First Day of Class

"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man health, wealthy, & wise" was Ben Franklin's saying that I took to heart today, but I don't know if that saying will hold up for the rest of the semester...at least the early to bed part.

My goal today was to be a sponge and learn something new. I don't care if I had some previous Spanish exposure (which I am very grateful for now), I was going to check my ego at the door and learn. In today's classes, we were introduced to our syllabus, orientated toward what our study patterns should be, and told what would be expected of us by the end of the semester.

I basically have 4 classes a day (plus an occasional 50 minute, one-on-one tutoring session with a national Bible Institute student). Classes start at 8:15 am and go till noon. While most of the material explained, introduced, and covered today wasn't new to me, I learned a lot. Like for example, in English there is over 40 vowel sounds, but in Spanish, there is only 5 vowel sounds. Should be easy right? No! Our minds have been trained for 32 years (in my case) to say vowel sounds in a certain way. It is our professor's job to break us of those habits.

The school has a great system for teaching the students correct pronunciation and grammar. I am thankful that the Lord lead our family to RGBI and not directly to Chile to learn the language. This time of preparation will be very helpful in building the correct linguistic foundation in order to effectively communicate like a national.







These are my textbooks. They will be my friends and my enemies, all at the same time.














Prayer Items for me in my study here at RGBI:
-Not to neglect my spiritual walk and study (which is easy to do when I have tons of homework)
-Adjustment to the new schedule of classes, sleep (or lack of), and study.
-Strength for Kristi in homeschooling and keeping up our home.
-Our children's adjustment to a new language as well (new friends, new church, & new home)
-Time management and study habits
-To be able to laugh at myself and continue learning
-To keep the Big Picture in mind - "I am learning Spanish to communicate the Gospel and Biblical Truth.