I finished The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World thanks to a long commute and some unexpected traffic situations, and now I'm waiting on two more audiobooks to become available at the library. The Quest was amazing; I really learned a lot about energy, and I feel like I have a deeper understanding now of just about every major conflict or political crisis of the past century. Some of the other books I've read off the foreign service reading list have given me a lot of new information without causing any major paradigm shifts, but The Quest will have a lasting impact.
So while I wait for my audiobooks (Postwar: Europe After 1945 and Why Nations Fail), I've been reading El Dador, a Spanish translation of The Giver. I teach middle school, and everyone talks about The Giver as the quintessential middle school book, so it's probably important that I read it. Luckily, the previous ESL teacher left copies in both Spanish and English, so I grabbed a Spanish copy and am now almost finished with it.
I've decided to step up my reading in Spanish after attending a seminar by Dr. Stephen Krashen, who is a language acquisition celebrity and academic. His emphasis is on "comprehensible input," and he pointed to a lot of research that suggests reading in the target language is the best way to improve vocabulary and grammar acquisition. For grammar especially, he claims reading is far superior to studying rules and doing drills. The key factor, according to Krashen, is to maximize "input," and reading is the best way to do that when you aren't able to otherwise achieve full immersion. He also suggests reading "junk" as opposed to classics of literature. He himself reads Star Trek novels in German and French. I've had a hard time finding "junk" that's interesting enough to start reading, but I did remember a series I liked when I was in middle school (when I started reading a lot of adult fiction). It follows the life of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II and has been a bestseller in Europe (the author is French). I managed to find a Spanish translation online, so I'm going to start reading that once it arrives. I also plan to dive back in to Harry Potter (I finished books one and two in Spanish already) at some point. I like reading, so this prescription is easy to follow.
If only I had more time to also read through my subscription to The Economist. I managed to read all of the first issue I received, but I just can't keep up with the weekly arrivals. It's a pity because I'm thoroughly interested in most of the articles, but my life moves too quickly for that kind of reading load.
This summer is going to be my time to play catch-up. I'm going to spend June studying for the foreign service test while continuing to work on my Spanish and French. And I've changed my mind about going to Guatemala in July: our money situation isn't as bad as I thought thanks to a tax refund that will mostly pay for our new floors, so I'm definitely going. The cost for lessons is about $180/week, room and board included, and I'm only planning to go for one month, so it should be manageable. My Spanish has improved so much since I started working seriously on vocabulary development and reading, and especially since I started my job last year. I just need some intensive, focused study and a lot of speaking practice, and I should be able to make some major improvements. Four hours a day of one-on-one study will help with that.
My other summer plans include making lots of delicious pizzas from scratch and some amazing, vegetable-filled spring rolls. Maybe buying a bike and riding it around town. Tubing the Guadalupe River. And drinking cocktails on the front porch. It's going to be great!
