In what language do you hablas?

During our time in Australia for Home Assignment many asked if I thought in Spanish or English while speaking here in Ecuador. In answer to that, here is an example of  how I caught myself thinking the other day…

I need to go to a tienda to comprar una box that would entrar en un space de 28cm. Pensé that there would be lots of opciones but cuando I looked I only saw tres opciones. I thought about the tres opciones y pensé mejor look en a shop that sold muchas things plásticas. 

It puts your mind into overdrive thinking in both languages much of the time, sometimes in English and sometimes in Spanish.

Is it hard? As I re-immerse myself into Ecuadorian culture I don’t find it difficult, but I find I’m not translating like I used to either, which is really nice (and less headaches). I think that the more I read and talk in Spanish the more I find myself entering into the Spanish speaking world and forgetting the appropriate word in English.

My thoughts are, my language for now is Spanish (because we are in Ecuador), my head needs to get used to it so the more I speak, the more I read, and the more coffee I drink in Spanish settings will all help me speak clearer and sharper than before.

If you’re learning a language and are frustrated, don’t give up, think of it as the best thing you can do to be understood. Oh, and my thoughts are, you don’t understand until you know you don’t understand (I used to think I understood everything, but then I started hearing clearer and realised I really didn’t understand), until then keep up the hard work.

What’s been your experience of learning a language?

And I wonder why my English is failing so much...

House hunting

The priority upon our return to Loja was to get a house before the kids start at school. Well after a few weeks we have found a place and we are about the move in soon. However, before we show you photos of what we are about to move into I thought a look at some of the houses that didn’t seem right. Here are some places that weren't quite right because of distance from the centre, safety features, space, darkness, and even price!!

Work safe practices

Living in Australia for the past 8 and a bit months made us aware of work safe practices. We saw  yellow everywhere. As we commuted around Sydney, the early morning King Gee blue had been exchanged to bright yellow. It was everywhere. Every outdoor worker seemed to display sunflower qualities.
But it didn't stop there. Job sites were radically changed as well. Witches hats, traffic controllers, closed roads, and flashing lights, all in order to to plant a tree, or so it seemed.
Work safe practices over the past three or four years has changed in Australia and it was interesting to get back into a culture we thought we knew to find that it had changed so much.
So as we headed back with a short stay in the USA we found that as we went about the place these work safe practices were left to one side. We saw teenagers with casual clothes and no signs directing traffic around a tree cutting exercise, while people flew past at around 60 kilometres an hour in an 80 zone. That was to protect the workers. It was something that struck us as we drove around that part of the US.

Coming down to Ecuador this work place safety was still on my mind. So it was with great amusement that I noticed a big pile of uncovered asbestos sheets beside the footpath. I can only imagine what those of you who dress up in white overalls to take off one square meter of asbestos are thinking. A slight difference to what I passed in the street the other day.


I'm sure that there will be many other things that will grab our attention as we try and settle to living in Loja. We have already been reminded of many things that have made us realise that we are back in Loja once again.