My new blog :-)

So today I start my new blog - my second. I wanted to share my experiences of learning Spanish over the last few years, as well as give myself a bit of extra motivation to keep going.

A bit about myself to begin with. I work in Andorra as a ski instructor during the winter months. When I first arrived in Andorra five and a bit years ago I couldn't speak a word of Spanish. Okay, that isn't stricly true - I had memorised the phrase "Buenos dias Señor, ¿habla usted inglés?" which is a somehat overly formal way to ask somebody if they speak English. Below is a picture of myself with my colleagues in the ski school during my first season in Andorra.

I actually found it pretty dificult to learn Spanish at first as everybody I spoke to would speak to me in English. The ski resort I work in has a lot of English people in it as well, which is why they gave me a job in the first place in spite of my lack of Spanish. I persevered though, finding a lot of resources through the web - many of which I plan to mention in future posts. I found that as people realised I was making an effort to learn the language they spoke to me more in Spanish and less in English.

Finally, before anybody points out that the language of Andorra is Catalan and not Spanish, I should say that I made the descision to learn Spanish first as the more useful language for communicating with friends and colleagues here who often come from Spain or Latin America rather than just Andorra and Catalunia. Watch this space for news of my "Trying to Learn Catalan" blog but that might be a few more years in the making.

Tomorrow - my first new word in Spanish