Castellano

    After 7 weeks I'm definitely starting to notice an improvement in my Spanish skills. They say "Castellano" here rather than "Espanol." I've gained more confidence when talking to my family and other locals. However,. It still pisses me off when I ask somebody something in Spanish and they respond in English. That's a major confidence downer. Like, did I really sounds that bad you had to switch languages?? Some verb tenses are starting to come naturally to me, I'm starting to remember the correct genders of certain nouns, and I have to plan less in advance for what I'm going to say.
     Its interesting to note the differences between the Spanish I learned in classes at home, and the different accents and grammar that the Argentinians use. At home we learn the 'tu' form of second person. To say 'you want,' you say 'tu quieres.' 'Querer,' to want, is an irregular verb, and you change the 'ue' to a 'uie' when you conjugate it. In Argentina, they use 'vos' instead of 'tu', and this requires some different conjugations for the second person conjugation. You don't change the stem of irregular verbs, like in querer, and instead add an accent to the last syllable, for example 'vos querés'. Its actually a lot easier to remember because you don't have to change irregular verbs. But you still have to change them for first and second person, so its actually more confusing. I'll have to remember the 'tu' format when I go back to my classes in the US, however.
     Lately I've had trouble differentiating between Spanish and English. I forget what language I'm speaking and accidentally slip in a word of the wrong language. I'm taking this as a good sign that Spanish is becoming more natural to me. When I talk online to friends at home in English and then immediately to my host family in Spanish, it takes me a second to think about what language I'm using and sometimes accidentally start talkng in the wrong one. I need to develop a mental switch in my brain to change languages more easily. I've also started saying things in English in the format they are said in Spanish. Instead of 'my friends mom' I'll say, 'the mother of my friend' or 'I have hunger' instead of 'I am hungry.'  It's always really amusing when things like this slip out because everyone in the program has been having this problem lately. Other problems: when I write words like nation and evolution, that have a 'tion' in them in English, I can never remember how to spell them because these kinds of words are very similar in Spanish, except with a 'ción" instead. I never remember if I need a t or a c. It's the same with English words with a 'ph' because in Spanish they simply use an 'f' and lately I can't remember how to spell photo and telephone. 
    I'm getting better in classes too at listening to the lectures. The real problem is that my classes are early and there is so much on my mind that I often zone out and forget to listen. But I have found that if I look directly at my notebook and block out everything else and only try to listen to my professor speaking, I can understand her much better. I tried watching her mouth for a while to help me listen, but this doesn't work as well and then I just end up awkwardly staring at her mouth all class. 
    It's a slow process for me, but I still have plenty of time to practice, even though my program is always a third of the way done!