Jaen

Hello all
After touring around the university and actually participating in a Spanish university class, things might be looking up with the Spanish. Understanding more and more everyday. Very reassuring and after talking to a friend who teaches in Murcia, more and more will come. Just so hard with some people because they talk so fast and swallow many word endings or don't pronounce certain letters. The great part about the Spanish beginners level class was that the teacher would talk slower and pronounce every word which helped immensely. All the Canadian students noticed that.

It was good in the class because it is made up of mostly European students from Italy and Germany (and one U of L student on a Management exchange - she was very relieved to meet some Canadians, let alone two from U of L) and the prof was asking about things that we liked or disliked about Jaen and spanish culture. Very interesting hearing people's comparisons to their own culture and what not and the differences that are noted, and that sometimes turn into annoying nuances.

Also, the prof brought up three things about stuff specific to Andalusia - TV and how they are pretty much soap operas (also applies to the rest of Spain after further discussion), the smoking (which is interesting because there is always something to talk about since a new law just passed this year, prohibits smoking in public places..comparable to the changes that are going on in Canada and also the initial changes that happened a year or two ago..or maybe more..can't quite remember). Naturally, there are many malcontent people, especially a few in our residency, since smoking is very European it seems...and from other people's word of mouth, that seems to be the case. Finally, there was a discussion between the different dialects found in regions of Spain, or the autonomous communities (17 in all I believe). So depending on where you are, Andalusia, Madrid, Basque region, different Spaniards have different accents and manipulate the language according to their traditional way of speaking. Interesting but also challenging from a person learning the language since in some regions, certain rules apply and certain syllables are pronounced whereas if you travel a few 100 kms anywhere, completely different..

So very interesting stuff and awesome to be here... but, I was just told that this looks like a novel and yup, it is..so I'm signing off.

Adam