My Happy Place

Santiago is full of fabulous places; Cafes, restaurants, bars, parks, plazas, soccer fields and more. But the place that I feel most happy, most calm and strangely at home, is at a big consumerist haven... the mall.

They are everywhere and as globalisation takes over, they are becoming very alike, no matter the location. Malls in Australia, China (in the big cities) and Chile are amazingly comparable. You can see the same brands of clothing, food, cafes, even architectural features are sometimes similar.

When mall crawling I find myself knowing where everything is, even though I haven't been there before. The whole routine of parking the car, window shopping, drinking a boost juice and generally taking in the hustle-bustle environment is unusually soothing.

I also enjoy time outside in nature, in a library, having dinner in a restaurant, but the mall really sticks out as my happy place here in Santiago, Chile. I don't generally buy anything on my mall visits either. I think I must be a child of mall culture, consumerism at its peak.  How odd.

Learning Spanish in Chile : The First Two Months

Learning a new language is a big task, whatever the language. It is also my favourite part of travelling. Although it can be tiring and slightly overwhelming at times, communicating with someone using a whole new language system is very rewarding. In my opinion, living immersed in the language you are learning is the quickest way to learn it because your environment encourages you (forces you) to engage with the language almost all day and night. This is great as it gives you instant motivation to practice the language and improve your language skills rapidly. As soon as you step outside there are opportunities to practice, it almost takes more energy to not speak and read and communicate with locals.

Learning Spanish in Chile has been interesting. A lot of people, even Chileans themselves, say that they speak Spanish badly. Definitely the accent here is quite different from the CD ROM that comes with your standard Spanish textbook, with the omission of certain sounds, a huge amount of slang and a kind of closed mouth form. However as an Australian, I can hardly complain about all these things. Australian English is often described quite similarly. The Chilean accent is just that, an accent, after a while your ears will get use to the sound.

Looking back over the first two months of my time in Chile, I have definitely come a long way since I arrived. My Spanish learning journey started with my first hot shower... I remember looking down at the taps and seeing an “F” and a “C”. I already knew the word for cold, frio, so that was easy, and I thought I knew the word for hot, calor, done and done. However during the next few days I noticed that things like water, food and heaters were described as caliente, and so I put two and two together and understood that the C in the shower was for caliente not calor! Am I blowing your mind right now? Ok, just let me get past my first jet lag influenced epiphany… This was when I realised that everything was going to be in Spanish from now on, even small details like hot and cold taps.

In the first few weeks of living in Chile I noticed things like this everywhere and it was so much fun because my level of Spanish was so low that my rate of improvement felt so fast: There was nowhere to go but up! Everywhere I looked were new words. Driving into town I couldn’t help but read every single sign I saw, my eyes were in hyper drive, as my brain attempted guessing the meaning of the passing shopfront of Santiago.

After a while I realised I needed a structure way to study and so I bought a book: “Easy Spanish - Step by Step” by Barbara Bregstein. This was a good choice and I would recommend the book to anyone at a beginner Spanish level. I did a few chapters a week and in less than a month I was able to have basic conversations (with very little grammar), and I was being understood without playing charades, which is always a good feeling.

At that point my listening skills were way ahead of my speaking, reading and writing skills as I was exposed to so much conversation every day that I guess I absorbed new words by osmosis. This put me in a unique mute position. I could grasp the gist of what was being said (with a few holes here and there) but I was unable to join the conversation and express my opinions and experiences. Surprisingly, it takes more than a month to be fluent in Spanish! So without the gift of the Spanish gab I took to observing Chilean culture from an outsider’s perspective and tried to learn as much as possible. I also started this blog to make sure I didn’t forget my observations.

After two months (right now) I am able to have slightly more intermediate conversations using conjugations in the present tense and using a small selection of verbs in the past tense. I have also learnt common phrases and slang to throw into conversation to fake fluency. I think I fool some people, although having blonde hair doesn’t help the charade...

To validate my claims of speaking a bit of Spanish I present to you the proof: Last night I made a friend. A Chilean friend who doesn’t speak a word of English! I proved that I can have a 15 minute conversation with a local without any misunderstanding. Very satisfying. It’s things like that, connecting with people face to face, that motivate me to keep going, to get better so that I can understand my new friend better and learn something from them.

Making these small connections and sharing with people from different walks of life is a big part of why I enjoy travelling. It helps me to understand the world and reflect on my own life with greater clarity.

Welcome to Santiago

 Welcome to Santiago

You know, living in another country is kind of challenging. There's the new food, the new language, the new culture, the new music, the new transport, the new job, the new people... I mean, its a lot to take in. But if its so hard then why do people do it? What makes people look for the opportunity to change their whole world and start fresh? 

Obviously there are a bunch of different reasons and it would be boring to give you all the answers right away. Instead, I hope to share some of my thoughts on the subject with you through this blog.

This blog is going to be primarily about keeping track of experiences, revalations and learning in general which will all take place in and around the South American country of Chile. So let me introduce myself...

I am Australian, have lived in China for three years and now have started a new chapter of my life in Santiago, Chile. After only six weeks, I have already learnt so much from this country and its people. I have been bombarded with cultural differences I didn't see coming and I am enthusiastic to tell people about everything.

I aim to be objective, curious, positive, adventurous, flexible, diligent and easy going. Hope you find something you can relate to along the way. Leave me comments if you wish, or not. 

Anyway, I'll leave you with a picture and once more say welcome to Santiago, Chile! (Link: Lonely Planet intro)