NATURAL SPANISH & MUSIC

[These classes will be available when Camp Toucan starts operating.]

You don’t have to learn Spanish while at Camp Toucan, but there are three good reasons to do so: 

• The first is so you can travel confidently throughout Latin America and Spain (and even in Portugal, Italy, and Greece, where the languages and cultures are similar). 
• The second is to give you an illuminating window into the origins of western civilization, since Spanish is the most widely spoken language descended from Latin, and the Hispanic culture is the one that is most akin to the culture of the Roman Empire. 
• The third (and most important) reason is to stimulate the development of new pathways in your brain, so you continue to grow in your lifetime progress toward greater comprehension of the world, and its many interesting (but confusing) subjects, issues, and conflicts.

If you choose to learn Spanish, your camp name tag will indicate that (and your current level), so the camp guides will speak to you in Spanish at that level, while pointing, illustrating, miming, and speaking slowly and clearly, so you learn some Spanish just in the process of doing other camp activities, such as visiting Mayan ruins, paddling, sailing, mountain biking, and folk dancing. But to learn much more Spanish, it’s best to sign up for a set of five classes, held Monday through Friday.

Unique learning: Spanish classes at Camp Toucan are quite unlike other Spanish classes. Consider how children around the world learn to speak their native language fluently, yet no child learns his native language by translating from one language to another. The successful way for humans to learn a new language is the same way they learned their first language: By pairing words to actual objects, characteristics, and actions. By contrast, trying to learn a new language by translating from your present language is frustrating. Translation is a more advanced skill, for people who are already fairly fluent in both languages. If you try to learn a new language by translating, you will forever speak haltingly and oddly, as your brain struggles to find equivalents between one language and another, rather than simply verbalizing your thoughts, as people around the world do naturally. That’s why this is called natural Spanish, as opposed to trying to learn Spanish in the usual unnatural, frustrating way.

Today there are numerous online language teaching programs available, but they tend to be counterproductive, because they typically involve translating (which holds you back), and they typically involve multiple-choice computer games that turn your attention to several incorrect pairings, which clouds your mind with incorrect information and therefore retards your progress. It’s much more efficient (and enjoyable) to reinforce words you already know in combinations with new words, so your understanding and speaking abilities rapidly expand.

So at Camp Toucan, you learn Spanish about the same way that you learned your first language, with the tremendous additional advantage that now you know how to spell (and the spelling in Spanish is very regular). The teachers show you visually what a new word means (rather than by translating). At the same time, you see how it is spelled, and hear how it is pronounced. Then they combine that new word with other words that you already learned, to form phrases that you will already understand by that point. 

These words and phrases are presented in a carefully-planned order, to reinforce the words you already know, but in new contexts, as you add new words in combinations with the old ones. Along the way, the teacher asks you questions, tailored to your current level, that you can already understand and answer successfully by that time. Very soon you will be conversing confidently, in complete sentences. (Without translating in your head, or studying rules of grammar.)

The teaching is in small groups, and the teacher often rotates around the small group, asking each person questions at their individual level. The other participants in your small group are typically somewhat ahead or behind your level, but as they answer their questions, that will briefly reinforce what you already learned, and give you a quick preview of what’s ahead, until it is your turn again to answer questions specifically for you. (Individual one-to-one tutoring would not be a substantial improvement, and it would cost much more.)

The teachers give you printed sheets (and digital documents) illustrating what you learned each day, so you can later review what you learned, by looking at the pictures and the phrases that go with them.

Connection to music: In the human brain, language learning is closely linked to music. Therefore the teachers give you song sheets, and play the best-known Spanish ballads, so you can sing along with the words and music. (You can sing loudly or softly as you choose.) This process of linking words to music is a powerful way to create new language pathways in your brain (which is why people have been doing it since prehistoric times).

Physical experiences: In addition, the teachers take you on daily walks to colorful, interesting places, where in your mind you can link new Spanish words to bright, memorable objects and actions. Even little kids do this naturally, and you can do it too. For example, put your hands on actual ceramics and sculpture, while you say the words cerámica and escultura. Your mind will link the words to the objects themselves (rather than translating in your head).

By combining these three different routes into your brain (actual language teaching, music with words, and physical experiences in Spanish), during a week or more, Camp Toucan teachers and trip guides help you learn much more Spanish than you would have thought possible. If you can stay for more than one week, the teachers and guides will already know your ability level, and they will converse with you accordingly, so as to rapidly expand your ability yet further. 

Bacalar is a very supportive place to learn Spanish, because everyone is fluent in Spanish, but for many residents it is actually their second language – their first language, as a child at home, was Yucatec Mayan. Even if their own household spoke Spanish, they interacted daily with other kids whose household language was Mayan. Therefore they all grew up dealing with two languages. So for them, you are yet another person who needs to be spoken to slowly and clearly, which they have been doing with people all their lives. If you wear your camp name tag when going to stores, restaurants, and entertainment in town, that will alert people that you want to converse with them in Spanish, but at the level shown on your name tag.

[Note: If you are concerned about learning original Spanish, rest assured that after your stay in Salamanca de Bacalar (the original name of Bacalar), you can go to the University of Salamanca, in Spain, for a few weeks, to pick up the original Spanish accent and expressions. People there will be pleasantly amused by the sweet sound of your Caribbean Mexican accent.]

WEEKLY SCHEDULE:

The Spanish classes are taught in sets of five sessions, Monday through Friday. It’s best to start Monday morning, especially if you are a beginner. (If you are an intermediate speaker it’s okay to start midweek, because the teachers deal with different levels anyway, as explained above.) Classes start daily at 9:00 am, in an open-air space covered by a roof, near the plaza, so you hear the birds and feel the tropical breezes as you learn. (Please note the different starting times for different Camp Toucan activities, due to the different activities involved.) During the morning there are breaks for drinks and small snacks, and there are varied activities, including the music sing-along times as mentioned above. Lunch is included at 1 pm, and participants from the Folk Dancing classes and the Seminars join us for lunch. During and after lunch, there are more sing-alongs in Spanish. 

After that, the teachers will lead a walk to nearby interesting places, pointing out memorable objects and actions in Spanish, as explained above. The walk will end at the lakeshore, where you can wade and swim with the others while describing your experience with Spanish words, or rest and converse in the shade. We’ll head back to the plaza in time for Social Hour with our fellow travelers, over a drink and an appetizer (which is included, and your drink can have alcohol or not as you choose).

Note that if you will be staying at Camp Toucan for two weeks or longer, it makes sense to sign up for a set of Spanish classes during your first week, and sign up for other activities and day-trips during your later weeks, so you will be more prepared to understand and speak Spanish during those later activities.

Note that on Saturdays you can go to the Caribbean coast, on either Mayan Trip 6 or Paddling Trip 6, giving you a chance to speak Spanish in the course of an enjoyable day trip to a Caribbean beach.

Then on Sunday morning you can sleep in, or go to a local church to compare practices and see how much Spanish you understand, and on Sunday afternoon you can perhaps get a massage, or have some “down time.”