Intercambio

Today after my Chilean Culture class, I met up with my intercambio, or language partner, for the first time. His name is Ariel. We walked around Puerto Barón, the port closest to Casa Central, for an hour or so. We had a lot to talk about because we've both traveled all over Europe and are interested in learning each others' native tongue (I guess that's the point of intercambios, right?). We also talked about our studies (he's working on finishing a degree in commercial engineering), our favorite Chilean foods, and some cool places around the area.

We decided we're going to spend one hour talking in Spanish and one hour talking in English. Ariel is currently taking English classes at an institute in Viña del Mar, and he says he only has three months to learn English, because after that he has to work. That's perfect for me, because as far as I'm concerned, I also have three months to become fluent in Spanish! I feel like my friend Daniel from Austria; when he was studying at SU last year, he was always talking about getting rid of his accent. I was never self conscious about my accent until one of my Chilean buddies, Pablo, told me one time when he was drunk that when I talk in Spanish, I sound like a robot. And there are so many gringos here that pronounce all the cognates just like they're pronounced in English, and it drives me insane! I don't want to be categorized. I want to lose my accent too; I want to be able to roll my Rs and I want to speak like I can write. And in order to do that, I need to quit hanging out so much with my gringo friends here. I need to meet more Chileans! I'm going to see how often Ariel wants to meet to practice, and hopefully I can get a lot of practice in with him.

Abrazos,
Kelsey