Avanzar

Forward, march! It is the first day of July, and the first day of the new six-week term at Maryknoll. We have four new students for this term. One is a Maryknoll lay missioner who is learning Quechua before he goes to Peru. Another is an African priest serving in the Archdiocese of New York; every cleric, from Cardinal Timothy Dolan on down the hierarchy, has had to study some Spanish to meet diocesan requirements for pastoral ministry. The other two are seminarians with the Columban priests, a missionary order; they come from Fiji. The diocesan priest is Father Anthony, and one of the Columban seminarians is named Atonio. One of the Korean priests here is Padre Antonio. That makes four Anthonys in the language program. This is an unusual experience for me, because Anthony is not so common a name as it was when I was born. Well, I am still the only Brother Anthony at Maryknoll. Maybe I will just have to give myself a nickname, like El Hermano or something, in order to disambiguate. 

With the new term has come new twists. The program coordinator, Señora Kitty, has put me for the first time in a class of my own. I have been separated from Grace so that I can advance to the cultural and grammatical lessons in the latter curriculum units on Guatemala and El Salvador. And so we got right into it this morning, with Profesora Vicky and me motoring through the first several exercises quickly. The latter two class periods are with Profesor Óscar, and we are having extended conversations in much the same manner as I did with Profesora Sara. My thanks to Señora Kitty for listening deeply to my ministerial needs and responding promptly. Ask and you shall receive! 

How do I feel about studying solo four hours a day, five days a week? It’s about time, says my superego. Go slowly and gently, says my conscience. You are ready, says my gut. After all, this is only school, a simulation of natural Spanish and not quite the real thing. It is a controlled environment. Nevertheless, I feel that July will be an intensive month, maybe at times monotonous, and tiring for sure on some days. After all, it is one-on-one with my teachers. No more classmates to tap me out when I get tired in the brain. Four hours solo, five days a week. I guess now is as good a time as any to take on a more strenuous classroom experience. I have been working my way there: I have been more proactive in classes since I was parted from Joshua six weeks ago. And for the last three weeks, I have been going one-to-one with the teacher for the latter two periods. So it is the right time to intensify the language workout. This will be a very good opportunity for consolidating everything I have been learning. 

So, with that said, let me crack open the textbook and study what Profesora Vicky has asked me to read. While I am skipping the cultural lessons on Chile and Peru, I am attending to the grammar lessons from those curriculum units outside of class. Let’s see how you use the words that signify comparisons of equality and inequality; express a need or desire; and express unexpected actions. ¡Adelante!