Ryan Greenberg

Today was my first day at the Maryknoll Language Institute. We had a brief orientation this morning, followed by my afternoon classes.

Class is intense. I have four classes, each lasting slightly less than an hour, each conducted entirely in Spanish, and each with two people: me and the professor. I know four hours of class each day seems eacy compared with a normal work day or a typical college schedule, but it is exhausting. Talking for so long in a language I don’t know well requires substantial mental effort. I struggle with most sentences in class, often reconstructing thoughts to replace words I don’t know with ones I do.

Yesterday, when I got home from class, I took an hour nap. Even so, after eating dinner and talking on the phone, I hit the sack at 10:30pm. I hope I don’t sound negative about class. I am very excited and I think they will be extremely helpful. Already I find myself thinking in Spanish sometimes, which is one of the first steps on the road to fluency.