If you can read this, consider yourself lucky.

From an article on illiterate Canadians found here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/education/canada-shame.html

"When you think of literacy in Canada now, at the beginning of the 21st century, you probably expect to see a rate of close to 100 per cent. That would be wrong. The actual numbers are nowhere near that and should embarrass us all.

• Nearly 15 per cent of Canadians can't understand the writing on simple medicine labels such as on an Aspirin bottle, a failing that could seriously limit the ability of a parent, for example, to determine the dangers for a child.
• An additional 27 per cent can't figure out simple information like the warnings on a hazardous materials sheet, the kinds of warning that set out workplace dangers such as risks to the eyes and skin.

In total, 42 per cent of Canadians are semi-illiterate."

42%??? That's insane. I can't imagine not being able to read. Being semi-literate might be even worse than being fully illiterate - what if you saw a bottle that said "POISON! DO NOT EAT!" and all you could read was "EAT"? If you live in Canada and you'd like to help others learn to read, here are some organizations that are looking for volunteers:

Toronto:

http://www.mtml.ca

http://parkdaleprojectread.org/

http://www.worldlit.ca/

Literacy through Hip Hop - http://www.lthh.org/

Montreal:

http://tleliteracy.com/

http://bluemetropolis.org/index.php?id=66

http://cabm.net/en/node/717693

http://www.frontiercollege.ca/english_literacy.html

http://cabm.net/en/node/717866

Vancouver:

http://www.literacybc.ca/

http://www2.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca/DBs/Redbook/orgPgs/1/11961.html

http://www.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca/find/details/adult_learning_centre

http://www.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca/find/details/literacy_resources

Ottawa:

http://www.occl.ca/

http://www.frontiercollege.ca/english/literacy/ottawa.html

Edmonton:

http://www.famlit.ca/

http://www.literacyday.ca/

http://www.cent4lit.com/

http://www.informedmonton.com/public/agency/0988.htm

Exhausted.

Today's Spanish class was nothing but worksheets for three hours. My hand still hurts from filling out all those useless papers. I'm angry and I feel ripped off - is that kind of "teaching" worth hundreds of dollars in tuition? I don't think so! Also, the prof didn't bother to explain anything and the grammar rules in the worksheets were disjointed and confusing. I'll have to work with my own books over the weekend in order to figure things out.

Although my prof neglected to mention it, today is Cinco de Mayo! Way to go Mexico for beating the French!

The perils of introducing yourself in Spanish.

Let's say your name is Fred and you want to introduce yourself to your new Spanish friend Pedro. Here's what you should say:

Hola Pedro! Me llamo Fred. (Hi Pedro! I call myself Fred.)
Tengo 23 años. (I am 23 years old.)

Pay attention to the sounds! A small change could be disastrous:

Me lamo Fred. (I lick myself Fred.)
Tengo 23 anos. (I have 23 anuses.)

I made the llamo/lamo mistake in class today. Now I know that the difference between ll and l is very important. The same thing goes for n and ñ...the accent is not just there for decoration!

Where it all begins...

Learning English was a real pain in the butt. The pain, the tears, the recurring nightmares about showing up to my E.S.L. exam without any pants. Fortunately, that's all a distant memory to me now. I no longer confuse word order: "Good today grammar I learn!", or forget that English is genderless: "The orange fruit, he is so nice, yes?", or mispronounce things with embarrassing results: "Can I have a shit of paper? No. Vait. Two shits of paper, please." In short, I am fluent.
It was difficult to get to that point, but I miss the challenge of figuring out all the puzzles of a new language. That's why I have a new goal: learning French and Spanish at the same time.
Am I crazy for attempting to study both simultaneously? Probably. It will be much harder than just focusing all my effort on just one language, but I've got some advantages too:

-After learning a brand new alphabet, I feel like I already conquered a small part of all languages that use it.(My first language is Russian and Cyrillic doesn't mash well with Latin. In Russian, H is pronounced N, P is R, backwards R is the Ya sound...you get the idea.)

-I already have a good grasp on basic French grammar and have a decent enough vocabulary to understand 70-90% of most conversations. Or at least 70-90% of most Bob L'Eponge episodes.

-French and Spanish are similar because they come from the same language family. Some people might find the similarities confusing, but I enjoy finding them while keeping track of the differences.

-Taking classes in both languages at university will provide structure and help organize my study times. I'll even have access to a fancy language lab! Whatever that is. I haven't tried it yet.

-Spanish is a damn sexy language. I especially like the rrrrolling RRRRRs since I can already rrrroll them in Rrrrrrussian!

Tomorrow is my first class. Spanish days are Mondays and Wednesdays and French days are Tuesdays and Thursdays. Fridays shall be nap days. I'll update this blog as often as I can (which is probably not that often because I'm lazy.)

Adieu/Adios!