum between trip planning and house buying, and this Spanish experience has helped to fill that void. We practice with each other after class, quiz each other on vocabulary, and have added to our code language to discreetly talk about people when we're people watching.

 

The other rewarding part of this experience has been seeing how much improvement each of us has made in our Spanish over the past week. Being immersed in a language for 20 hours a week of class plus practice time and experiencing the culture outside of class really expedites the learning process. In my entrance interview on Monday, I could hardly pull together my thoughts or speak properly. Less than a week later, I sat through Purge 3, dubbed in Spanish without subtitles and understood the entire plot of the movie and what was going on. While the Purge isn't the most dense subject matter, it still felt good to be able to watch a movie in a foreign language and follow along.

 

I will say that the last week has probably been my favorite part of the trip. While certainly not the most sexy or headline grabbing, it's definitely the most rewarding. Rachel and I have been able to share in something together that allows us to improve ourselves. You can only experience so many tourist attractions before they all start to run together. This part of the trip will last well beyond when we return home in 3 weeks.

With that said, we enrolled in one more week of classes next week, so hopefully week 2 is as beneficial as week 1.

Hasta luego!

Jeff

PS - the rest of the post is rated NC-17.

When you have a minute, look up "comer el conejo" on Google, not the literal translation either. Rachel and I discovered this one while watching "Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse" dubbed in Spanish on TV one night. Based on the ~30 minutes of the movie we saw, this has to be one of the most ridiculous, over the top things I've ever seen. Check it out if you want to have some mindless fun and be grossed out for 2 hours.