Week 20: El Primer Fin

I finished my last Spanish class on Friday! In total, I spent 4 1/2 months taking classes. And sometime in that period I learned a new language and became pretty proficient at using it. How amazing is that?! That said, I'm definitely not fluent. That word means different things for a lot of people, so this is how I'm defining it: speaking a language quickly, with very little difficulty, and with few grammatical errors. I associate this level with, say, being certified as a medical translator. For me to get to that point would take another six months of Spanish immersion, I would guess. But honestly I am happy with where I am at right now: depending on the speaker I understand 75-100% of what they are saying, and I can speak well enough that conversing with patients in a medical setting goes pretty well.

I will still be in the clinic on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, and also will be working on finishing up the medical program orientation manual that I and a couple other folk are making, but without my afternoons taken up by Spanish class I have a feeling this week will be a welcome respite from the business of the previous months. I plan on spending my free time watching movies in Spanish, baking, wandering around the city, chatting with the other Guatemalans in my apartment building, and planning the two weeks of travel I'll be doing with Caleb between the 20th and the 6th. All in all, a pretty tranquilo week :)