Even if this past week was tiring, it ended up being rewarding. In sessions with individual instructors on Thursday and Friday morning, I experienced some surprising moments of linguistic clarity that I hadn't experienced before with Kaqchikel.
I suddenly began to think of learning a language as trying to see through a window, and all of the words and sounds that we don't understand act as dirt on the window that prevent our seeing what's happening on the other side, the message being conveyed. Because speaking a language isn't just understanding what the words mean intellectually, really speaking a language occurs when you can understand what is being said without having to translate it for yourself. You can stand in front of the window and see what's happening on the other side. It's a distinct intellectual knowing, being able to understand a language. And somehow in listening to people talk the last two days, I experienced little flickers of that linguistic clarity. Not having to sit and ask myself, "now, what was that sound? what was that verb?" but really seeing the events on the other side of the window.
Of course, we were telling stories about dogs and oxen. So I still have a ways to go before having more verosimil conversations, I suppose.
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I think that is so true -- I am not at all proficient in another language but one thing I have always heard is that when you are, you aren't constantly translating back to your native language!
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