Wednesday 15 April 2015

Language drilling

We've been blessed by several warmer and sunnier days this week, and not a lot to do apart from housekeeping, and taking Clare to appointments. No pastoral assignments until this morning, when I celebrated the mid-week Eucharist at St David's Ely. Fr Jesse popped in to say hello, as he lives quite close to the church. He is on his way to recovery from his shingles attack, and looking forward to resuming light duties soon.

Lunchtime Clare and I attended the Ignatian meditation group at Diana's. I led the session, as it's the last time I'll be able to attend until the autumn. Then there was a bereavement visit to make in Radyr, and the funeral service to prepare for the day before I leave for Spain. I have another visit to arrange now for a funeral on Monday next, and a sermon to prepare for Sunday cover in Splott and Adamsdown. So, I've been glad of having few appointments of my own, to be able to work on these matters in a leisurely way.

I had an email from a Norwegian bride to be, whose wedding blessing I shall be doing in Nerja on Kath and Anto's 23rd wedding anniversary date. Their service will be bi-lingual, English and Norwegian hymns readings and prayers. I look forward to the challenge of learning how to pronounce a new language in order to make my role fully bi-lingual. 

Meanwhile, I continue to do 15-20 minutes of Spanish practice most days using the excellent if sometimes quirky and irritating 'Duo Lingo' Android app, on the Asus Transformer, much more on tablet than on phone, as touchscreen keyboard typos produce more unintended errors than programming tolerates, so it forces repeats of learning modules. Curiously, it accepts minor typos in Spanish, but is intolerant of typos in English. It's offers progressive language drill practice, but often leaves one guessing about words and phrases out of context or just bizarre in their intention to a UK English speaker, leaving me asking, when on earth would I ever say something like that? Well, it keeps me working at it, and looking forward to being soaked again in an environment where I can listen, speak and learn what works in practise.
  

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