Reflections

I found the ISSI program to be a perfect blend of conversation, grammar, and breakouts. The first hour of each day I spent in my conversation class with Nelly, our fearless leader, and my five amigos. We shared some amazing stories, all in Spanish. I heard from Tom, a glider pilot, about his incredible flight with his brother near Lake Tahoe. Using jet streams they ascended over 30,000 feet. Needing oxygen and being covered with ice because of the high altitude, they were lucky to survive.  Mike and Carmelita told about their family tradition for their three children. When each child reached age 14, each child could choose any two cities in the world to visit with their parents. Their last child chose Hong Kong and Guam. Other stories of travels around the world and family stories were enlightening and bonded us for this week.

Conversation compadres

Grammar classes are geared to your level. For the advanced level, we briskly covered the two past tenses, subjunctive tense, por and para, and the future tense. Since it was review, the pace was perfect. In between classes one could relax in the Open Commons area.

Open Common area: Tahoe Community College

I had three breakout sessions a day with myriad choices. One of my favorites was the Nature Walk in the forest area adjacent to the college. Spanish vocabulary was used in pointing out the Quaking Aspens, the Lodgepole  and the Jeffrey pine trees. Most remarkable to me were the ginormous mushrooms.

Mighty Mushrooms

The evening Spanish Wine Walk’s natural setting entertained us as the wine’s velvety flavors enriched us. Taking our time moving from the Spanish station to the Chilean station and ending up at the Argentinian station enhanced the entire experience.

Wine tasting in the Tahoe forest.

Wine tasting station from Argentina.

When Friday afternoon rolled around, I felt like my Spanish had gotten the necessary boost I was looking for. Now a Spanish speaking country to practice in is my next language goal. Maybe Argentina? Those wines were really good.

As one of the speakers said the first day, “I know there are many online programs, but there is never an experience like the personal human experience. We don’t want culture from the book. We want culture from the heart. Language is like the soul of the people. You need to take care of it.”