MY SCARIEST DAY IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
It was day one of a four-week stay in Madrid that I had planned to work on my Spanish.
I had signed up for a Spanish school and on that first morning they made me take a placement test to work out which class I should be in. My reading, writing and spoken Spanish were good and so after the test they put me into a class at level B2.
Later that morning, I joined my new class. From the very first minute I was lost.
The teacher – speaking only Spanish – whizzed through some complicated grammar structures that I had never seen before. I was straining to keep up.
I wanted to say “I quit” and walk out of the classroom.
Instead, I pretended to understand and asked a question or two based on what I read in the book to avoid any unwanted attention. After two hours of intense grammar I wasn’t the only one who was drowning in information overload.
The teacher picked up on the lack of student presence and said something like: