Say What??

On Today's Menu: Diagnosing

 

Yesterday I took my diagnostic language test online. I've been needing to take it for some time now but I was putting it off until I felt that I had found a moment of true bravery....yeah, well, that moment didn't come, so yesterday I decided to just go ahead and take it so I could get it off my mind. Apparently this test is designed to help API determine my level of understanding so that they can place me in the right classes once I get to Granada. For me, however, all it did was encourage the unrelenting flutters of the butterflies existent in my stomach. Fortunately it wasn't a long test, but it did include an ample amount of grammar and vocabulary I am not familiar with. 

I felt relatively comfortable with the reading portion. My orientation packet from API included a list of links to Spanish websites, so I have been following some Spanish newspapers online for the past few weeks and have found that I can translate enough to understand what's going on. (Take a look if you like: http://www.granadahoy.com/ is the site for Granada's local paper; and http://www.marca.com/ is a sports page I have glanced at a time or two). 

The verb conjugation and listening exercises were the two areas I really fought with. For one thing, there were no directions regarding the exercises. I was only given a list of sentences and I assumed I had to fill in the blanks with the correct conjugation of whatever verb I believed best fit with each sentence. Second of all, I'm not used to the Catalan Spanish dialect where 'c' is pronounced as 'th' and 'z' sounds more like 's'. I'm more accustomed to the Hispanic dialect that we hear in the States, which is spoken slower and with less slurring. Basically what I'm saying is, I can't understand spoken Spanish for anything...which I'm thinking could be a problem in the coming weeks...

Well, one thing is for sure - this is going to be an interesting adventure!